"What I feared, . . . . . . . . . .
"... melodic segments played against harmonic accompaniments; one note of a chord followed by a melodic segment in a different part, with the row then bending back to fill in the rest of the notes of the first chord; and, in the last statement of the third row (crab of the untransposed prime), a melodic segment in the bass accompanied by three chords. ... Examples could be multiplied indefinitely, but ... most of them would boil down to some similar types of random distribution of the row-notes .... Obviously, such distributions of the row could not be sensorily perceived and intelligently grasped as motival structures however much practice the listener may have had in hearing such music. ... The significance - even the importance - of the row as an abstract concept is easy to appreciate, but the utter disregard with which Schoenberg at times twists it about renders it totally meaningless as either a harmonic or melodic structure."
- Richard S. Hill (musicologist, librarian), 1936
"The most notorious serialist technique is 12-tone music, which creates a musical phrase by combining all 12 notes of the chromatic scale in a fixed order, and then uses that phrase as the basis of a musical work."
- Anne Midgette (critic), 2011
"12-tone music was an attempt at a new musical language in which all 12 pitches of the scale were used in a complexly rotating order."
- Kyle Gann (author, musicologist, composer), 2011
"12-tone row: the 12 chromatic tones of the octave placed in a chosen fixed order and constituting with some permitted permutations and derivations the melodic and harmonic material of a serial musical piece."
- Merriam-Webster.com (Internet dictionary), 2011
"[The 12-tone technique] is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are sounded as often as one another in a piece of music while preventing the emphasis of any through the use of tone rows, an ordering of the 12 pitches."
- Wikipedia (Internet crowdsourced encyclopedia), 2011
"... 12-tone technique, which means that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are permissible at any time, and none are emphasized over and above the others."
- David Byrne (composer, performer, director,
producer, photographer, author, etc.), 2008
producer, photographer, author, etc.), 2008
"Term where all notes in the chromatic scale are to be used before one is repeated.
a. serialism.
b. sprechstimme.
c. aleatory music.
d. 12-tone row.
"Term where timbres, registers, rhythms, durations, dynamic levels were organized in 'rows.'
a. serialism.
b. sprechstimme.
c. aleatory music.
d. 12-tone row."
- Music 103 Last Section Flashcards (Internet student study aid)
"Twelve-tone music introduces each of the 12 tones of the Western chromatic scale in a predetermined order called a 'tone row,' which serves as the melodic line. Pioneering works using this method are Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire (1912), Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto (1935) and opera Wozzeck (1922), and Anton Webern’s Augenlicht (The Light of the Eye, 1935) ...."
- The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge, 2004, 2007, 2011
From the dust jacket of the 2011 edition: "The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge provides information with matchless accuracy and exceptional clarity."
"Etc. etc. etc."
. . . . . . . . . . happened."
- Arnold Schoenberg (composer)
Links:
=> Richard S. Hill. "Schoenberg's Tone-Rows and the Tonal Systems of the Future"
=> Anne Midgette. "Contemporary classical: a guide for the perplexed."
=> Kyle Gann. "Is it music if nobody hears it?"
=> David Byrne. "Modern Music - Die Soldaten."
=> [Flashcards]
=> "The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge: a desk reference for the curious mind."
=> Arnold Schoenberg. "'Schoenberg's Tone-Rows'"
