a·to·nal·i·ty

(ā′tō-năl′ĭ-tē)

n. pl. a·to·nal·i·ties Music

1. The absence of a tonal center and of harmonies derived from a diatonic scale corresponding to such a center; lack of tonality.

2. A style of composition that lacks such a tonal center and its derived harmonies.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

atonality

(ˌeɪtəʊˈnælɪtɪ; ˌæ-)

1. (Music, other) absence of or disregard for an established musical key in a composition

2. (Music, other) the principles of composition embodying this and providing a radical alternative to the diatonic system

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

a•to•nal•i•ty

(ˌeɪ toʊˈnæl ɪ ti)

n.

music composed without reference to traditional tonality and employing the chromatic pitches on a free and equal basis.

[1920–25]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

atonality - the absence of a key; alternative to the diatonic system

atonalism

musical notation - (music) notation used by musicians

tonality, key - any of 24 major or minor diatonic scales that provide the tonal framework for a piece of music

Translations

atonalité

атональность

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Holt's atonal music communicates more via texture and timbre than by melody, and the essays in this collection offer an overdue investigation of his style, methods, and artistic viewpoint.

The Music of Simon Holt

But though Jamaica Kincaid has deftly grafted popular musical intertexts from African-American and Caribbean traditions onto literary rootstock, she has also embedded her work with classical music references from European and Russian traditions, from the Baroque period to the 20th century, with a particular focus on atonal music. This works to undermine the hierarchy dividing "popular" and "serious" music.

ROOTSTOCK OR SCION: GRAFTING RADICAL DIFFERENCE IN JAMAICA KINCAID'S SEE NOW THEN

For example, Guido Pannain vehemently condemned atonal music, as did the Roman composer Mario Labroca who praised the birth of more or less tonally oriented 'national schools' as an alternative.

IL PIANOFORTE (TORINO, 1920-1927): A WINDOW ON MODERN MUSIC DURING THE FASCIST REGIME: Searching RIPM to Identify an International Network of Collaborating Music Critics

When a young Dutch writer, sympathetic to the new populist wave, expressed antipathy to his country's "cultural elite," for promoting "atonal music" and other arrogant forms of ugliness, instead of the wholesome beauty embraced by the common man, I wondered whether he knew about the Nazis' attack on "degenerate art"?

Are we seeing a springtime for fascism?

During these three days you will learn how to play atonal music in a group with the help of visual tools.

Learning to make sound visual

Schneider had not done anything with classical music since college in the early '80s when she felt "terrified'' by the classical world's emphasis on atonal music and switched to jazz.

Jazz composer Schneider jumps into classical world

Although aspects of Hanging Gardens' atonal music suggest that Schoenberg valued gendered-feminine principles in his compositional style, a closer analysis of the work's musical language shows an intact masculinist hegemony.

Recent research in singing

For the bulk of the 20th century, you force fed audiences on overly academic atonal music while simultaneously engaging in systematic dismantling of arts education.

Correspondence

With this model, we can analyze the time-structures of such diverse phenomena as atonal music, political decision-making, leaps of memory and the boredom of waiting, and simultaneities and delays in everyday experience and behaviour." Lampert also presents us with his operational definitions of simultaneity and delay.

Lampert, Jay. Simultaneity and Delay: A Dialectical Theory of Staggered Time