Editing Atonality (section)

=== Criticism of atonal music ===
Swiss conductor, composer, and musical philosopher [[Ernest Ansermet]], a critic of atonal music, wrote extensively on this in the book ''Les fondements de la musique dans la conscience humaine'' (The Foundations of Music in Human Consciousness),{{sfn|Ansermet|1961}} where he argued that the classical musical language was a precondition for musical expression with its clear, harmonious structures. Ansermet argued that a tone system can only lead to a uniform perception of music if it is deduced from just a single interval. For Ansermet this interval is the fifth.{{sfn|Mosch|2004|p=96}}

In France, on December 20, 2012, French pianist Jérôme Ducros gave a conference at the [[Collège de France]] entitled ''Atonalism. And after?''<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-09-12 |title=L'atonalisme. Et après ? {{!}} Collège de France |url=https://www.college-de-france.fr/fr/agenda/seminaire/musique-art-technique-savoir/atonalisme-et-apres |access-date=2024-08-17 |website=www.college-de-france.fr |language=fr}}</ref> as part of [[Karol Beffa]]'s chair of artistic creation. He compares the discursive properties of tonal language and non-tonal languages, largely giving the advantage to the former, and considers the return of tonality as inevitable. This conference sparked a heated controversy in the French musical world.