arty (not really) rumination (but i tried) - 2

Was Dissonance Ever Truly Emancipated?

“Emancipation of the dissonance” is a theory suggested by Arnold Schoenberg, which centered around the idea of atonality and that dissonance does not have to be resolved by consonance, as appeared in classical music, and therefore can be emancipated. Schoenberg argued that the artistic value of a musical piece was defined by its comprehensibility, which could be demonstrated better through dissonance than consonance, indicating that the traditional emphasis on consonance “had no constructive meanings”, and existed purely to fulfill the structure of an artwork.

Factoring in what Vienna went through during the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, we can reasonably postulate that Schoenberg’s proposal of the “emancipation of the dissonance” theory might be evoked by the changes of Vienna’s societal situation. Previous to 1921, Vienna was not a state of its own, and there was continuous warfare in Europe. Therefore, classicism’s emphasis on unity and consonance in Vienna might be a byproduct of the physical surrounding’s disunity and dissonance. However, towards the end of 1910s, physical unity was gradually forming in Vienna. Since it is people’s natural tendency to appreciate things they do not possess more, once physical unity became more accessible, consonance in musical pieces was not valued as much, leading to an increasing pursuit of dissonance.

Meanwhile, some people might be skeptical towards Schoenberg and would claim that emancipation from consonance never happened because Schoenberg’s theory is a self-assuming one. The dominant appearance of dissonant chords and lack of consonant chords barely took place in other musicians’ works besides a small group of artists, including Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner, and as such. In addition, Schoenberg’s theory implied that the future is undoubtedly better than the past as the latter is nothing but stricture, which is a very radical interpretation of the past, and is apparently not fully correct.

In my opinion, there is no place for us to judge whether Schoenberg’s emancipation from consonance ever truly happened as the only criterion to decide whether the emancipation is real is by looking into Schoenberg’s motive. If Schoenberg came up with this theory propelled by his genuine feeling towards how music should be, then we should never deny his theory, as how meaning and structure define the artistic value of an artwork is completely subject to each individual, and there is definitely no right and wrong. However, if Schoenberg proposed the theory just to appear as an avantgarde figure, then we can say he was ironically restricted by the idea of emancipation. However, which led Schoenberg to put forward this theory? Was he genuine or not? We will never know.