Tonal music has limited possibilities with only 3 tonal functions; tonic, predominant and dominant. This universal framework sets up expectations for the listener and gives them the means to understand the music. Composers throughout the mid-19C began to explore new sounds and structures that eventually led to "non-tonal" music around 1908. Composers moved away from working within a governed frame work, to creating their own. With access to thousands of possible sonorities, the overall trend during this time was towards tonal ambiguity and composers achieved this through a number of techniques.
Mode mixture along with tonizisations allowed chromaticism to permeate deeper levels of music. By incorporating sonorities from both the major and minor mode, the line between these scales became blurred especially when the substitution of the…show more content… This technique transforms one chord into the next by chromatic steps, usually keeping at least one note common. This usually creates a non-functional progression that destabilizes where we are in terms of the key. Chopin's Prelude in Em - largo uses semi tonal voice leading to connect I and V at the beginning of the piece, having the listener question where they are between these two important chords. It is not until the sounding of this dominant chord, we are reassured of the key. ยง Off tonic beginning was used to maintain a sense of ambiguity and heighten the expectation of the tonic. Dvorak does this is his New World Symphony ,second movement. The opening chordal progression moves from BIII - VI - BIII - I. Delaying the tonic chord not only creates suspense and expectation but the addition of mode mixture as the first chord makes us question the tonality of the piece.
Composers use these techniques to deliberately displace where the piece is tonally and create a sense of ambiguity, a trend seen dramatically throughout the 19th
