Music of the 20th Century

The twentieth century brought about drastic changes in the way classical music was written and performed. Some composers pushed the preceding Romantic period music to more extended harmonies and fluid compositional form. Others decided to create totally new harmonic systems to create strikingly different music from that of their predecessors. Overall, this century brought about many innovations and ideas that both freed the composer from conventional restraints and brought about some of the fiercest debates on what music "is."