twelve-tone music
- noun
- /ˈtwɛlv toʊn ˈmjuːzɪk/
- Specialized
:
música dodecafónica
- Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), an Austro-Hungarian composer known for his dissonant twelve-tone music, created a system of notation known as "A New Twelve-Tone Notation."
Examples
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Arnold Schoenberg developed the twelve-tone music method, which revolutionized modern composition by using all twelve notes of the chromatic scale.
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In his compositions, Schoenberg often employed twelve-tone music to create unique and atonal sounds that challenged traditional harmony.
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Many contemporary composers incorporate elements of twelve-tone music into their works, demonstrating its lasting influence in the music world.
Synonyms
A way of writing music that uses all twelve notes in a fixed order
A way of writing music that uses all twelve notes in one order
A way of writing music that uses all twelve notes in a fixed order
Surface Forms
Morphology
twelve-tone + music
The compound clearly combines 'twelve' + 'tone' + 'music', so a learner who knows the words can reasonably infer it refers to music that uses twelve tones. However, the specific technical system (Schoenbergian serialism with a fixed, recurring order) is specialized and not fully predictable from the constituents, making the expression only partially transparent.
Etymology
Twelve-tone music comes from a simple idea: composers put all twelve musical tones in one fixed order and used that order to write a piece. So, the phrase now means a way of composing that 'uses all twelve notes in a set order' rather than relying on one main key.
