Twelve Tone Technique

[HaydnFan]

Can anyone explain the twelve tone technique used by Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern? Thanks!

[Rutradelusasa]

I guess you mean Dodecafonism, which was the building of themes in which no tone could be repeated if one of the twelve hadn't been used.
That limits themes A LOT, since you can't repeat tones.

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"Wer ein holdes weib errugen..."

[HaydnFan]

Interesting...I guess that's why a lot of Berg's music sounds similar?

[Rutradelusasa]

Originally posted by HaydnFan:
Interesting...I guess that's why a lot of Berg's music sounds similar?

I guess... imagine that, if a 'phrase' is a combination of those twelve tones, you can only produce 144 different 'phrases'...



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"Wer ein holdes weib errugen..."

[PDG]

Originally posted by HaydnFan:
Interesting...I guess that's why a lot of Berg's music sounds similar?

Similar to what?

[PDG]

Originally posted by Rutradelusasa:

Originally posted by HaydnFan:
Interesting...I guess that's why a lot of Berg's music sounds similar?

I guess... imagine that, if a 'phrase' is a combination of those twelve tones, you can only produce 144 different 'phrases'...

Surely, the phrase patterns are almost limitless; it's only the tones which are not repeated. The whole thing's a pretty dreadful idea anyway - Why put restrictions on your imagination?

[Rutradelusasa]

PDG, maybe it was to try to enhance the creativity, maybe they were out of ideas, so why not come with something that tells you what to do? Like all serialistic music and others that come from mathematical equations.

Also even after changing the rithm, if you have two music with the same sequence of tones, one feels as the variation of the other.

To be honest, I see no point in such a thing. To be really honest, I can't understand how musicians even consider such things as music.

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"Wer ein holdes weib errugen..."

[Nightklavier]

It was just a stupid reaction to Romanticism... not to be judgmental or anything.

[HaydnFan]

PDG, I meant similar to each other...Berg's music seems fairly homogeneous from what I have heard of it.

Whether or not it was a great idea musically (surely, it did not last very long), it did produce some interesting and amazing music

[Sorrano]

I've found dodecaphonic writing to be very interesting and sooo repetitive as is assumed. Listen to the music of Webern, for example and listen to the pointilistic effects in his orchestral works. Rhythmic and motivic development have great roles in this style. It does, however, require an ear that is willing to listen objectively. I've written some works based on 12-tone scales, some loosely (and even tonal!) and others more strictly. I think it was Stravinsky that promoted the idea of the composer creating limitations, or scopes, of individual works.