ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses pitch class sets, set type, mod 12, index numbers, normal order, best normal order, prime form, and interval class vector set class. Arnold Schoenberg sought a music in which pitches would not be members of a tonal hierarchy but rather would be equally important within the chromatic total. Composers have been finding ways back to various aspects of tonality, and Schoenberg’s methods are taking an appropriate place in the musical mainstream among those already available. For better or worse, Schoenberg’s early style has been dubbed “atonal,” meaning without tonal center. Absence of traditional harmonic function in this music permits pitches of the same note name in any octave or enharmonic spelling in any octave to be considered identical. The set type is identified by a numeric list of the set’s semitone content measured from the reference pitch to each successive pitch class in the set.
