tonality in modernism

[communist]

is modern music always atonal or is it sometimes tonal?

[jabbz]

That would depend on what you mean by 'tonal'! 

[healdie]

yes very much so in some ways i think modern music is making almoslt a new romantic ( not an 80's one though) style specially in the movie world but modern music is so eclectic brining influences from all styles so yes  i would say so

[thierry13]

Some of it is atonal, some of it is tonal, some of it is modal, it depends on what you include in "modern music" and which styles you include in it.

[jabbz]

I think tonality is still acceptable, but I don't think I-IV-V is really appropriate anymore.

[communist]

what do you mean by I-IV-V? ( gets slightly embarrassed )

[jabbz]

chord progressions, it pretty much marks the structure of most tonal pieces.

[theory_guy]

As someone already said, it boils down to what you define as tonality. I would personally include anything that gravitates toward a central axis. Therefore, traditional tonal music would be included, as would modal music. Any music based on mathematical algorithms, on the other hand, is a good example of something that will likely be atonal. Also, anything to do with set theory is atonal.

Coming back to the original question, good contemporary composers have a very diverse harmonic language and are quite versatile in that they can effectively write in many styles and combine several harmonic languages in an artistic way. So, yes, modern music employs both tonal and atonal systems.

[alysosha]

I think the academic music world is slowly coming to realise that atonality was alot of dogma. Sure theories or art can never be proved wrong so the establishment and all those it took with them will always have a way of saving face. But come on it's 100 years on and we all know no ones going to be whisteling schoenberg anytime soon let alone webern, boulez or finnissy.

The future of western art music is really an unknown. I think it will eventually be subsumed by the rest of music.

[alysosha]

no flame war?

[mikey6]

I think tonality is still acceptable, but I don't think I-IV-V is really appropriate anymore.

I can think of many a pop song that includes this.
Your term 'modern music' does not exclude these genres....

[alysosha]

While the tonal system, in an atrophied or vestigial form, is still used today in popular and commercial music, and even occasionally in the works of backward-looking serious composers, it is no longer employed by serious composers of the mainstream. It has been replaced or succeeded by the 12-tone system.

Charles Wuorinen - Simple Composition (1979)

[ramseytheii]

is modern music always atonal or is it sometimes tonal?

No.

Walter Ramsey

[quasimodo]

No.

Walter Ramsey

No to which of the two propositions?