Music Theory/Serialism

In general, serialism in music is the compositional technique that uses series of musical elements such as pitches, durations, dynamics, etc. Serialism was popularized mainly by American-based Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, who made heavy use of the twelve-tone techinque which he also popularized through his music.

Twelve-tone Technique

The twelve-tone technique (Zwölftontechnik in German), also known as dodecaphony or twelve-tone serialism, is the most well-known form of musical serialism. It aims to emphasize each of the twelve notes in the chromatic scale equally; thus, this kind of music is void of any key, at least in the traditional sense, since the existence of a "key" requires some subset of notes from the chromatic scale be emphasized more than the notes outside of that set. For instance, the key of D major specifically emphasizes the notes D, E, F♯, G, A, B, and C♯ more than D♯, F, G♯, A♯, and C.

Tone Row

The twelve-tone technique starts with a tone row, which is a unique ordering of the twelve notes in the chromatic scale, or the twelve pitch classes. The twelve notes can be in any order, so long as no note occurs more than once in the order.

For instance, here's a tone row we'll call X: C, B, F, D, E, F♯, A, G♯, D♯, C♯, A♯, G.

The tone row can be subjected to several transformations:

• The row can remain unchanged, in which case it is called the row's prime form.
• The row can be reversed, with the last note first and the first note last, creating the row's retrograde. So, the retrograde of row X would be G, A♯, C♯, D♯, G♯, A, F♯, E, D, F, B, C.
• The row can have its intervals inverted, so all ascending intervals become descending intervals and vice versa, creating the row's inversion. For instance, if a row Y started with the notes E, B, the inversion of Y would start with the notes E, A; since the first interval in row Y was an ascending perfect fifth (or a descending perfect fourth), the first interval in the inversion of Y is a descending perfect fifth (or an ascending perfect fourth). So, the inversion of row X would be C, C♯, G, A♯, G♯, F♯, D♯, E, A, B, D, F.
• The row can be both inverted and reversed, creating the row's retrograde inversion. So, the retrograde inversion of row X would be F, D, B, A, E, D♯, F♯, G♯, A♯, G, C♯, C.
• The row, its retrograde, its inversion, or its retrograde inversion can also be transposed to any note in the chromatic scale. So, for instance, row X can be transposed up a perfect fifth (or down a perfect fourth) to become G, F♯, C, A, B, C♯, E, D♯, A♯, G♯, F, D.

All transformations of a tone row are considered different "versions" of the same base tone row. Thus, including the prime form, there are 48 unique "versions" of any tone row, except for some rows in which some transformations give the same row (like the ascending chromatic scale, which is identical to the retrograde inversion transposed up a half step).

Using Tone Rows

Because of the many different transformations of a single tone row, pieces of considerable length can be composed with merely the transformations of one row.

Some rules must be met in order to constitute a valid usage of a tone row:

• All of the notes in the row must be played in the order they appear in the row.
• Any instance of a note can appear in any octave.
• A single note within the row can be repeated any number of times.
• Several rows may be played simultaneously, syncronously or asyncronously.
• Any row may be repeated or switched out for another row, but all notes within the row must be played before doing so.
• Some composers also allow the ability to, within a row, alternate between the current note and the note directly before in the row before going to the next note in the series.

All else is up to the composer's discretion.

Recalling our definition of row X as C, B, F, D, E, F♯, A, G♯, D♯, C♯, A♯, G, here is an example of a valid usage of row X's prime form according to our rules: