Quote:
Originally posted by ablyth
You could consider this fact. The earliest atonal pieces were written in the early 1900's. A century has passed since then. This is longer than the entire Classical or Romantic periods. If you consider, as I do, that atonality is essentially a style of music, then stylistically it has run its course and has nothing new to offer.
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I find this comment very interesting, ablyth, because we regularly discuss neo-classical, neo-romantic, and even neo-baroque music. These styles have been around much longer that serialism or atonality, yet they still have possibilities to be explored. A lot of these possibilities include fusions of styles, mixing past with present. Furthermore, the styles and "rules" of atonality are constantly changing as well. An example in another style would be Adams's Short Ride in a Fast Machine. This piece is a lot more active and "interesting" than some of the more strictly minimalist pieces by Glass (esp. the earlier works). I do believe there is life for atonality and serialism, just like any other style.