Context and Continuity in an Atonal Work: A Set-Theoretic Approach
Allen Forte · Perspectives of New Music · 1963
WHEN Schoenberg abandoned triadic tonality in 1908 and began to compose so-called atonal music he introduced into the historical flux certain problems that remain unsolved to this day. His own evident concern as to whether composing was a logical or a sensory process may have obstructed any personal efforts to find solutions. Whatever the case, we know that he did not explain adequately the structural bases of his atonal works, but seemed to regard the discovery and development of the method of composing with twelve tones as a satisfactory denouement. It now appears that although we may have by-passed the problems of the atonal period quite successfully we are still left with a large body of problematic music from that period-some of which is performed regularly, little of which is understood.