!!!Zwölftontechnik

Dodecaphony (twelve-tone music), revolutionary development of a new 
method of composition in the 20%%sup th/%  century by Austrian 
composers: 1) name for the "composition technique based on a row 
or series of 12 tones relating only to one another" which was 
developed and applied by A.  Schoenberg around 1923; 2) theory of 
"tropes" developed by J. M.  Hauer in 1919.

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Schoenberg´s composition technique is based on a row of 12 
tones, their three sub-tones "inverted", 
"backward", or "backward and inverted" and on the 
resulting transformations of these four basic rows (as a result there 
are a total of 4 x 12 rows). The composer then chooses a row 
of 12 tones and lays them out; however, the tone row itself - as a 
means of order - must not be changed. The prerequisites for 
dodecaphony are equal temperament, the principle of atonality and 
complete chromaticisation of the tones and the emancipation of 
dissonance, which is put on the same level as consonance. While until 
the introduction of dodecaphony by Schoenberg, composition rules aimed 
at "correctness", dodecaphony consists of prohibitions which 
aim at preventing traditionalism, musical "meaning" and a 
return to banality. Schoenberg´s pupils A.  Berg and A. v.  
Webern further developed dodecaphony in different ways. After 1945, it 
was also taken over by composers of serial music such as E.  Krenek.

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Hauer´s dodecaphony is based on "tropes" (turns, each 
divided into two halves of six notes), which are developed from 
combinations of 2 x 6 tones (notated in narrow chords). 
Within each half trope, pitch and melody are basically irrelevant, so 
that a total of 44 tropes with different structures can be created. 
The tropes determine the entire composition within which surprising 
harmonious turns and the accentuation of individual parts are 
dispensed with. Many works of twelve-tone music and (in particular the 
Zwoelftonspiele) are based on sound sets from which the harmonic, 
melodic and rhythmic events are derived in accordance with certain 
predetermined rules.

!Literature
J. Sengstschmid, Anatomie eines Zwoelftonspiels, in: 
Zeitschrift fuer Musiktheorie, year 2 (1971), no. 1; A. 
Schoenberg, Stil und Gedanke, 1976 (essays); C. Moellers, 
Reihentechnik und musikalische Gestalt bei A. Schoenberg, 1977; J. 
Sengstschmid, Zwischen Trope und Zwoelftonspiel, 1980; H. Simbriger, 
Die Klangfuehrung in der Zwoelftonmusik, 1991.


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