Just as the abstract painters dispensed with the traditional canon of art at just the same time, so also men like Bartok and Stravinsky take a fresh look at what constituted good music. According to Bartok, the aesthetic success of this new homophonic-polyphonic music would depend upon the "harmonic entity" that results from the rise and fall of the "horizontal line" formed by the many discrete tone patches.... "an architectonic or similar scheme is not absolutely necessary; the construction of the line born out of the different degrees of intensity that are inherent in the tonal succession would be completely satisfactory," and by his likening of such constructions to works written in prose rather than verse (Gillies, 2000, p. 55)

Stravinsky too made his own way in the musical world. Working alongside Diaghilev and his Ballet Russes he created a whole new art form, one that was traditional, patriotic, and unpredictable all...

The Twentieth Century saw the shattering of traditional points-of-view. Stravinsky, who lived through most of that century, was part of that change. His music, like that of Bartok, broke new ground, and expressed even the old in new ways.
References

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=78927455

Gillies, M. (2000). 4 Analyzing Bart k's Works of 1918-1922 Motives, Tone Patches, and Tonal Mosaics. In Bartok Perspectives: Man, Composer, and Ethnomusicologist, Antokoletz, E., Fischer, V., & Suchoff, B. (Eds.) (pp. 43-56). Oxford: Oxford U.S..

A www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=62222623

Maconie, R. (1997). The Science of Music. New York: Oxford University Press.

A www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=49069097

Taruskin, R. (1995). Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance. New York: Oxford University Press.

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