Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-d8cs5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T08:30:18.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

19 - Twelve-tone theory

from B - Compositional Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
John Covach
Edited by
Thomas Christensen
Thomas Christensen
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Get access

Summary

As scholars begin to gain a sense of historical perspective on art music in the twentieth century, it seems clear that the introduction and development of twelve-tone compositional procedures will remain one of the cardinal markers of musical modernism. The careers of Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Boulez, Stockhausen, Babbitt, and even Stravinsky (among many others) are all at some point intimately bound up with dodecaphonic concerns, as is the course of avant-garde music generally. No matter what one may think of the twelve-tone idea – and it has been the source of considerable controversy almost from the start – understanding dodecaphony and its appeal to several generations of composers in Europe and America will continue to play a central role in understanding twentieth-century music and culture.

The twelve-tone idea has also played a pivotal role in the development of music theory as a professional discipline, especially in the United States during the post-World-War-II period. Indeed, twelve-tone theory and composition are deeply interdependent, and this is in no small measure attributable to the fact that in many cases the theorists involved were also composers. Unlike Schenkerian theory – which along with twelve-tone theory has played an important role in the professional growth of music theory in the second half of this century – twelve-tone theory often seems more prescriptive than descriptive; rather than explicating the structural features of works already established within the canon of Western art music, dodecaphonic theory is frequently speculative, suggesting structural possibilities for pieces yet to be written (or in some cases, pieces just finished by the composer himself).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory , pp. 603 - 627
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Babbitt, M. “Remarks on the Recent Stravinsky,” Perspectives of New Music 2/2 (1964)Google Scholar
Babbitt, M. “Set Structure as a Compositional Determinant,” Journal of Musicology, Greenfield, OH, and St. Joseph, MI, Music Science Press, 1982– 5 (1961)Google Scholar
Babbitt, M. “Some Aspects of Twelve-Tone Composition,” The Score and I.M.A. Magazine 12 (1955)Google Scholar
Babbitt, M. “Twelve-Tone Invariants as Compositional Determinants,” Musical Quarterly 46 (1960)Google Scholar
Babbitt, M. “Twelve-Tone Rhythmic Structure and the Electronic Medium,” Perspectives of New Music 1/1 (1962), pp. 49–79;Google Scholar
Babbitt, M. ‘Who Cares If You Listen?,” High Fidelity 8 (1958)Google Scholar
Babbitt, M.Words About Music, ed. Dembski, S. and Straus, J., Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1987Google Scholar
Babbitt, M. review of Schoenberg et son école and Qu’est ce que la musique de douze sons? by Réne, Leibowitz, Journal of the American Musicological Society, University of Chicago Press, et al., 1948– 3 (1950)Google Scholar
Black, L. in Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg, ed. Stein, L., Berkeley, University of California Press, 1984Google Scholar
Boulez, P. “An der Grenze des Fruchtlandes (Paul Klee),” Die Reihe 1 (1955)Google Scholar
Boulez, P. “Eventuellement…,” La Revue musicale 212 (1952)Google Scholar
Boulez, P. “Propositions,” Polyphonie 2 (1948)Google Scholar
Boulez, P. “Schönberg is Dead,” The Score 6 (1952)Google Scholar
Boulez, P. “Stravinsky demeure,” in Musique russe, ed. Souvtchinsky, P., Paris, 1953Google Scholar
Eimert, H.Atonale Musiklehre, Leipzig, Breitkopf und Härtel, 1924Google Scholar
Eimert, H.Grundlagen der musikalischen Reihentechnik, Vienna, Universal Edition, 1964Google Scholar
Eimert, H.Lehrbuch der Zwölftontechnik, Wiesbaden, Breitkopf und Härtel, 1952Google Scholar
Eschman, K.Changing Forms in Modern Music, Boston, E. C. Schirmer, 1945Google Scholar
Forte, A.The Structure of Atonal Music, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1973Google Scholar
Hauer, J. M. “Atonale Musik,” Die Musik 16/2 (1923)Google Scholar
Hauer, J. M. “Die Tropen,” Musikblätter des Anbruch 6 (1924)Google Scholar
Hauer, J. M. “Offener Brief,” Die Musik 17/2 (1924), p.Google Scholar
Hauer, J. M. “Sphärenmusik,” Melos 3 (1922)Google Scholar
Hauer, J. M.Deutung des Melos: Eine Frage an die Künstler und Denker unserer Zeit, Leipzig and Vienna, E. P. Tal, 1923Google Scholar
Hauer, J. M.Lehrbuch der Zwölftontechnik: Vom Wesen des Musikalischen, Berlin-Lichterfeld, Schlesinger, 1923Google Scholar
Hauer, J. M.Vom Melos zur Pauke: Eine Einführung in die Zwölftonmusik, Vienna, Universal Edition, 1925Google Scholar
Hauer, J. M.Vom Wesen des Musikalischen, Vienna, Waldheim-Eberle A. G., 1920Google Scholar
Hauer, J. M.Zwölftontechnik: Die Lehre von den Tropen, Vienna, Universal Edition, 1926Google Scholar
Headlam, D. “Fritz Heinrich Klein’s ‘Die Grenze der Halbtonwelt’ and ‘Die Maschine,’” Theoria 6 (1992)Google Scholar
Hill, R. S. “Schoenberg’s Tone-Rows and the Tonal System of the Future,” Musical Quarterly 22 (1936)Google Scholar
Klein, F. H. “Die Grenze der Halbtonwelt,” Die Musik 17/4 (1925)Google Scholar
Krenek, E. “Extents and Limits of Serial Techniques,” in Problems of Modern Music, ed. Lang, P., New York, Norton, 1962Google Scholar
Krenek, E. “New Developments of the Twelve-Tone Technique,” Music Review 4 (1943)Google Scholar
Krenek, E. “A Study of Cadential Formations in Atonal Music,” paper presented to the Greater New York Chapter of the American Musicological Society, November 13, 1940Google Scholar
Krenek, E.Music Here and Now, New York, Norton, 1939Google Scholar
Krenek, E.Schoenberg et son école, Paris, Janin, 1947Google Scholar
Krenek, E.Studies in Counterpoint, New York, G. Schirmer, 1940Google Scholar
Leibowitz, R.Introduction a la musique de douze sons, Paris, L’Arche, 1949Google Scholar
Lewin, D. “A Study of Hexachord Levels in Schoenberg’s Violin Fantasy,” Perspectives of New Music 6/1 (1967)Google Scholar
Lewin, D. “A Theory of Segmental Association in Twelve-Tone Music,” Perspectives of New Music 1/1 (1962)Google Scholar
Martino, D. “The Source Set and Its Aggregate Formations,” Journal of Music Theory, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1957– 5 (1961)Google Scholar
Mead, A. “Some Implications of the Pitch Class/Order Number Isomorphism Inherent in the Twelve-Tone System, Part One,” Perspectives of New Music 26/2 (1988)Google Scholar
Mead, A.An Introduction to the Music of Milton Babbitt, Princeton University Press, 1994CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Messiaen, O.Technique de mon langage musical, Paris, Leduc, 1944Google Scholar
Morris, R. D.Composition with Pitch Classes, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1987CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newlin, D. as Schoenberg and his School, New York, Philosophical Library, 1949; reprint New York, Da Capo, 1975Google Scholar
Oesch, H. “Pioniere der Zwölftontechnik,” Forum Musicologicum: Basler Studien zur Interpretation der alten Musik 1 (1975)Google Scholar
Peles, S. “Serialism and Complexity,” in The Cambridge History of American Music, ed. Nicholls, D., Cambridge University Press, 1998Google Scholar
Perle, G. “Evolution of the Tone-Row: The Twelve-Tone Modal System,” Music Review 2 (1941)Google Scholar
Perle, G.Serial Composition and Atonality, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1962Google Scholar
Perle, G.The Listening Composer, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1990Google Scholar
Perle, G.Twelve-Tone Tonality, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1977Google Scholar
Rahn, J.Basic Atonal Theory, New York, G. Schirmer, 1980Google Scholar
Rufer, J.Komposition mit zwölf Tönen, Berlin, M. Hesses, 1952Google Scholar
Schoenberg, A. “Composition with Twelve Tones (1),” ed. and trans. Newlin, D. in Style and Idea, New York, Philosophical Library, 1950Google Scholar
Searle, H. as Composition with Twelve Tones Related Only to One Another, New York, Macmillan, 1954Google Scholar
Spies, C. “Vortrag/12TK/Princeton,” Perspectives of New Music 13/1 (1974)Google Scholar
Stein, E. “Neue Formprinzipien,” in Arnold Schönberg zum fünfzigsten Geburtstag, Sonderheft der Musikblätter des Anbruch, Vienna, Universal Edition, 1924; reprinted in Von neuer Musik, Cologne, Marcan-Verlag, 1924Google Scholar
Stein, E.Orpheus in New Guises, London, Rockliff, 1953Google Scholar
Stewart, J. L.Ernst Krenek: The Man and his Music, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1991Google Scholar
Stockhausen, K. “… wie die Zeit vergeht…,” Die Reihe 3 (1957)Google Scholar
Toop, R. “Messiaen/Goeyvaerts, Fano/Stockhausen, Boulez,” Perspectives of New Music 13/1 (1974)Google Scholar
Vogel, M.Schönberg und die Folgen, Teil 1: Schönberg, Bonn, Orpheus, 1984Google Scholar
Vogel, M.Schönberg und die Folgen, Teil 2: Die Folgen, Bonn, Orpheus, 1997Google Scholar
Walsh, S. in Stocktakings from an Apprenticeship, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1991Google Scholar
Yasser, J.A Theory of Evolving Tonality, New York, American Library of Musicology, 1932; reprint New York, Da Capo Press, 1975Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×