ablyth

Yes there are endless possibilities with atonal music. My concern would be that no-one wants to listen to them and that composing becomes little more than self indulgence. The composers you mentioned have a significant place in the repertoire of new music ensembles. But there are not many of those groups around. These composers are hardly represented in the concert hall programmes of most orchestras. They can hardly be said to represent , or even be part of, the repertoire of classical music as it is generally performed or recorded. Consequently atonal modernism is largely a style of music with its own following but has little connection to most classical music listeners. It relates to classical music in about the same way that Rap music does- a totally foreign music. Of course there are people who like classical music and Rap. But there are probably not that many whose tastes are so catholic. My feelings are that the composers mentioned have suffered the fate of the avant-garde: they have forged ahead along their own path while most listeners have taken a different direction and forgotten about htem altogether.