Twelve-tone Music (Noun)
Meaning
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).
Classification
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents.
Examples
- Twelve-tone music, a radical innovation in the early 20th century, challenged traditional tonal harmony and paved the way for avant-garde composition.
- The composer's use of twelve-tone music in the string quartet created a sense of tension and dissonance that underscored the emotional intensity of the piece.
- Schoenberg's twelve-tone method, which assigned a specific order to the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale, allowed for a high degree of structural coherence in his music.
- The atonality of twelve-tone music was a deliberate rejection of traditional tonal harmony, seeking instead to create a new kind of musical logic and syntax.
- Some critics argued that twelve-tone music, with its rigid adherence to a predetermined tone row, was overly restrictive and stifled creativity.