ABSTRACT
The functions of the series in twelve-note composition have become so numerous and diversified in compositional practice that they can only be covered to a limited extent. In Arnold Schoenberg’s method of composition with twelve notes the basic concept is the series. A simple definition of the series is: the arrangement of the twelve notes of our chromatic scale in any one sequential order, out of the number of such arrangements possible. Some composers started with the idea of adopting, together with the twelve-note series, a companion series consisting of twelve different duration values. Many composers seem to have thought that any one order would do, provided that one did stick to it, as Schoenberg had done with the tonal series. The Schoenbergian construct lacks also determination with regard to position of the notes in the scale of frequencies; in other words, it gives us relative not absolute pitch.
