Twelve Tone Technique - Music Composition
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Date: 2022-03-28
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Comments and reviews: 10
Panos
Wow I didn't know about this 12 tone technique.
That was a fabulous idea of not using the same note twice, otherwise your mind will search for a mode or scale based on that note(or chord) and a pattern.
But I think other than harmony problems (or at least what most of our brains understand what sounds like a harmony or not) that idea will not actually work well I believe because in that 12 tone scale you always have a semitone difference in every step.
While in every other mode you have steps of semitones and tones in the two most common modes and even a three semitone step in other modes(e.g music in Eastern Europe, Middle East etc) or a mode with steps with just tones(e.g music in China).
I've just heard some compositions with 12 tones and my feeling was that notes were always 'hanging- in the air with no purpose and they couldn't communicate with each other like each one was talking a different language in contrast with musical phrases of -normal- music where they speak the same language.
That was just my personal feeling, of course.
Great lesson sir, thank you very much :)
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Wow I didn't know about this 12 tone technique.
That was a fabulous idea of not using the same note twice, otherwise your mind will search for a mode or scale based on that note(or chord) and a pattern.
But I think other than harmony problems (or at least what most of our brains understand what sounds like a harmony or not) that idea will not actually work well I believe because in that 12 tone scale you always have a semitone difference in every step.
While in every other mode you have steps of semitones and tones in the two most common modes and even a three semitone step in other modes(e.g music in Eastern Europe, Middle East etc) or a mode with steps with just tones(e.g music in China).
I've just heard some compositions with 12 tones and my feeling was that notes were always 'hanging- in the air with no purpose and they couldn't communicate with each other like each one was talking a different language in contrast with musical phrases of -normal- music where they speak the same language.
That was just my personal feeling, of course.
Great lesson sir, thank you very much :)
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Alienart
I'm a bit late to the party, but I noticed a repeated note at about 9:38, an F and an F#, then F again. Serialism, though I enjoy it, is still kind of bewildering or disorienting to me, so I just take in the flow and I feel unable to count the notes to tell where we are exactly. Maybe the F# (Gb) was the end of a row but was not the end of a phrase (which is quite interesting if true) or maybe it's an ornament like a mordent and doesn't count.
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I'm a bit late to the party, but I noticed a repeated note at about 9:38, an F and an F#, then F again. Serialism, though I enjoy it, is still kind of bewildering or disorienting to me, so I just take in the flow and I feel unable to count the notes to tell where we are exactly. Maybe the F# (Gb) was the end of a row but was not the end of a phrase (which is quite interesting if true) or maybe it's an ornament like a mordent and doesn't count.
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Music
Repeated notes has to do with the underlying row and not the sounding music itself. So the row must sound each note separately, but how the row is realized in the surface of the music can be highly individualized and repeat notes. All dodecaphonic composers repeat notes quite often (except maybe Webern). Either because there are several transpositions of the row sounding simultaneously or simply by using note repetitions, ostinatos, etc.
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Repeated notes has to do with the underlying row and not the sounding music itself. So the row must sound each note separately, but how the row is realized in the surface of the music can be highly individualized and repeat notes. All dodecaphonic composers repeat notes quite often (except maybe Webern). Either because there are several transpositions of the row sounding simultaneously or simply by using note repetitions, ostinatos, etc.
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Martin
I wish you had explained more how you put your piece together. Did you use one row at a time (I think you did) or did you allow a combination of contrapuntal tone rows? I am not even sure whether you used retrograde or inverted rows. Another question is about normal rules of harmony such as parallel fifths - I guess these should be avoided (unless a particular effect is required).
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I wish you had explained more how you put your piece together. Did you use one row at a time (I think you did) or did you allow a combination of contrapuntal tone rows? I am not even sure whether you used retrograde or inverted rows. Another question is about normal rules of harmony such as parallel fifths - I guess these should be avoided (unless a particular effect is required).
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Adam
So just to clarify, do you have to use the row exactly in order of one of those four options, with no higher number coming before a lower one? (Though clearly simultaneous consecutive numbers would be fine in chords.) Also, are you allowed to transpose mid-series, or would that constitute 'using a note again'?
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So just to clarify, do you have to use the row exactly in order of one of those four options, with no higher number coming before a lower one? (Though clearly simultaneous consecutive numbers would be fine in chords.) Also, are you allowed to transpose mid-series, or would that constitute 'using a note again'?
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Oliver
Hi, thank you for sharing your knowledge here. I have a question. In terms of the inverted line it seems you have inverted the original melody by adhering to it's melodic contour rather than strictly to the original intervals. Could you tell me more about this?
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Hi, thank you for sharing your knowledge here. I have a question. In terms of the inverted line it seems you have inverted the original melody by adhering to it's melodic contour rather than strictly to the original intervals. Could you tell me more about this?
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Christopher
.Very good lecture.I am not sure about the Second Vienese School!I could never wish any of it longer.However I have enjoyed Webern,specially his song music for the female voice.The guys sound. OK but the girls are best.
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.Very good lecture.I am not sure about the Second Vienese School!I could never wish any of it longer.However I have enjoyed Webern,specially his song music for the female voice.The guys sound. OK but the girls are best.
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Justin
so unless we know the initial tone row and the change of the row that is playing of that piece(whether from listening or from the music score), we cannot tell that a note is Iin6, IR3 or something?
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so unless we know the initial tone row and the change of the row that is playing of that piece(whether from listening or from the music score), we cannot tell that a note is Iin6, IR3 or something?
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Mico
Thank you so much for this video! I watched this last week and now I am starting to compose my own 12-tone composition! I really love listening to atonal music and I really wanted to write one. : )
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Thank you so much for this video! I watched this last week and now I am starting to compose my own 12-tone composition! I really love listening to atonal music and I really wanted to write one. : )
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kawaii
thank you for this video! i'm busy studying 20th century music for my music class and this helped me understand serialism more! personally, it's not my taste, but i appreciate it nonetheless!
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thank you for this video! i'm busy studying 20th century music for my music class and this helped me understand serialism more! personally, it's not my taste, but i appreciate it nonetheless!
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