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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УКА | UCA:

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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