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End of the Line: Atonality
Equal Temperament is fake and worse! — Lou Harrison
In this chapter I return to the Western classical tradition and talk about how the 12-eq tuning system ultimately limited the harmonic territory that tonal composers could traverse. Eventually, twentieth century composers abandoned the idea of a tonal center altogether. Arnold Schoenberg had been exposed to 53-equal tuning but instead chose his dodecaphonic (12-tone) system, which has been soundly rejected by five generations of listeners and has now been at least partially abandoned by contemporary composers. In this chapter I talk about how atonality is indeed the “end of the line.” We have now moved so far away from the natural harmonics that guided the ancients that music sounds more like noise to most ears.
If you would like to learn more about this chapter, “End of the Line: Atonality,” you can buy the entire book, The Grand Unified Theory of Music, in pdf form and on a complete website for $25 with hundreds of embedded musical examples. You can also explore this website to learn about the many musical traditions that are covered in this Grand Unified Theory.
A free introduction to what The Grand Unified Theory of Music offers is on this website and includes both text and a few musical examples from each webpage. If you would like to learn more about this chapter and the full contents of this entire e-book, you can buy The Grand Unified Theory of Music for $25, with hundreds of embedded musical examples of scales and chords from all over the world — and ideas for how to set up your computer system —
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