Webern Quartet- Tonality and Harmony

Why is this piece Atonal?

As a result of the Serial technique of music, derived from the Prime Row, its inversion, retrograde and retrograde inversion to create a strict order of notes that sound random.

Why is there little use of Harmony?

Notes occur singly so there are no dyads or triads

Why do two or more notes together often sound dissonant?

Due to the arranged order of notes in the Prime row.

What creates a harmonic clash in bar 20?

the use of C#, D and Eb are a semitone cluster so they clash creating dissonance.

What writing technique is used in the piano to enable dyads?

Verticalisation where two notes next to each other in the row are heard at the same time.

Although there are no conventional harmonic progressions, how is dissonance controlled?

Through the composers choice of transposition pairings, for example bars 21-24 where all 4 versions of row 11 sound at once.