What is ‘Tonal Atonality’?

A brief overview, using [some of] the terminology of this system, illustrated by the example of composer Vyacheslav Kazarin’s piano piece ‘The Sunny River’

 

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` Tonal Atonality is a new musical system of the 21st century, in which:

    ~ there is no tonality,

    ~ there is no mode,

    ~ there is no harmony,

    ~ there are no functions,

    ~ there are no chords,

    ~ there are no themes,

    ~ there are no repetitions,

 

yet there is a clearly audible centre — not tonal, but acoustic.

 

 

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       • Acoustic Centre

 

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The central idea in the context of TA: atonal music can have a centre — but need not be tonal.

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This turns 300 years of music theory on its head!

 

 

Why this is important

 

Because prior to Kazarin, it was believed that:

~ ‘centre = tonality’,

~ ‘atonality = absence of a centre’.

 

Tonal Atonality shatters this false equivalence.

 

 

` Acoustic centre:

       • The centre arises not from harmony, but from acoustics:

 

    ~ frequency repetition,

    ~ register,

    ~ duration,

    ~ fifth-based anchors,

    ~ textural role.

 

This is a centre without tonality.

 

 

` Acoustic centre:

    • Interval fields

 

Instead of chords — interval fields:

    ~ seconds → stability,

    ~ thirds → development,

    ~ fifths → support for the centre,

    ~ tritones → climax.

 

 

Interval fields:

    • Texture as structure: texture is not a background, but a framework.

 

It [in this case, the functionality of TA, which may manifest itself differently in each individual work] is two-layered:

    ~ top — a continuous line of intervals,

    ~ bottom — sparse supporting notes of the centre.

 

 

Texture and Pianism

   • Parametric form

 

Form is constructed not from themes, but from parameters:

    ~ intervals,

    ~ density,

    ~ register,

    ~ dynamics,

    ~ stability of the centre.

 

This is the parametric arc A–B–C–B′–A′.

 

 

` Parametric form

   • Centric time

 

Time is determined not by metre, but by the centre:

 

    ~ the centre is present → stability,

    ~ the centre weakens → movement,

    ~ the centre disappears → climax,

    ~ the centre returns → the finale.

 

 

` Centric time

   • How does this music sound?

 

It sounds:

    ~ like a river,

    ~ like light,

    ~ like breath,

    ~ like atonality that has become comprehensible,

    ~ like a structure that flows.

 

 

‘Solar River’ — a perfect example

Form:

~ A — the centre is stable

~ B — the centre weakens

~ C — the centre disappears

~ B′ — the centre returns

~ A′ — stabilisation

 

 

How does the systematic nature of TA differ from others?

 

It is not:

    ~ tonality,

    ~ modality,

    ~ serialism,

    ~ spectralism,

    ~ minimalism,

    ~ post-tonality,

    ~ the avant-garde.

 

It is a new paradigm, not a new style.

 

 

Why the system is important for the future

 

It provides:

    ~ atonality with a centre,

    ~ music with a new form,

    ~ composers with a new technique,

    ~ listeners with a new way of perceiving music,

    ~ theory with a new ontology.

 

 

In brief: the formula for the system

 

Tonal Atonality =

    ~ atonality + centre +

    ~ interval fields + two-layered texture +

    ~ parametric form + centric time

 

The main idea of this thesis analysis: Tonal Atonality is music in which acoustics becomes structure.

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Arina Ryazantseva, art historian and biographer of composer Vyacheslav Kazarin
Russia, Moscow 2026

` A-CVK