Messiaen, Schönberg and other atonal composers
 

So I've been recently getting into atonal music (mostly solo piano music thus far) and I figured I might as well start a general thread for it here in the Classical forum.
There are some pieces I'd like to share:

Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus - V. Regard du Fils sur le Fils


Arnold Schönberg: 6 kleine klavierstücke op. 19


Fartein Valen: Intermezzo op. 36


Norwegian composer Fartein Valen (who has composed the piece in the third YT video) referenced a concept coined my Michelangelo; "L'altra beltá" or "The other beauty" when explaining how to appreciate and understand atonal music. It is about defying the traditional concepts of beauty to create another form of such.
Is anyone else interested in atonal music?

I am! I studied it in school as part of my major.

Awesome. :D

Is there any other composers/works within this field you recommend that I check out? (As I said, I have only recently started looking into it seriously.)

I'm quite a fan of Charles Ives' atonal work. I think I heard somewhere that he was developing an atonal system at the same time as Schoenberg without knowing about him, but I can't find anything to validate that so I could be wrong.



There's also Krzystof Penderecki, who did several soundtracks that you may have heard.


Edgard Varese is the man


There's also Stravinsky, Debussy, and John Cage. If I were you I would check out all of Schoenberg's work because it's fantastic, especially this early piece.


The pieces I posted may not be strictly atonal, but they give you an idea of what the artists are about :).