Tirro believes that the octet embodied significant elements of cool jazz, including influences from impressionist and neoclassical styles, quartal harmony, counterpoint,
polytonality, polymeter, and non-jazz forms.
There are some adventurous sounds and techniques, although used sparingly: modality, black-key forearm clusters, whole-tone scales and one brief instance of
polytonality.
(6.) Kaminsky, "Ravel's Late Music and the Problem of '
Polytonality.'" Music Theory Spectrum 26 (2004): 248.
Perhaps Milhaud's music seems less full of character because of his use of
polytonality. Previous twentieth century works with eighteenth century settings, including Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier (1911) and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress (1951), have typically employed a neoclassical idiom, thereby acknowledging the context of the earlier time period.
In these sonatas, Jean combines traditional formal sonata form with
polytonality, a bonding of major and minor triad forms.
Mitchell is renowned for her harmony, and Whitesell has studied the chord progression of every song within the period of his book, stratifying her practice into five categories: Modality; Polymodality; Chromaticism;
Polytonality; and Strict Pedal Points.
He was a pioneer of
polytonality and polymodality from the early 1900s onwards, besides being a master contrapuntist whose idol was J.
There's that slow, haunting, eerie opening with clever use of
polytonality: the technique of being in two or more keys at once.
Four years later Arnold wrote Variations on a Ukrainian Folk Song, again mostly reflective in style, alternating between meandering slow variations and bursts of Prokofievan
polytonality in the louder fast ones.
Reilly keeps the explanation to a minimum without failing to touch on the most important issues:
polytonality, counterpoint, modulation.
But his predilection for
polytonality and strong, albeit irregular rhythms gives his music its particular Oriental-Eastern-European flavor" (Notes in the score).
The highlight of chapter 6, "
Polytonality, Counterpoint, and Instrumentation," is Kelly's emphasis on the often-overlooked composer Charles Koechlin, whom she credits with inspiring Milhaud to grant instrumentation a crucial role in the polytonal juxtaposition of horizontal lines.