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12 Tone Composing (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter ja`-/se
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compo^_^guy
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- Dec 19, 2004
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- HSC
- 2005
Well, the twelve tone system is composition based on the twelve cromatic notes, put into a particular order(it can be random) to make up a tone row.
This tone row can be altered in several ways and you can switch through these rows throughout your composition. Here are the different forms of the tone row:
Tone Row - Original Form
Retrograde - Backwards
Inversion - Up side down - taking the intervals of the original row and going up that interval instead of down and vice versa.
Retrograde Inversion - Upside down and Backwards
Tranposed - whole tone transposed up or down an interval
This Tone Row is divided into four three note "cells". Melodies and motives are formed in individual cells e.g. F#, G, D# and after using the notes move on to the next cell and use those notes, not returning to the cell until all the notes in the tone row are used. The twelve tone system place equal emphasis on all notes of the cromatic scale
Harmony is made in these individual cells and doesn't form many consonant harmonies, the tritone is a common harmony in twelve tone composition.
Remember that twelve tone compositions are completely atonal and you can try to develop motives through rhythms and dynamics.
These are reasonably specific rules, but its pretty flexible. Hope that helps a bit.
This tone row can be altered in several ways and you can switch through these rows throughout your composition. Here are the different forms of the tone row:
Tone Row - Original Form
Retrograde - Backwards
Inversion - Up side down - taking the intervals of the original row and going up that interval instead of down and vice versa.
Retrograde Inversion - Upside down and Backwards
Tranposed - whole tone transposed up or down an interval
This Tone Row is divided into four three note "cells". Melodies and motives are formed in individual cells e.g. F#, G, D# and after using the notes move on to the next cell and use those notes, not returning to the cell until all the notes in the tone row are used. The twelve tone system place equal emphasis on all notes of the cromatic scale
Harmony is made in these individual cells and doesn't form many consonant harmonies, the tritone is a common harmony in twelve tone composition.
Remember that twelve tone compositions are completely atonal and you can try to develop motives through rhythms and dynamics.
These are reasonably specific rules, but its pretty flexible. Hope that helps a bit.
You should probably check out Shoenberg seeing as he's the guy who made all this up....Also you can have strict 12-tone or flexible 12-tone composing. I did the strict form last yr for yr 11 elective and got really good marks just cos the teacher had no idea cos she's classically trained lol strict form is basically picking out one row at a time from the 48 variations (using Prime, retrograde, inversion and retrograde inversion) starting with ur 1st prime row (initial row) and using the notes exactly in order. e.g. if you had c chromatic scale as ur prime row the first 12 notes would have to be in the order of C C# D D# etc. to B. See pitch is the only controlled element in 12 tone so go nuts with the other 5 elements. Especially duration and dynamics...show off ur skills here. Hope that helps