12-tone system
- noun
- /ˈtwɛlvˌtoʊn ˈsɪstəm/
- Specialized
:
sistema de doce tonos
- The composer used the 12-tone system to create innovative and complex musical pieces.
Examples
-
In 1933, he began studying with Arnold Schoenberg, the inventor of the 12-tone system of musical composition.
Academic text (2010) -
Understanding the 12-tone system is essential for studying serial music and its techniques.
-
Many modern musicians experiment with the 12-tone system to explore new soundscapes.
Synonyms
A way of writing music that uses all twelve notes in one order
A way of writing music that uses the twelve notes in a set order
Surface Forms
Morphology
12-tone + system
The phrase transparently combines '12' and 'tone' with 'system', so a learner who knows those words can infer it refers to a system involving twelve tones. However, the precise technical meaning (serial composition, tone rows, Schoenbergian procedures) is specialist and not predictable at B1, making the term only partially transparent.
Etymology
The term 12-tone system comes from the idea of using all twelve musical notes in a fixed order, like a row of 12 different beads played one after another. That's why it means a way of writing music where no 'note' is repeated until all twelve have been used.
