12-tone system

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Noun

12-tone system - 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)

12-tone music, twelve-tone music, twelve-tone system

serial music, serialism - 20th century music that uses a definite order of notes as a thematic basis for a musical composition

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References in periodicals archive ?

Arnold Schoenberg's 12-tone system was nothing if not controversial.

Professor of music theory wins award

(1) Guter frames Schoenberg's method of composing with twelve tones in the context of Wittgenstein's philosophical views on music: the most plausible sense in which Schoenberg's 12-tone system can be rendered a serviceable image for Wittgenstein's view of language is by way of contrast.

Wittgenstein's attitude toward language as music

Its forbidding aspect derives from Stravinsky's rare, and illadvised, use of the 12-tone system which seems to stifle his creativity and normal exuberant energy.