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Serial music is any music based on the repetition
and manipulation of a series of musical elements--such as
pitches, rhythmic units, dynamic levels, or timbres. In the
14th century a type of serial music, isorhythmic music , such
as that written by Guillaume de MACHAUT, was based on overlapping
repetitions of rhythmic patterns and melodic patterns. In
modern times, however, the first known form of thoroughgoing
serial technique is the method of composition with 12 tones
related only to one another, devised by Arnold SCHOENBERG
as a means of musical unification.
Each twelve-tone composition is based on a series, row, or
basic set (the three terms are synonymous) of 12 different
pitches, arranged in an order chosen by the composer. This
series may be sounded horizontally (as a melody) or vertically
(as a harmony or succession of harmonies). It may be sounded
at its original pitch level, inverted (each interval reversed
in direction), retrograded (played or sung backward), or performed
in retrograde inversion. Each of these forms may be transposed,
that is, shifted up or down to another pitch level. Great
variety within unity is therefore possible. In theory, every
melody and harmony in a twelve-tone piece must be derived
from some form of the twelve-tone series that the composer
has chosen for it.
The first complete strict twelve-tone composition was probably
the prelude of Schoenberg's Suite for Piano (1921). On finishing
it, Schoenberg told his pupil Josef Rufer, "Today I have
discovered something which will assure the supremacy of German
music for the next hundred years." Indeed, twelve-tone
music was at first produced largely by German and Austrian
composers, including Schoenberg's pupils Alban Berg and Anton
Webern. Gradually, however, it became internationally accepted.
Schoenberg did not try to serialize elements of music other
than pitch. Later composers, however, have successfully done
so. Perhaps the earliest work to have nonpitch elements serialized
systematically is Milton Babbitt's Three Compositions for
Piano (1947). Other composers who have serialized rhythmic
and other elements in their works include Boris Blacher, Pierre
Boulez, and Olivier Messiaen.
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