Who were key composers of atonal music?

Late 19th- and early 20th-century composers such as Alexander Scriabin, Claude Debussy, Béla Bartók, Paul Hindemith, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, and Edgard Varèse have written music that has been described, in full or in part, as atonal.

Who is a composer who gradually turned to the dissonant and atonal?

However, the clearest steps toward consolidating the field of 20th/21st century art music were made by Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1952), who gradually moved away from using tonality and traditional keys in his compositional works and in finally proclaiming the “emancipation of dissonance” (Dahlhaus, 1978).

Who composed the first significant atonal pieces?

Schoenberg’s music from 1908 onward experiments in a variety of ways with the absence of traditional keys or tonal centers. His first explicitly atonal piece was the second string quartet, Op. 10, with soprano.

Who used atonality?

While music without a tonal centre had been written previously, for example Franz Liszt’s Bagatelle sans tonalité of 1885, it is with the 20th century that the term atonality began to be applied to pieces, particularly those written by Arnold Schoenberg and The Second Viennese School.

Is Debussy’s music atonal?

Claiming he was only trying to do “something different,” Debussy was one of the pioneers of atonal experimentation. Debussy’s work includes hundreds of piano pieces, vocal works, and even half a dozen ballets. His work is dramatic and elaborate, which can detract from its atonality.

Is Ravel an atonal?

Many music history books assume so. Ravel’s music, which never had an audience gap, remained tonal, but his tonality was reshaped by the possibility of atonality; the Forlane in “Le Tombeau de Couperin” is a good example of atonalized tonality. Historians condescend to the inescapable beauty of Ravel’s music.