English

Noun

atonalism ‎(usually uncountable, plural atonalisms)

1. The school of atonal musical composition
   • 1998 February 27, Lee Sandlin, “Over Powered”, in Chicago Reader:

     No matter how melodramatic the story behind the music might be, most audiences won't buy atonalism; Arnold Schoenberg could have been devoured by escaped circus tigers while he was finishing the Variations for Orchestra and it would still get booed off the stage.

   • 2008 October 8, Charles Mcgrath, “Musical Odyssey: Circus Marches as a Boy, Grand, Topical Operas as a Man”, in New York Times:

     As a young composer, he wandered for years in the desert of atonalism and then, following the example of John Cage , he detoured through the wilderness of music based on an aesthetic of randomness and anarchy.