New Conceptions of Musical Time

[millionrainbows]

I think that the advantage of tonality is that it allows one to assume long-term connections between "events which came before, to events which come later" in a way that is more sensual, because it is harmonic in nature. The ear immediately understands it.

With music such as Schoenberg's free-atonal music, which uses thematically and melodically developed ideas, the comprehension is more difficult, because there is not a harmonic sense of dissonance or consonance, but a succession of pitches. This must rely more on memory, not immediate, visceral harmonic sense.