# Looking for some very dissonant and tonal music



## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

So could you recommend me some some very dissonant and tonal pieces of music? 
Also some pieces which mix tonality&atonality!


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## Renaissance (Jul 10, 2012)

It depends on what you consider dissonance. In renaissance era a perfect forth interval was considered highly dissonant 

I suppose Bartok is pretty dissonant, and yet tonal. Stravinsky, the same story... Even Bach used a lot of tritones in his Goldberg Variations.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

What is considered dissonant today, I will check out some Bartok!


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Something like this, i found this great piece from youtube when i searched Mixing atonality&tonality


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

J.S. Bach. 

That's all I've got to say.


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## Renaissance (Jul 10, 2012)

If we speak of Baroque, I find Corelli more dissonant than any other composer of that period 

Anyway, almost all modern music from the early 20th century explores dissonances in a more or less tonal manner.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

check out more by Prokofiev, if you haven't already. Especially his ballets <3 Peter and the Wolf also has amazing use of dissonance in diatonic and tonal music :3


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Messiaen! Messiaen! Messiaen!


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

If you want a combination of dissonant and not-dissonant, then you really need to explore Prokofiev as he does both in just about every piece. Here are a few more obvious examples:

Scythian Suite (Ala & Lolly), final movement:





This is the last variation and close of the 2nd Symphony:





Even something as seemingly innocuous as the 'Love for 3 Oranges Suite' can have its' moments:


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

techniquest said:


> If you want a combination of dissonant and not-dissonant, then you really need to explore Prokofiev as he does both in just about every piece. Here are a few more obvious examples:
> 
> Scythian Suite (Ala & Lolly), final movement:
> 
> ...


Well it seems that i have to listen to some Prokoviev.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

jani said:


> Well it seems that i have to listen to some Prokoviev.


I especially recommend his ballets Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella :3


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

BurningDesire said:


> I especially recommend his ballets Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella :3


Ooh yes, I really like "The Dance of the Knights" from Romeo and Juliet.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

MaestroViolinist said:


> Ooh yes, I really like "The Dance of the Knights" from Romeo and Juliet.


The whole thing is spectacular


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Roslavets! Roslavets! Roslavets!


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## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

Crudblud said:


> Messiaen! Messiaen! Messiaen!


Yes! Yes! Yes! And jani, do also listen to Turangalila-Symphonie at once! There is nothing like it!


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## etkearne (Sep 28, 2012)

Bartók's output from 1925-1932 fits your requests perfectly. He wrote some of the world's most jarring music while remaining in SOME tonal framework at the same time (even if the Acoustic Scale and bitonality via Octatonic Scales is not considered tonal by the layman). Listen to "Piano Sonata" to get a taste. Then listen to "Piano Concerto No. I" for the main course.

Some of the neoclassicists also produced very jarring but rigidly tonal music. Paul Hindemith even wrote some weird stuff IMO. And let's never forget Igor.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

etkearne said:


> Paul Hindemith even wrote some weird stuff IMO.


i'm curious, like what?


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## etkearne (Sep 28, 2012)

norman bates said:


> i'm curious, like what?


Mainly a few glaring places in his Piano Sonata No. 1. I will get the time markers for you later on. Unfortunately, I am heading out of town until tomorrow around Noon, but I think you will find it interesting given his reputation for "coolness and collectedness".


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Prokofiev's 2nd and 3rd symphonies are extremely dissonant ; the 2nd is a two movement work structurally modelled after Beethoven's final piano sonata, no 32; a sonata movement and a theme and variations second .The 3rd is drawn from Prokofiev's nightmarish occult opera "The Fiery Angel", which is also extremely dissonant .
The 2nd is pure musical rage and fury but with quieter , reflective passages . It sounds like the Mongols invading Russia in the middle ages !
The 3rd contains some of the most eerie and sinister music you have ever heard . The opera The Fiery Angel deals with sorcery ,demonology and the blackest of black magic in 16th century Germany . Both will give you the creeps !


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

jani said:


> Well it seems that i have to listen to some Prokoviev.


I heartily second the previous post. Exquisite Prokofiev, all 3 of those selections. Prokofiev used dissonance like no other. It was a catalyst for energy and tonality, but never an end in and of itself. Except a few occasions.


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## etkearne (Sep 28, 2012)

I also need to give Mr. Prokofiev a chance. I have actually never heard any of his work because for some dumb reason I always pictured his music very consonant and sort of fluffy, but sounds like I am dead wrong.

What would you recommend a fan of Bartók's period from 1926-1932, his most experimental and dissoant?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I'm surprised the opening of Bach's St. John Passion has not been mentioned. Also, lots of trio sonatas by Corelli.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Old stuff:

*Mozart *
- the opening of his _String Quartet in C major, K465 'Dissonance'_
-_ A Musical Joke (Ein Musikalischer Spass), K52_2 - ends on the 'wrong' note
*Haydn *- the opening purely instrumental movement of his oratorio _The Creation _(which represents the world being formed out of nothing, it eventually comes together, a bit like the Mozart piece above)
- Music of the* 'Sturm und drang' period *by Mozart (eg. his 25th sym. in G minor) & Haydn (my favourite of his symphonies in this style is his 49th 'La Passione').

Into Modernism (that haven't been mentioned so far), three to start you off:

*Barber *- Violin Concerto ; Adagio for Strings ; Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance (& many of his other things)
*Hovhaness *- Meditation on Orpheus, but also his symphonies, esp. the 'eruption' in _#50 'Mount St. Helens'_
*Peter Sculthorpe *- Earth Cry, this Australian composer has not gone fully atonal, but he's innovated in sonority (main influences being Cage, Varese, Messiaen).


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Wagner's Tristan und Isolde hardly ever resolves its dissonances.


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