Twelve-tone technique

A compositional method developed by Arnold Schoenberg in the early 1920s in which all twelve chromatic pitches are arranged into a 'row' or 'series', which then serves as the basis for the entire composition. The row may be used in its original form (P), inverted (I), in retrograde (R), or in retrograde inversion (RI), and transposed to any of the twelve pitch levels. Webern adopted the method in the 1920s and developed it with characteristic rigour and compression: his twelve-tone works apply the method with a symmetrical precision that goes beyond Schoenberg's, often using the row's four forms in combinatorial relationships that create large-scale structural symmetries.

Understanding the row structure of a twelve-tone work is not sufficient for performance but is necessary background. In Webern's Op. 27, for instance, the mirror symmetry of the first movement is expressed in dynamics, articulation, and register as well as pitch organisation: a performer who understands the structure will make more convincing decisions about balance and tone colour.