12-tone system
Noun: A method of musical composition developed in the early 20th century, most famously by Arnold Schoenberg. It is a form of serialism that organizes all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale into a specific, non-repeating sequence called a tone row or series. This row, along with its inverted, retrograde (backward), and retrograde-inverted forms, provides the foundational material for an entire composition, ensuring that no single pitch is emphasized over the others, thereby moving away from traditional tonality.
The 12-tone system is used to describe both the compositional technique itself and music composed using this method. * The composer strictly adhered to the 12-tone system in his later works. * Understanding the 12-tone system is essential for analyzing much of 20th-century classical music. * Critics argued that the 12-tone system produced music that was intellectually rigorous but emotionally cold.
- As a foundational concept: The term is often used to discuss the broader movement of atonality and serialism in music history.
- The 12-tone system represented a radical break from the harmonic conventions of the Romantic period.
- In analysis: Used to describe the structural basis of a specific piece.
- The analyst demonstrated how the entire symphony was derived from a single 12-tone system row.
- Twelve-tone technique: A fully synonymous term.
- Dodecaphony: Another synonym, derived from Greek roots ( meaning twelve, meaning sound).
- Serialism: A broader category of composition techniques that use series of elements (pitches, rhythms, dynamics). The 12-tone system is the most famous early form of pitch serialism.
- Tone row / Note row / Series: The specific ordered sequence of the twelve pitches that forms the basis of a composition in the 12-tone system.
- Twelve-tone technique
- Dodecaphony
- Twelve-note composition
- Atonality: Music that lacks a tonal center or key, a general characteristic of music using the 12-tone system.
- Second Viennese School: The group of composers (Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern) associated with the development and early use of this system.
- Inversion: A transformation of the tone row where the intervals are turned upside down.
- Retrograde: Playing the tone row backwards.
- Prime form: The original, stated form of the tone row.
- a type of serial music introduced by Arnold Schoenberg; uses a tone row formed by the twelve semitones of the chromatic scale (and inverted or backward versions of the row)