The vocabulary of tonal-functional harmony had been extended, by the use of extreme chromaticism, well into regions of ambiguity.
Broadly coloristic techniques in the handling of orchestral masses had brought about the near-abandonment of rhythmic motion and motoric pulse, as well as the clearer textures of earlier years.
With the expansion of the tonal vocabulary by means of increasingly complex chromaticism, harmonic motion—the maintenance of tension through the use of particular relationships of consonance and dissonance—became extreme.