In order to realize its proposition, expressionist music completely abandons the traditional musical principles and takes atonal and atonal "twelve-tone system" as the main creative technique. If impressionism is regarded as the appearance of the curtain and flowers in the snow, then expressionism is what is in the mirror.

The founder of expressionist music is Austrian musician arnold schoenberg. His students, Berger and Wei Boen, developed the writing skills of twelve-tone system and went further than their teachers. Because their main activity is in Vienna, expressionist music is also called "New Vienna Music School".