twelve-tone system
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A passage from Schoenberg's ‘Waltz’ (5 Piano Pieces op.23); the numbers represent the particular sequence of notes in the note-row.
Method of musical composition invented by Arnold Schoenberg about 1921 in which all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are arranged in a particular order of the composer's choice, without repeating any of the notes. Such an arrangement is called a ‘series’ or ‘tone row’. The initial series may be transposed, divided, and otherwise mutated to provide a complete resource for all melodic and harmonic material in a work.
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