Suggested Learning Resources
- The descriptor "atonal" refers to melodic and harmonic organization of
musical materials that resides outside of the major/minor system.
- There are a number of organizational systems falling under the category
of "atonal" music, including the twelve-tone system, serialism, free tonality, and
polytonality to name a few.
- The essential characteristic of atonal music is that it does not exhibit
the hierarchy of pitches as found in tonal music: there is no requirement of tonic-dominant
relationship, nor leading tone resolution.
- Because the term "atonal" may refer one of several systems for organizing
pitch, it is best to look at some specific examples of the sub-genres to begin to
grasp the broader category of atonal music.
- Sometimes the term post-tonal is used, and might be more precise, because
this indicates the musical systems that arose after the common-practice period (ca.
1600 - 1875).
- In general, atonal music refers to music in which there is no specific
hierarchy of organization causing our perception to resolve on the tonic, or "do."
- A focal pitch is a note that is perceived by the listener as being somehow
more prominent than the other pitches in the musical texture. This focus on a pitch
can be created by the composer in a number of ways, for example: a note that is repeated
overly proportional to other notes in a passage can be a focal pitch.
- A focal pitch can be established by the composer though use of of register
-- for example, the highest or lowest pitch in a musical texture, when emphasized
in supporting manners such as extreme repetition, prominent dynamics, or even instrumentation.
- The essential characteristic of a focal pitch is that it is somehow emphasized
in a way that draws the listener's attention.
- A pitch class refers to a pitch label ignoring specific register. In
regards to pitch-class, C4 is the same as C5. (NOTE: When we soon introduce integer
notation, we will also ignore enharmonic spellings of the same pitch. Through integer
notation, C# and Db will be part of the same pitch class.)
- In music a "set" is a specific collection of pitches, defined by the composer,
as source material for melodic and harmonic content in a composition.
- "Elements" are the individual items inside a set -- generally pitches.
For example, a whole tone scale might be the set {C, D, E, F#, G#, A#}. This set
has six elements.
- A subset is a collection of pitches belonging to a larger set which is
under consideration.
- For example, {C, D, E} is a subset of the whole-tone scale {C, D, E, F#,
G#, A#}.
- Because the group {C, D, E} can also be a set in it's own right, it is
worth noting that the benefit of defining one pitch collection as being a 'subset'
of a larger collection occurs when a piece of music contains important building blocks
of both the set and the subset.
- Often a composer will work for a set, and created motives (harmonic and
melodic) derived from multiple subsets.
https://youtu.be/Q6fkRjqiQPA
Objective 46.1: Define atonal music, focal pitches, pitch class, set, elements, and
subset