A Final Challenge – Twelve Tone Rows

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By using all pitches of the chromatic scale before any pitch is repeated twelve-tone or serial music avoids creating a stable tonal center as we have grown accustomed to hearing when we play. Looking more closely at a row we frequently see groups of three or four notes in a now familiar pattern. As an example, consider the Alban Berg Violin Concerto.

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Notes one through three form a minor triad. Notes three to six are a dominant seventh chord. Pitches six to eight are an augmented triad and seven to nine are a major triad. Finally, nine through 12 make a whole tone scale. Before playing for the first time it is advisable to spend a few moments scanning the exercise for these familiar patterns.

As a final challenge four exercises based on the tone rows of celebrated compositions are included. Each has been transposed to begin on F and consists of the original order (P\(_0\)) the retrograde inversion (upside-down and backwards, RI\(_0\)) and the retrograde (backwards, R\(_0\)). In this way each exercise is able to return to the starting pitch while obeying the rules of serial composition.

Alban Berg Violin Concerto

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Alban Berg -- Lulu, Basic Row

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Alban Berg -- Lyric Suite

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Arnold Schoenberg -- Variations for Orchestra

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