Category: musicTheory4

Some worthwhile things to remember from the discussion on Webern’s Op. 21 Symphonie, and some clues to helping you figure out Babbitt’s Semi-Simple Variations. Webern serves as a model for many post-WWII composers, because his use of 12-tone serial composition points the way to using serialism as an organizing feature for more than just pitch,…

I’ve linked to an old post which has the guidelines. Keep in mind that we do NOT FOLLOW THE EXACT PROCEDURES IN THE BOOK. Here’s the important stuff: The top row of the matrix is the prime form of the row starting on pitch class 0. You take the prime form of the row at…

Basic information about row forms, constructing a matrix, and naming row forms with transposition can be found in this classic post about classic serialism.

Transposition Transposition of pitch-class sets is by ordered pitch-class interval. Before going any further, consider the implications of that first statement. Transposition is by pitch class, which means that a transposition could contain octave displacements and still be a transposition. Transposition is by ordered pitch-class interval, which means that we always count the transposition distance…

The first thing to do with a collection of pitches, a pitch-class set, is to arrange the pitch classes into a form that can be used to compare one set to another. The first order of arrangement is Normal Form, which arranges the pitch classes in ascending order, starting with the pitch class that gives…

Moving slowly into non-serial atonality, let’s start with the basics. Octave Equivalence Octave equivalence is really a hold over from basic music theory. We hear pitches in octaves as being functionally the same. C in one register is the same analytically as C in another register. What we’re really doing is still pointing out the…