ABSTRACT
In the rst decade of the twentieth century, a few composers developed an approach to composition that, in retrospect, was perhaps inevitable and which Liszt anticipated toward the end of his life with his “Bagatelle without Tonality” (1885). The chromaticism of the nineteenth century had chipped away at the tonal system so successfully that it was only a natural outcome for the system eventually to be abandoned altogether. This new music without a tonal center eventually became known as “atonal” music, although not without objection by some of the composers who originated the style.
