ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the basics of "classical" serialism, the serial technique developed by Schoenberg and adopted by Webern and Berg, as well as many other composers. Rows are used in a number of ways in compositions. Generally, a twelve-tone work consists of the presentation of various row forms at a number of transpositions, the forms being used sometimes in succession and sometimes simultaneously. Sometimes the choice of row forms or transpositions is governed by a desire to form aggregates between portions of row forms. Combinatoriality guarantees a more controlled recycling of the 12 pitch classes, and to some it seems a necessary extension of the twelve-tone aesthetic. Schoenberg invented this technique, although he obviously was not using it in his Suite. A composition may make use of the prime form of the row, its retrograde, its inversion, and its retrograde inversion, each of which can appear at any of 12 transpositions.
