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Dissolving of tonality and establishment of atonality
The appearance of atonality in Western art music in the 20th century was the beginning of an era that is known to us as modern music. In a narrower sense the term New Music, used by the music critic Paul Bekker in 1919, describes compositions by precursors and pioneers of modern music. What Bekker describes, is the moment of the dissolving of tonality in the music of his contemporaries Strauss and Schoenberg. This development started back in the 19th century when composers like Wagner, in his opening chords to Tristan, or Scriabin, extended tonality to a point that single chords could not be seen in a tonal context any more. The same phenomenon occurs in the impressionism of Debussy, in Strauss and the young Schoenberg.

From twelve-note technique to serialism
The first approaches to free atonality came gradually; the idea of twelve-tone technique finally is a result of free atonality. Besides Schoenberg, who is today considered as the originator of twelve-tone technique, Joseph Hauer at the same time developed his own twelve-note system. However, Schoenberg’s Second Viennese School with his students Berg and Webern became the first center of 20th century music.

The idea of dodecaphony was the foundation for the concept of serialism, in which not only the set of pitches was determined, but also other parameters such as duration, dynamics and colour. The first serial work is the piano piece Mode de valeur et d'intensités by Olivier Messiaen. In the second half of the century, serialism became a very common technique among composers such as Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, Karheinz Stockhausen or Milton Babbitt.

Characteristic for the 20th century is the variety of styles of composition; numerous of Schoenberg’s contemporaries abandoned the use of strict atonality and formed a style that is mostly described as neoclassicism. In the first half of the century composers like Stravinsky, Bartok and Hindemith represent the idea of a free use of both tonality and atonality.

In his publication “Philosophy of the New Music” Theodor Adorno applies the term New Music specifically to the atonal works of the Second Viennese School and its tradition. He describes a rivalry between the concepts of Schoenberg’s New Music and Stravinsky’s neoclassicism. This idea has been dominating musical thinking throughout the century and has caused the strict distinction between composers who see themselves in the tradition of the Schoenberg and composers like Britten or Shostakovich, whose intention is not primarily a novel approach to music.

Contemporary Music today
Characteristic for the second half of the century is the development of individual styles of composers. Compositions by John Cage or Maurizio Kagel are unique in a very personal way; it is not possible to copy their style. There is a wide range of styles that can be put into categories such as electronic music, chance music, Minimal Music, micro polyphony, collage, Musique Spectrale and Musique Concrete or New Simplicity and New Complexity. However, many works characterise rather individual features of their composers than a certain style. LThF (talk) 17:12, 28 November 2007 (UTC)