SERIALISM
What is Serialism?
Serialism is compositional technique that uses element of the piece into a series or order- It could be set order of volume changes or a particular set of notes. It began primarily with Arnold Scheonberg's twelve-tone technique.
Total serialism is the use series of aspects such as duration and dynamics.
The twelve-tone system was created by Schoenberg where he would arrange 12 chromatic notes of an octave into a set order. The initial arrangement is called the Prime order.
Example(Scheonberg's twelve tone system):
The prime form of the row is as follows:
B, Bb, G, C#, Eb, C, D, A, F#, E, Ab, F
Then the retrograde is the prime form in reverse order:
F, Ab, E, F#, A, D, C, Eb, C#, G, Bb, B
The inversion is the prime form with the intervals inverted (so that a rising minor third becomes a falling minor third, or equivalently, a rising major sixth):
B, C, Eb, A, G, Bb, Ab, C#, E, F#, D, F
And the retrograde inversion is the inverted row in retrograde:
F, D, F#, E, C#, Ab, Bb, G, A, Eb, C, B
Serialism Music sounds like lots of little random snippets put together to make a complete piece
A serialism music could be made like this✅
- Notes from prime order, or variations could be played in the bass line or melody and in any octave
2.Notes could be combined to make motifs
3.Groups of notes from prime order and variations could be combined to make chords - Verticalisation- notes that were written out horizontally in rows would be written out vertically in the score.
- The prime order could also be designed to make cluster chords with notes really close together.
You don"t get steady rhythms in serialist music. Its like a painting style that uses thousands of tiny dots to create an image.
Historical background of Serialism
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Composers
Musical Examples
It began during the 19th and 20th centurty where composers starts to struggle against " functional
tonality" Romantic composers such as Debussy and Strauss found ways to stretch the limits and go beyond the system, creating free atonality.
With free atonality, Schoenberg came up with the twelve tone serialism which an ordering of the twelve pitches of the equal tempered chromatic scale is used as the source material of a composition.
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Arnold Scheonberg
Anton Webern
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Alban Berg
John Cage
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