Harmonik und Kontrapunkt

This work aims to provide an overview of some important systematic approaches to overcoming traditional major-minor tonality in the early 20th century. Using examples from four different countries or cultural circles - Austria, France, Russia, and the United States - it presents techniques by Arnold Schönberg, Franz Schreker, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Alexander Scriabin, Nikolai Roslavets, Henry Cowell, Charles Seeger, and Carl Ruggles, making them tangible through selected works or excerpts. The work seeks to contribute to a fundamental understanding of the techniques presented here and to facilitate engagement with other works by the mentioned composers. As a result of comparing the different compositions, the work demonstrates that there are numerous parallels in the compositional techniques and harmonic systems used.