- Key People:
- Igor Stravinsky
- Arnold Schoenberg
- Anton Webern
- Alban Berg
- John Cage
- Related Topics:
- music
- atonality
- What is atonal music?
- basic set
12-tone music
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What is 12-tone music?
Twelve-tone music is a compositional technique developed after World War I that uses all twelve tones "related only to one another." Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg invented the technique to replace tonality as a basis for musical structure.
Unlike tonality, no notes predominate as focal points, and no hierarchy of importance gets assigned to individual tones. The unifying principle comes from ordering the collection of 12 tones, different for each composition. The order for any one composition is known as its basic set, its 12-tone row, or its 12-tone series.
The basic set is not a theme with a specific shape, rhythm, or loudness, but a musical idea that permeates the composition. Principles of composing and manipulating the basic set make it nearly impossible to hear the basic set when performed. Twelve-tone music is an example of serialism in music.
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Who invented 12-tone music?
Arnold Schoenberg is credited with inventing the 12-tone music composition technique. Between 1912 and 1922, Schoenberg searched for a new method of composition to replace tonality as the foundation for musical structure.
Instead of using one or two tones as focal points, Schoenberg suggested using all 12 tones, relating only to one another, without any hierarchy of importance assigned to individual tones. The unifying principle comes from the order given to the 12 tones, known as its 12-tone row or series, different for each composition.
Schoenberg's students, Anton von Webern and Alban Berg, also wrote 12-tone music but did not use the basic set idea in the same way as Schoenberg.
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How does 12-tone music use all the notes in an octave?
In 12-tone music, all 12 tones of the chromatic scale are organized into a tone row, also called a 12-tone row or series, which serves as the composition's basic structure. Unlike tonal music, 12-tone music avoids emphasizing individual tones, treating all 12 notes as equally important. The composer arranges the 12 tones into a specific order, the basic set, which then permeates the entire composition. This set isn't a theme with a specific shape or rhythm but a unifying musical idea. The concept of using a series of tones is called serialism.
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What is a tone row in 12-tone music?
In 12-tone music, a tone row, also called a 12-tone row or series, is a unifying principle in composition that uses all 12 tones "related only to one another". This order of tones differs for each composition and serves as the composition's basic set.
The Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg is credited with inventing the 12-tone technique, which provides a new basis for musical structure. The basic set isn't a theme with a specific shape, rhythm, or loudness, but a musical idea that permeates the composition.
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How do composers create variations using a tone row?
Composers create variations using a tone row, or twelve-tone row, through permutations and derivations of an ordered set of the 12 chromatic tones. The original row can be transposed, inverted, or presented backward. This can be done at the original pitch or any other pitch. The row can be used to create melodies, harmonies, or both and can also be fragmented. According to the serial technique, any piece written this way can be considered a set of variations on a 12-tone row. One such variation is the retrograde inversion.
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How did 12-tone music influence modern classical composition?
12-tone music, pioneered by Arnold Schoenberg, revolutionized modern classical composition by offering a new structural foundation that replaced traditional tonality. Instead of focusing on one or two key tones, it uses all 12 tones equally, creating a non-hierarchical system.
This method influenced composers to explore serialism, applying ordered rows to various musical elements beyond pitch, such as rhythm and dynamics. Anton Webern's adaptation of 12-tone techniques, with its emphasis on brevity and consistency, significantly impacted later composers.
Though analytical techniques for understanding 12-tone music are lacking, its impact is evident in the works of Igor Stravinsky, Alban Berg, and BĂ©la BartĂłk, each contributing unique harmonic and rhythmic innovations to the genre.
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12-tone music, large body of music, written roughly since World War I, that uses the so-called 12-tone method or technique of composition. The Austrian-born composer Arnold Schoenberg is credited with the invention of this technique, although other composers (e.g., the American composer Charles Ives and the Austrian Josef Hauer) anticipated Schoenbergâs invention by writing music that in a few respects was similar technically to his 12-tone music.
Between 1912 and 1922 Schoenberg came to realize that he was searching for a new method of composition that would provide a new basis for musical structure to replace the old basis of tonality, which he felt was being stretched and distorted too much to remain a unifying structural principle. Instead of using 1 or 2 tones as main points of focus for an entire composition (as key centres in tonal music), Schoenberg suggested using all 12 tones ârelated only to one another.â In such a system, unlike tonality, no notes would predominate as focal points, nor would any hierarchy of importance be assigned to the individual tones.
The new unifying principle in composition would then arise from the particular order given to a collection of the 12 tones, an order that would be different for each composition. The basic order for any one composition came to be known as its basic set, its 12-tone row, or its 12-tone series, all of which terms are synonymous. The basic set for Schoenbergâs Wind Quintet (1924) is EââGâAâBâCâŻâCâBââDâEâFâŻâAââF; for his String Quartet No. 4 (1936) it is DâCâŻâAâBââFâEââEâCâAââGâFâŻâB.
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The basic set is not a theme, for it has no specific shape, rhythm, or loudness. It is a backbone, a musical idea that permeates the composition in which it is used. Because of the various principles of composing and manipulating the basic set recognized by Schoenberg and others, it is not often possible nor even desirable to hear the basic set when the composition is performed. This situation has led many people to attack Schoenbergâs method as unmusical and as mathematical madness. Such views seem unjustifiable, because, as Schoenberg pointed out, his method specifies only a tiny fraction of the total nature of a compositionâcertainly no more than composing with tonality specifies.
Schoenbergâs best-known pupils were the Austrian composers Anton von Webern and Alban Berg, each of whom wrote 12-tone music. Neither used the idea of the basic set in the same manner as Schoenberg did, and their music differs greatly in many respects from each otherâs and from Schoenbergâs. Other important composers include the Russian-born Igor Stravinsky, the American Roger Sessions, the Austrian-born Ernst Krenek, the Italian Luigi Dallapiccola, and the German Hans Werner Henze. Many, such as Stravinsky (who had earlier criticized the approach severely) and Sessions, began writing 12-tone music after composing much non-12-tone music.
Some composers also have used some of the notions behind the basic set while simultaneously writing tonal music; among them are Schoenberg himself, the Austrian-born Ernst Toch, the American Walter Piston, and the Russian Dmitry Shostakovich. The American composer Benjamin Johnston combined principles of 12-tone music with microtonality (use of intervals smaller than whole tones or semitones). There are no sufficient analytic techniques used by musicians in understanding 12-tone music, which is partly why it remains not very well understood as a total musical phenomenon by composers, performers, and listeners alike. Twelve-tone music is an example of serialism (q.v.) in music.