How to Listen to (and Enjoy!) Atonal Music, Part 1
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast
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The History of Atonal Music
Atonality began in the late 19th century with Ricard Wagner and Franz Liszt. The Tristan chord is a chord of such harmonic ambiguity that one simply doesn't know where it is meant to resolve to. In tonal music, so much of what great composers do is based on this tension. Leaving the audience intentionally unsatisfied became central to these composers' modes of expression.
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