# The 10 Best Modernism Tracks of All Time Western art music after tonality stopped being compulsory. Atonality, serial method, noise admitted as material, and eventually silence — a century of composers deciding which inherited rule to stop obeying next. - **Origin:** Vienna, Paris and New York, 1908 - **Also known as:** twentieth century classical, serialism, second viennese school, avant-garde, contemporary classical - **Tracks:** 10 - **Updated:** 2026-08-30 - **Canonical page:** https://waxonia.com/genre/modernism/ ## The list ### 1. [Igor Stravinsky](https://waxonia.com/artist/igor-stravinsky/) — [The Rite of Spring](https://waxonia.com/track/igor-stravinsky--the-rite-of-spring/) *1913* The premiere ended in a riot, which has slightly obscured the fact that the rhythmic writing is still the most violent thing in the orchestral repertoire. Nothing has caught up. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Igor%20Stravinsky%20The%20Rite%20of%20Spring) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=dcwB67IoefA) ### 2. [Arnold Schoenberg](https://waxonia.com/artist/arnold-schoenberg/) — [Pierrot lunaire](https://waxonia.com/track/arnold-schoenberg--pierrot-lunaire/) *1912* Twenty-one poems delivered in Sprechstimme — neither spoken nor sung — over five players. Unsettling in a way that has not worn off in a century of trying. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Arnold%20Schoenberg%20Pierrot%20lunaire) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=U5xJTY2A8fY) ### 3. [John Cage](https://waxonia.com/artist/john-cage/) — [4'33"](https://waxonia.com/track/john-cage--433/) *1952* Four minutes and thirty-three seconds in which the performer plays nothing and the room becomes the piece. Endlessly mocked, and every field recording and ambient record since is standing on it. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/John%20Cage%204'33%22) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4) ### 4. [Olivier Messiaen](https://waxonia.com/artist/olivier-messiaen/) — [Quatuor pour la fin du temps](https://waxonia.com/track/olivier-messiaen--quatuor-pour-la-fin-du-temps/) *1941* Written and first performed in a prisoner-of-war camp, for the four instruments available. Birdsong, non-retrogradable rhythm, and an unembarrassed faith that the circumstances make impossible to patronise. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Olivier%20Messiaen%20Quatuor%20pour%20la%20fin%20du%20temps) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=QAQmZvxVffY) ### 5. [Alban Berg](https://waxonia.com/artist/alban-berg/) — [Wozzeck](https://waxonia.com/track/alban-berg--wozzeck/) *1922* Atonal opera about a soldier destroyed by poverty and humiliation, built on strict classical forms nobody in the audience can hear. Berg proved the new language could carry a story. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Alban%20Berg%20Wozzeck) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=1g6mql2l8-c) ### 6. [Béla Bartók](https://waxonia.com/artist/bela-bartok/) — [Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta](https://waxonia.com/track/bela-bartok--music-for-strings-percussion-and-celesta/) *1936* A fugue that expands outwards in semitones from a single note, and a night-music slow movement of extraordinary strangeness. Folk research and mathematics, in the same piece. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/B%C3%A9la%20Bart%C3%B3k%20Music%20for%20Strings%2C%20Percussion%20and%20Celesta) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=-9LWHEf0VFo) ### 7. [Krzysztof Penderecki](https://waxonia.com/artist/krzysztof-penderecki/) — [Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima](https://waxonia.com/track/krzysztof-penderecki--threnody-to-the-victims-of-hiroshima/) *1960* Fifty-two strings playing clusters, glissandi and things not previously notated. Penderecki originally called it 8'37" and gave it the title only after hearing what he had written. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Krzysztof%20Penderecki%20Threnody%20to%20the%20Victims%20of%20Hiroshima) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=p9xAjiZo7go) ### 8. [Dmitri Shostakovich](https://waxonia.com/artist/dmitri-shostakovich/) — [Symphony No. 5](https://waxonia.com/track/dmitri-shostakovich--symphony-no-5/) *1937* Written under real threat of arrest and subtitled, by someone, a Soviet artist's reply to just criticism. Whether the triumphant ending is sincere is the most consequential unanswered question in music. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Dmitri%20Shostakovich%20Symphony%20No.%205) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=T1h1NJMKtnc) ### 9. [Iannis Xenakis](https://waxonia.com/artist/iannis-xenakis/) — [Metastaseis](https://waxonia.com/track/iannis-xenakis--metastaseis/) *1954* Sixty-one players on sixty-one separate parts, the string glissandi drawn as the ruled surfaces Xenakis was designing with Le Corbusier at the time. Architecture, performed. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Iannis%20Xenakis%20Metastaseis) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=uaPVaPPDmVs) ### 10. [Luigi Russolo](https://waxonia.com/artist/luigi-russolo/) — [Risveglio di una città](https://waxonia.com/track/luigi-russolo--risveglio-di-una-citta/) *1913* Written for intonarumori — noise machines Russolo built himself — after a manifesto arguing that industrial noise was the only honest material left. Thirty-five years early, and completely correct. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Luigi%20Russolo%20Risveglio%20di%20una%20citt%C3%A0) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=sDXcRaOtVas) --- Hand-curated by Waxonia. We host no audio; all links point to streaming platforms.