ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies a common denominator within the cultural philosophies which underpin the 'New Music' of the twentieth century. The nineteenth century was notable above all for expansion: the expansion of sound level; the expansion of instruments; the expansion of the duration of works; the expansion of sonic space, both high and low; the expansion of harmonic space, in terms of the density of chords; and, above all, the ever expanding journey through the circle of keys, that is to say stretching further and further away from any sense of tonal stability. The philosophy of Totality manifests itself in absence as in presence, in emptiness as in plenitude, in Nothingness as in Totality, Nothingness being the rejection of all rejections, which is to say, the acceptance of all and everything.
