Atonal is music with no key-centeredness, dominant tone or diatonic scale associated with it, and is often considered disconcerting by those who are accustomed to "traditional" harmonies. Melodies, if they can be discerned at all, are generally self-contained and not related externally to any other piece of music, structurally or otherwise. (read more)

Atonal is music with no key-centeredness, dominant tone or diatonic scale associated with it, and is often considered disconcerting by those who are accustomed to "traditional" harmonies. Melodies, if they can be discerned at all, are generally self-contained and not related externally to any other piece of music, structurally or otherwise. This characteristic can also be ascribed to the harmonies involved in the atonal work. Key-signatures, an exterior structure, are present in tonal music but completely absent in atonal works. In twelve-tone scales for example, each note is given an inherent value equal to that of any other tone. Some twelve-tone composers have required that each note of a twelve-tone scale be used once and only once until all of the tones have been used, then the method continues but the phrase is not repeated. As composers, Berg and Schoenberg are often exemplified as atonal composers.(collapse)