As in the later books of madrigals, he uses particularly sharp dissonance and shocking chromatic juxtapositions, especially in the parts highlighting text passages having to do with Christ's suffering, or the guilt of St. Peter in having betrayed Jesus.

German critic Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, writing in 1969, viewed Pfitzner's music with extreme ambivalence: initiated with sharp dissonances and hard linear counterpoint determined to be taken as (and criticized for being) modernist.

The first theme is dramatic, marked by contrasting textures, sharp dissonances, crescendos starting forte, irregular downbeats, and abrupt rests.

The beginning is singularly eerie: a sharp, gnawing dissonance in the strings, the sound of a telephone off the hook, and recorded voices of NORAD air-traffic controllers on the morning of 9/11 ("They're goin' the wrong way").

The 16:15 just minor second arises in the C major scale between B & C and E & F, and is, "the sharpest dissonance found in the scale."

Bach has the music almost freeze on the first words "den Tod" (death), the word "gefangen" (imprisoned) is marked by a sharp dissonance of the soprano and alto.

Compared to Landini's music, in which refinement, elegance, and a memorable melodic line were the clear goals of the composer, Andrea's music is dramatic, restless, and sometimes disjunct, and includes sharp dissonances to highlight certain passages in the text.

The 10:9 minor tone arises in the C major scale between D and e and G and A, and is "a sharper dissonance" than 9:8.

Both styles are based on similar principles, particularly the "simple mood" of singing, but in some western Georgian church-singing styles (particularly in so-called "Shemokmedi school") the polyphonic mastery and the use of sharp dissonances reaches its climax.

Loaded with rich harmonies, sharp dissonances, odd electronic effects, early Pink Floyd-style psychedelia, proto heavy metal and songs that drastically change styles from one moment to the next, the album was full of pop experiments and abstractions that have become a calling card for current underground alternative bands.