Surrealism is a movement that occurred in the early 1900’s. The music focused on tonality as compared to earlier music which focused on harmony and melody.
The main person behind this whole movement was a man named Arnold Schoenburg. Schoenburg used Hexatonic, whole tone, and 12 tone scales/ chords in his writing.
The 12 tone scale was based upon a chromatic scale which used tone rows, an ordering of the 12 pitches. All 12 notes are given equal importance, and the music avoids being in a key. The technique was influential on composers in the mid-twentieth century and today.Surrealism never really became main stream. Most people who listen to this music think of it as something that their little kid can do... when in reality only a select few musicians in the world can really perform it.
There are still musicians who perform this style of music... but usually (from what ive seen) the surrealism/ avant garde music that is performed in todays culture is based off of free from improvisation. Such as Keith Jarrett.
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