# A little serial material, yo



## clavichorder

http://musescore.com/user/24280/scores/41449

This is my first attempt trying anything 12 tone. All my pieces are very short, but not this short and incomplete, so obviously its not done yet, but its my first time using notation software thanks to MuseScore.com and I love it! So I thought I'd try putting this up. Its in the other thread as well, but I wanted to give it its own thread.

It only goes through the row once then uses the melody line derived from the row in the bass and embellishes over that to form a new melody. The row is E, A, D, E flat, A flat, F, C, B flat, G flat, D flat, G, B.


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## clavichorder

And for your info, the fragment is 10 seconds long.


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## PetrB

By the second note in the first triplet in the treble, at the E, you have til then only presented, in both treble and bass, only 8 of the 12 pitches. A 'rigid' exercise would have that in error - we should hear all twelve pitches before we hear that E again.*

The octave jumps could be regarded as an 'o.k.' repetition, but our hearing is conditioned an octave implies 'tonality.'

In the repeat of the row (clever to recast the treble material into the bass,) you have spelled the original C# (octave jump) now as Db, another no-no. That makes it more complicated for you the composer, and also for the executant, to 'keep track' of the row material, i.e. lack of clarity in notation.

Fifths, too, much too readily set the ear up for more than a suggestion of 'old tonality.' I would try and eliminate them as an interval in your row. Of course, there are 'no rules,' and fifths may be used in a serial composition (all intervals may be used...) I advocate that initially, you avoid them.

Your full second measure, bass, is B down to E -- in motion, yes -- but followed by a half-note f and C. nearly if not actually a parallel fifth.

Now, you may want to take that same row and make another little piece. Or, get this, only five or six of the series, treated in similar fashion.

Later, when you transpose it into the working matrix you must retain the integrity of the intervals (spelling again) so do not cave in to 'convenient' spellings. At some point, in order to keep the integrity of your original interval content, your transpositions will inevitably need to use double flats and double sharps.

Not a bad try. Most urgent advice is stay consistent with your spelling within the row and any subsequent repetitions. 

The only way to find out how it works, and later make it 'sound like something' is to start and find out how it works. I bet it was not nearly as scary as you had anticipated.

Not at all a bad first go. Congrats.

* Add: it is permissible to repeat several pitches in sequence before moving on, say 7,8,9; C, Bb, Gb, could be a triplet figuration which runs more than once, with 10, 11 & 12 as 'melody.' This opens up the possibility of writing in a similar configuration to the classical era, with a quasi 'alberti' bass (or treble.) The more you nose through this 'process' you will discover it is about as 'flexible' as tonal music, its premise of building chords or melodies from a scale, anything BUT alien to the older M.O.


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## Kopachris

As far as the music itself goes, I have nothing to add to PetrB's assessment. However, from an engraver's standpoint, there are just a couple things (which you might already know) I'd like to point out about the notation. For one thing, the partial bar at the beginning can be achieved in MuseScore by selecting the measure and, from the measure properties, changing the actual duration to (in this case) 1/8. In addition, dodecaphonic music usually marks _all_ notes with accidentals, which I'm disappointed MuseScore doesn't have an option to do automatically.


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## Klavierspieler

PetrB got here first.

All in all, I'd say it depends entirely on how strictly you want to stick to the twelve-tone technique; though, as PetrB said, You may want to be more strict with yourself at first.


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## clavichorder

Here it is with the an extra phrase between sections to make them one and mediate the squareness, plus for you Kopa, I have added in the naturals and changed the first measure. Also, one repeated note was changed as I realized a note in the row was missed, and it creates and interesting minor second dissonance.

http://musescore.com/user/24280/scores/41550


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## clavichorder

Klavierspieler said:


> PetrB got here first.
> 
> All in all, I'd say it depends entirely on how strictly you want to stick to the twelve-tone technique; though, as PetrB said, You may want to be more strict with yourself at first.


I definitely don't want to be very strict though, the 12 tone stuff is just a springboard.


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