... century, many different cultures met bringing new sounds, scales, and ideas with them. This made many countries very nationalistic. In addition, personal individualism became something to strive for especially in the Arts. These and many other influences created many diverse and innovative ideas. Although influenced by the greats of the time such as Wagner and Liszt many composers rejected the Romantic genre as excessive they were dissatisfied with the traditional tonal system, and felt that it had become exhausted and overused. Compositions such as Wagner's Tristan with its blurring of the traditional tension release idiom and use of chromaticism seemed too many to point the way forward. For example when we expect a resolution i.e. V7 - I we get V7 - I7 which we then expect to resolve somewhere else but it does not. In tonal music, all the notes of a diatonic scale gravitate towards the tonic or keynote i.e. ...

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