At 11:08 AM 11/16/02, Andrew Stiller wrote:

>Tonality is not the opposite of atonality. I find it highly ironic
>that most of the people who use the term this way don't care for
>atonal music, but are by this usage conceding it an empire that it
>does not govern nor ever claimed.

Lumping everything that one doesn't like into a single category is hardly
uncommon. In fact, I'd say it's a basic part of the human condition.
Consider religion or foreign policy, among other things.

>When composers began to write music that included progressions that
>could not be accounted for under the tonal system, conservative
>critics coined the term "atonal" to refer to such lapses from
>orthodoxy. The word was modelled on "atheist," and was meant to imply
>that [...]

Serious question, not rhetorical: Was the word really modeled on "atheist"
specifically, and not all the various other "a-" words (asexual, amoral,
asymmetrical, etc.)? If it wasn't, then I think your implication
overreaches.
mdl


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