Serialism

In 1923, Arnold Schoenberg developed a new technique of composing music. He called this the "twelve tone system". He used all twelve notes in the octave. At that time, music was played in the same key until this new system of course. In twelve tone music, all 12 notes are equal and there is no key note. It's called "atonal". All music at the time was tonal, and composers seemed to think that every new way of writing and composing had already been done. Notes were organized so that similar notes were heard together, in the same key, making beautiful sounds that were great to listen to. In twelve tone music however, no note was repeated until the eleven others were heard..

To me, serialism is not very pleasing to listen to. It sounds like someone is picking up an instrument for the first time and trying to play it. But it is also brilliant to me because of the way it is written. It can be written in codes. Like taking a series of numbers and assigning each number a random note. This is why it's called serialism; like serial numbers on a manufactured item.

Schoenberg taught two pupils that later became a little famous for their work. (Alban Berg and Anton Webern) Soon, others who could understand and appreciate twelve tone music began to write it in a slightly different way. Benjamin Britten added tonal music AND atonal music together. I think this sounded a lot better than plain atonal music.

Serialism