Nonserial Atonality

The Dissolution of Tonality

THE ABANDONMENT OF TONALITY

 The ubiquitous chromaticism of the Romantics led some composers to develop a style
in the first decade of the twentieth century that avoids tonality.
 Atonal music is one of the major factors that distinguish this century from the previous
ones.
 Nonserial atonality led to the twelve-tone system that was developed in the ‘twenties.
 The primary analytic methods have been derived from the work of Allen Forte.

CHARACTERISTICS
 Atonal music lacks a tonal center.
 This can be somewhat subjective according to different listeners.

 The traditional melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic patterns that establish a tonal center
are avoided and are replaced by:
 Unresolved dissonances;

 A preponderance of mixed-interval chords;

 Pitch material derived from the chromatic scale;

 Frequent use of a contrapuntal texture;

 Traditional melodies or themes occurring less often;

 A metric organization that is often difficult to follow.

PITCH-CLASS SETS
 It became apparent that atonal music often achieved a degree of unity through a new
kind of motive -- cell, basic cell, set, pitch set, pitch-class set, and referential sonority.
 The pc set can appear melodically or harmonically, transposed and/or inverted, and

its pitches can appear in any order.

 While most pieces use a large number of pc sets, there are only a few that are

important in unifying the piece.

 The important pc sets are identified by a process called segmentation.
 Usually several musical segmentations must be done to find the correct one.

 Allen Forte developed a method for labeling the pc sets.

ATONAL ANALYSIS
 In tonal analysis, octave equivalence allows sonorities to be reduced to a basic form
and take a look at them in close structure.
 A C major chord and an F major chord are considered transpositionally equivalent --
they are both major chords.
 Normal order is the basic form of a pc set.
 It is an ordering of the pitches so that they span the smallest possible interval.
 While atonal and tonal analysis share the concepts of octave and transpositional
equivalence, atonal analysis also considers pc sets that are related by inversion -- the
intervals in reverse order -- to be equivalent.
 It doesn’t work in tonal analysis because a major triad inverts to a minor, and the

dominant seventh inverts to a half-diminished seventh.

 Best normal order is what we use to have a single classification because a pc set and
its inversion are equivalent.
 Essentially the normal order and its inversion are compared to find the best normal

order.
 Because of the concepts of transpositional and inversional symmetry, the number of
possible pc sets is 220 -- dyads through decachords.
 Prime form applies pitch-class integers -- C is 0, C# is 1, etc. -- to the best normal
order.
 The first pitch is always transposed to 0 and the other numbers equal half steps
above the first pitch.
 Another way to compare pc sets is by the interval vector.
 This is an inventory of all the intervals within the pc set.
 Because of the concept of inversional equivalence, there are only six interval classes.
 A m7 inverts to a M2 so they are both in the same interval class.
 The interval vector lists the number of occurrences of an interval class -- 001001
indicates that there is only one occurrence each of interval classes 3 (m3 or M6)
and 6 (A4 or d5).
 Pc sets that are not related by inversion or transposition, but have the same interval
vector, are Z-related sets.
 Though free atonality does not use a systematic way of achieving atonality, composers
often tried to use all twelve tones in a fairly short period.
 Aggregate refers to any statement of all twelve pitches regardless of duplications or
ordering.
 Aggregates sometimes help define the beginning, ending, or middle sections of the

composition.
 As in tonal music, any segmentation, indeed, any valid analysis, must be based on
good musical decisions and how the listener hears the music.