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Glite Dictionary
🎼 A music composer ✍️ A story writer
serialist

serialist

8.4
A composer who writes music using a fixed order of the twelve notes
  • noun
  • /ˈsɪəriəlɪst/
  • Specialized
translation icon : serialista
  • The renowned serialist used twelve-tone methods to create innovative and complex musical compositions.

Examples

  • It's no exaggeration to say that Cage, who died in 1992 at age 79, made it safe for young composers to break away from serialist orthodoxy and follow their own musical paths.

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  • And the serialist didn't want someone of their own preconceptions.

  • Many composers influenced by the serialist techniques sought to explore new harmonic structures in their works.

  • As a student of music theory, she admired the pioneering serialist who pushed the boundaries of contemporary music.

Synonyms

composer
vsserialist
316 3.9

A person who writes music as a job

refers specifically to those who use twelve tone ordering techniques

Surface Forms

serialist singular
serialists plural

Morphology

serialist = serial (semi-transparent) = serial + ist

Formed regularly from 'serial' + '-ist', but the specific musical sense ('serial' as in serialism/twelve-tone technique) is specialist knowledge and not obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Serialist comes from serial, the same root as the word series, and the ending -ist means a person; serial comes from a Latin word meaning 'a row' or 'series'. So a musical serialist is someone who makes music from an ordered 'row' of notes, which is why the word describes composers who use twelve-tone or other serial methods.