Atonality

Atonality in a general sense describes music that departs from the system of tonal hierarchies that characterized the sound of classical European music from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Currently, the term is used primarily to describe compositions written approximately 1900 to 1930, in which tonal centers that had been fundamental to most European music since about 1600 are abandoned. This is most notable in the works of Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern. The word "atonality" emerged as a pejorative term to describe and to condemn music in which chordss were organized seemingly with no apparent coherence. In Nazi Germany, atonal music was discredited as degenerate music (Entartete Musik).

The use of the term "atonality" poses two distinct problems. First, it continues to carry negative connotations as a result of its early pejorative use. Second, it has developed a certain vagueness in meaning as a result of its use to describe a wide variety of compositional approaches that deviated from traditional chords and chord progressions. Some authors and academics have actively sought to solve these problems by rejecting the use of the word itself and replacing it with alternative terms such as "pan-tonal," "non-tonal," "free-tonal," and "without tonal center," but these efforts have not gained broad acceptance. It would appear that the term "atonality," an imprecise word describing varied compositional approaches, will remain in use for the foreseeable future.

See also: Emancipation of Dissonance, twelve-tone technique, serialism

An earlier version of the above article was posted on Nupedia. This article is open content

Commercial Usage: Atonality

Domain	Title
Books	Music in Transition: A Study of Tonal Expansion and Atonality, 1900-1920 (reference) Tonality and Atonality in Alban Berg's Four Songs, Op. 2 (Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music, V. 71) (reference) Tonality, Atonality, Pantolity: A Study of Some Trends in Twentieth Century Music (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Usage Frequency: Atonality

"Atonality" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Atonality" is used about 12 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Atonality

Modern Translation: Atonality

Language		Translations for "atonality"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Arabic		‏الوهن (littleness, rustiness, weakness). (various references)

Bulgarian		атоналност. (various references)

French		atonalité. (various references)

Hungarian		atonalitás. (various references)

Italian		atonalit� . (various references)

Pig Latin		atonalityay

Romanian		atonalitate. (various references)

Russian		атональность. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		atonalnost. (various references)

Spanish		atonalidad. (various references)

Turkish		ahenksizlik (discord, discordance, disharmony, dissonance, inconsonance, lack of harmony). (various references)

Ukrainian		атональність. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Misspellings: Atonality

Anagrams: Atonality

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-i-l-n-o-t-t-y"
	-1 letter: natality, tonality.
	-2 letters: alation, anality, nattily.
	-3 letters: aliyot, anatto, atonal, attain, latino, lattin, litany, talion.
	-4 letters: alant, aliya, aloin, atilt, atony, inlay, laity, lanai, liana, linty, lytta, natal, natty, nitty, noily, notal, nyala, taint, talon, tanto, titan, tolan, tonal, total.
	-5 letters: alan, alit, alto, anal, anil, anoa, anta, anti, ayin, inly, into, iota, lain, lati.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-i-l-n-o-t-t-y"
	+2 letters: acetylation, antidotally, nationality, rationality.
	+3 letters: acetylations, antiroyalist, mutationally.
	+4 letters: antiroyalists, catatonically, connaturality, irrationality, obtainability, situationally, traditionally.
	+5 letters: accountability, adaptationally, affectionately, antibiotically, antiregulatory, motivationally, stagflationary, transitionally.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	12	101,599

Expression	Frequency per Day
atonality	11
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Atonality

Definition: Atonality

Atonality

Noun

Synonym: Atonality

Specialty Definition: Atonality

Commercial Usage: Atonality

Books

Usage Frequency: Atonality

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Atonality

atonality

Modern Translation: Atonality

Arabic

Bulgarian

French

Hungarian

Italian

Pig Latin

Romanian

Russian

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Turkish

Ukrainian

Misspellings: Atonality

Misspellings

Anagrams: Atonality

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

INDEX

Misspellings
	"Atonality" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: optionality. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).