Editing Twelve-tone technique (section)

{{Short description|Musical composition method}}
{{Distinguish|12 equal temperament{{!}}twelve-tone equal temperament}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}

[[File:Arnold Schoenberg la 1948.jpg|thumb|upright|Arnold Schoenberg, inventor of the twelve-tone technique]]

{{Listen|type=music
|filename=Hauer - Nomos Op. 19, beginning.mid
|title=Josef Matthias Hauer's "athematic" dodecaphony in ''Nomos'' Op. 19<ref>Whittall 2008, 26.</ref>
|description=[[File:Hauer - Nomos Op. 19, beginning.png|center|350px]]
|filename2=Hauer trope.mid
|title2=Example of Hauer's tropes<ref name="Perle 1991, 145">Perle 1991, 145.</ref>
|description2=[[File:Hauer trope.png|center|300px]]
}}

The '''twelve-tone technique'''—also known as '''dodecaphony''', '''twelve-tone serialism''', and (in British usage) '''twelve-note composition'''—is a method of [[musical composition]]. The technique is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the [[chromatic scale]] are sounded equally often in a piece of music while preventing the emphasis of any one note<ref name="Perle 1977, 2">Perle 1977, 2.</ref> through the use of [[tone row]]s, orderings of the 12 [[pitch class]]es. All 12 notes are thus given more or less equal importance, and the music avoids being in a [[Key (music)|key]].

The technique was first devised by Austrian composer [[Josef Matthias Hauer]],{{Citation needed lead|date=February 2020}} who published his "law of the twelve tones" in 1919. In 1923, [[Arnold Schoenberg]] (1874–1951) developed his own, better-known version of 12-tone technique, which became associated with the "[[Second Viennese School]]" composers, who were the primary users of the technique in the first decades of its existence. Over time, the technique increased greatly in popularity and eventually became widely influential on Mid 20th-century composers. Many important composers who had originally not subscribed to or actively opposed the technique, such as [[Aaron Copland]] and [[Igor Stravinsky]],{{Clarify|date=December 2016}}<!--How did Copland "actively oppose" a technique he first used in 1927? How did Stravinsky "actively oppose" the technique prior to adopting it in the early 1950s?--> eventually adopted it in their music.

Schoenberg himself described the system as a "Method of composing with twelve tones which are related only with one another".<ref name="Schoenberg 1975, 218">Schoenberg 1975, 218.</ref> It is commonly considered a form of [[serialism]].

Schoenberg's fellow countryman and contemporary Hauer also developed a similar system using unordered [[hexachord]]s or ''[[trope (music)#20th-century music|tropes]]''—independent of Schoenberg's development of the twelve-tone technique. Other composers have created systematic use of the chromatic scale, but Schoenberg's method is considered to be most historically and aesthetically significant.<ref>Whittall 2008, 25.</ref>