Lesson video

Hi, I'm Dr.

Southall, and we're gonna be looking at approaches to contemporary composition in this unit.

Let's begin.

In this lesson, we're gonna be able to explain the fundamentals of serialism and create a tone row.

There's four key terms for this lesson.

The first is atonal, meaning lacking a key or tonic.

The second is serialism, an atonal composition method based on a specific order of pitches.

The third is tone row, a specific order of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale, forming the basis of a piece of serialism.

And the fourth is chromatic scale, the 12 notes used in most Western music.

There are two parts to this lesson, and the first is called What is Serialism? Well, serialism is a method of composition developed in the early 20th century.

This compositional approach rejected mainstream methods of composition and created a totally new musical language.

In essence, composers were a little bit tired of the use of typical or traditional scales and wanted to form a new kind of musical language to express new ideas.

Listen to this piece of serialism.

How does it contrast with other classical music that you have heard? And we should note here that when we say classical music, all we're using is a term that means anything that isn't things like pop and rock music and film scores and so on.

Do pause this video now and listen to the clip.

20th century classical music redefined harmony in music, moving away from traditional chords.

This was driven by 19th century music, stretching the limits of traditional tonal harmony.

Composers felt traditional harmonic approaches had been exhausted.

Rather than following those traditional harmonic rules, composers replaced them with new ways of organizing pitch.

Serialism is completely atonal.

It doesn't have a key or a tonic note.

To people who are used to tonal music with a key, this can sound unusual, or even unpleasant at first.

Serialism is based on a sequence of notes called tone rows.

The Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg was one of the first to experiment with this approach.

In the 1920s, he developed a method called the 12-tone technique.

There are 12 notes in the chromatic scale.

You can see them here.

Starting on C, we have C, C sharp D, D sharp, E, F, F, sharp, G, G sharp, A, A sharp, B.

The 12-tone technique arranges these 12 notes into an order that the composer chooses.

Each note must be used in this order only once.

Here's an example.

So a composer might arrange the 12 notes in this order.

Let's have a listen.

(haunting music) Sounds kind of spooky, doesn't it? This sequence of 12 notes is a tone row.

In 12-tone technique, everything in the composition is based on the tone row, and this includes the melody, the bass parts, and the middle parts.

This composition uses the notes of this tone row.

Let's have a listen.

(haunting music) Listen for the tone row in the clarinet, cello, and flute parts.

(haunting music) Composers like Schoenberg use the notes of the tone row in different ways.

How are the notes of the tone row used differently in the different parts in that example? Let's listen again.

(haunting music) Well, Izzy says, "They use different rhythms for the notes." You might have heard the flutes playing a slightly different rhythm there, particularly towards the end.

"They play different notes in different octaves." "And they use articulation and dynamics." Well done, Sam.

The tone row is different from a scale because it has a specific order.

If you were composing in C major, you would choose the notes of the C major scale, but in any order that you choose.

With a tone row, the order of notes is what makes it unique.

So serialist composers use the notes in that order throughout the whole piece.

Elizabeth Lutyens was a British composer who wrote serialist music using 12-tone technique in this vocal composition, she uses this tone row.

Listen to the main female vocal line and follow the notes of the tone row at the start.

Pause the video and listen to the clip.

Time for a check for understanding.

What is the name of the common serialist method of composition? Is it 10-tone technique, 10-semitone technique, 12-tone technique, or 12-semitone technique? Well done.

The answer is C, 12-tone technique.

How is a tone row different from a scale? Is it A, that it uses specific notes, B, that it has a specific order, or C, it serves as the basis of a composition? The answer is B.

It has a specific order.

Time for some independent practice.

Read this paragraph and fill in the blanks.

Pause the video so you've got plenty of time to go through each sentence.

Okay, let's look at the answers.

We should have, "Serialism is a style of music that developed in the 20th century, and it is completely atonal, and that means there is no key or tonic note.

This can sound quite strange when you first hear it.

Serialism uses a sequence of notes called a tone row.

This takes all 12 notes of the chromatic scale and orders them in a specific sequence.

Everything in the music is then linked to this order of notes.

Elizabeth Lutyens is an example of a British serialist composer." Part two, creating a tone row.

To create a serialist composition, we need to create a tone row, so we start by choosing a starting note, and it can be any of the 12 notes in the chromatic scale.

As an example, we could start on F.

Let's play a quick F.

(haunting music) Write out these notes in the chromatic scale, going up from the starting note.

So again, we're using F as our start, which is why that's the first note on your stave, and then we're gonna number every note up to 12.

So we start with F, and we're gonna count 12 notes, every single note in between, all the way up to E.

And the reason we stop at E is 'cause it's the 12th note.

Experiment and play the notes in different orders.

Try to create an interesting and unique sequence.

For example, you may decide to go ascending and then descending, and mix those up a little bit, and you could also change the length of each note that you use to get a really nice and interesting sequence.

An example of a tone row based on the F chromatic scale sounds like this.

(haunting music) It sounds a little bit spooky, doesn't it? Let's listen to it again and see if you can follow the notes on the stave.

(haunting music) There we go.

Write out the notes of your tone row with the correct number beneath each note.

This helps to check that all 12 notes are included with no repeated notes.

Using each note once is a fundamental feature of serialism and atonality, as no tonal center is established.

Let's check for understanding.

Put these steps in order to create a tone row.

There are four steps.

We have create a unique order of the 12 notes, write and number chromatic scale above the starting note, choose a starting note, and write out the complete tone row with numbers.

So put those into a logical order.

Well, the first one is choosing a starting note, then write and number chromatic scale above starting notes, then create a unique order of the 12 notes, and finally, we're gonna write out the complete tone row with numbers.

Which two of these must a tone row do? Use all 12 notes of the chromatic scale, use up to 10 notes of the chromatic scale, avoid using any notes more than once, or use some notes multiple times.

Remember, we're choosing two of these.

Well, it needs to use all 12 notes and avoid using any notes more than once.

Time for some independent practice.

We're going to create a tone row by arranging the 12 notes of the chromatic scale in a unique order.

You can complete this task on a DAW or notation software or on a live instrument.

The steps you should follow are these: choose a starting note from the chromatic scale; number the 12 notes of the scale one to 12 with your starting note as one; create a unique and interesting order of the 12 notes, using each one only once; and write down or notate your order with the numbers underneath to help you check that you haven't repeated any notes or indeed missed any out.

Good luck, off you go.

Okay, let's analyze this tone row and identify two ways that it doesn't quite fit Schoenberg's 12-tone technique.

Well, you can see here that it doesn't use all 12 notes of the chromatic scale.

We have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 notes, but can you see that there's a repeat in there? Let's highlight them.

This note is repeated.

It's not the only one, this note is repeated.

I can see one more, this note is repeated.

Okay, let's have a quick summary for the end of the lesson.

These are the key points from today.

The first is that serialism was developed in the 20th century with composers searching for a new approach to composition.

It is atonal, meaning that it has no key or tonic note.

Everything in a piece is based on a unique tone row, the 12 notes of the chromatic scale arranged in a specific order.

A tone row must use all 12 notes and avoid repeating any.

Arnold Schoenberg and Elizabeth Lutyens are two well-known serialist composers.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.

I'll see you next time.

Goodbye.