Serialism
A method of composition using ordered series of musical elements.
Serialism is a method of composition that uses series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres, or other musical elements. It began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as a form of post-tonal thinking. The idea of serialism is also applied in various ways in the visual arts, design, and architecture, and the musical concept has also been adapted in literature.
- field
- Music composition
- known_for
- Method of composition using series of musical elements; twelve-tone technique; integral serialism
Lore & Background
Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, which orders the twelve notes of the chromatic scale to form a row or series, providing a unifying basis for melody, harmony, structural progressions, and variations. Other types of serialism work with sets or collections of objects, not necessarily with fixed-order series, and extend the technique to other musical dimensions such as duration, dynamics, and timbre. Integral serialism or total serialism uses series for aspects such as duration, dynamics, and register as well as pitch.
Reader's Guide
Serialism is not by itself a system of composition or a style, and pitch serialism is not necessarily incompatible with tonality, though it is most often used as a means of composing atonal music. The term 'serial music' is problematic because it is used differently in different languages and underwent essential alterations during its transmission from French to German. Composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, Milton Babbitt, Elisabeth Lutyens, Henri Pousseur, Charles Wuorinen, and Jean Barraqué used serial techniques in most of their music. Other composers such as Béla Bartók, Luciano Berio, John Cage, Aaron Copland, Olivier Messiaen, Igor Stravinsky, and even jazz composers like Bill Evans and rock musicians like Frank Zappa used serialism only in some compositions or sections. Serialism has influenced a wide range of musical practices, from strict twelve-tone works to more generalized applications integrating diverse musical sources.
Did You Know?
- Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.
- Integral serialism uses series for duration, dynamics, and register as well as pitch.
- Composers such as John Cage and Frank Zappa used serialism in some of their compositions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Serialism in music composition?
Serialism is a compositional method in which a composer organizes pitches, rhythms, dynamics, or timbres into a fixed ordered series and then derives the entire piece from that sequence. It functions as a post-tonal framework, replacing traditional key-based harmony with a self-governing structural logic.
Who is most associated with creating Serialism?
Arnold Schoenberg is the figure most tightly linked to the technique, particularly through his development of the twelve-tone method in the 1920s. A handful of his contemporaries were independently exploring similar serial ideas around the same period, but Schoenberg's work became the canonical reference point.
What does Serialism actually do inside a piece of music?
It takes a predetermined row or series and uses it to control every parameter of the score—melodic contour, rhythmic values, dynamic levels, and instrumental color. In the more radical form called integral serialism, all of those parameters are generated from the same underlying series, leaving almost no element to free improvisation.
Why is Serialism considered important in music history?
It gave twentieth-century composers a rigorous, systematic way to write without relying on traditional tonal centers, which had been the backbone of Western composition for centuries. That shift opened the door to an entirely new vocabulary of sound organization that still influences contemporary and experimental music.
Is the Serialism concept used outside of music?
Yes. The core idea of ordering a set of elements into a sequence and then generating a larger work from that sequence has been borrowed by visual artists, graphic designers, architects, and even writers who structure narratives or visual compositions around a fixed permutation of components.
More in Music Theory And Composition 1-24
Elsewhere in the Music Theory And Composition universe
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record