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Update twelveToneBasics.md
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title: Twelve-Tone Theory — Basics
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Twelve-tone music is most often associated with a compositional technique, or style, called *serialism*. The terms are not equivalent, however. *Serialism* a broad designator referring to the *ordering* of things, whether they are pitches, durations, dynamics, and so on. Twelve-tone composition refers more specifically to music based on orderings of the *twelve pitch classes*.
Twelve-tone music is most often associated with a compositional technique, or style, called *serialism*. The terms are not equivalent, however. *Serialism* is a broad designator referring to the *ordering* of things, whether they are pitches, durations, dynamics, and so on. Twelve-tone composition refers more specifically to music based on orderings of the *twelve pitch classes*.

This style of composition is most associated with a group of composers whose figurehead was Arnold Schoenberg and which also included the influential composers Anton Webern and Alban Berg. But twelve-tone compositional techniques and ideas associated with such techniques were very influential for many great composers, and serial and twelve-tone music is still being written today. Much of this music shares similar axioms, outlined below, but composers have used these basic ideas to cultivate entirely original approaches.

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[![](Graphics/postTonal/family.png)](Graphics/form/family.png)

That graphic shows only four row forms, but each of those forms has twelve transpositions. Thus, a single row breeds a total of 48 rows: 12 *4. That collection of rows is called a *row class*, and it is the *row class* that the composer draws from when writing his or her music.
That graphic shows only four row forms, but each of those forms has twelve transpositions. Thus, a single row breeds a total of 48 rows: 12 *4. That collection of rows is called a *row class*, and it is the *row class* that the composer draws from when writing his or her music.

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