Stephen Hough

In Britten or Berg, there's a tension between the sweet and the sour, between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the tonal and the atonal, the happy and the sad. That, to me, is what all western art is about - that tension. It's why we want to say anything at all.

British Composer

I want music to move me, and I don't think it can do that without at least a link to tonality. It's the tug between atonal and tonal which makes music poignant.

Isom Innis

On 'Sid & Nancy,' it was originally this atonal kind of beat that you hear in the verses, like an atonal dance track.

Musician

Michael Giacchino

I grew up with so many different sounds, and 'Lost' allows me to express all of it, the melodic and the atonal.

American Composer

Andris Nelsons

As a trumpet player, I was playing Xenakis, Lindberg: very challenging, technical, atonal, and I enjoyed it.

Latvian Composer

Andre Previn

I don't write things that are wildly abstractly atonal.

German Musician

Atonal music often features in modernist movements, breaking classical harmony rules.

Modernist Style

Atonal music can evoke unsettled feelings, as it defies usual melodic expectations.

Emotional Impact

Atonal compositions lack singable tunes, making them less hummable than tonal music.

No Singable Tune

 And we talk about different ideas -- he had this idea that he thought music should be from the heart. This was in the middle of the 20th century when music from the heart, beautiful music, wasn't the most popular thing in the classical music world. It was more atonal and twelve-tone.