Editing Serialism (section)

==Reactions to serialism==
{{Quote box|width=30em|salign=right|the first time I ever heard Webern in a concert performance …[t]he impression it made on me was the same as I was to experience a few years later when … I first laid eyes on a [[Piet Mondrian|Mondriaan]] canvas...: those things, of which I had acquired an extremely intimate knowledge, came across as crude and unfinished when seen in reality.|source=[[Karel Goeyvaerts]] on [[Anton Webern]]'s music.{{sfn|Goeyvaerts|1994|p=39}}}}
Some music theorists have criticized serialism on the basis that its compositional strategies are often incompatible with the way the human mind processes a piece of music. [[Nicolas Ruwet]] (1959) was one of the first to criticise serialism by a comparison with linguistic structures, citing theoretical claims by Boulez and Pousseur, taking as specific examples bars from Stockhausen's ''[[Klavierstücke (Stockhausen)|Klavierstücke I & II]]'', and calling for a general reexamination of Webern's music. Ruwet specifically names three works as exempt from his criticism: Stockhausen's ''[[Zeitmaße]]'' and ''[[Gruppen]]'', and Boulez's ''[[Le marteau sans maître]]''.{{sfn|Ruwet|1959|pp=83, 85, 87, 93–96}}

In response, Pousseur questioned Ruwet's equivalence between phonemes and notes. He also suggested that, if analysis of ''Le marteau sans maître'' and ''Zeitmaße'', "performed with sufficient insight", were to be made from the point of view of [[wave theory]]—taking into account the dynamic interaction of the different component phenomena, which creates "waves" that interact in a sort of [[frequency modulation]]—the analysis "would accurately reflect the realities of perception". This was because these composers had long since acknowledged the lack of differentiation found in punctual music and, becoming increasingly aware of the laws of perception and complying better with them, "paved the way to a more effective kind of musical communication, without in the least abandoning the emancipation that they had been allowed to achieve by this 'zero state' that was punctual music". One way this was achieved was by developing the concept of "groups", which allows structural relationships to be defined not only between individual notes but also at higher levels, up to the overall form of a piece. This is "a structural method par excellence", and a sufficiently simple conception that it remains easily perceptible.{{sfn|Pousseur|1959|pp=104–105, 114–115}} Pousseur also points out that serial composers were the first to recognize and attempt to move beyond the lack of differentiation within certain pointillist works.{{sfn|Campbell|2010|p=125}} Pousseur later followed up on his own suggestion by developing his idea of "wave" analysis and applying it to Stockhausen's ''Zeitmaße'' in two essays.{{sfn|Pousseur|1970}}{{sfn|Pousseur|1997}}

Later writers have continued both lines of reasoning. [[Fred Lerdahl]], for example, in his essay "[[Cognitive Constraints on Compositional Systems]]",{{sfn|Lerdahl|1988}} argues that serialism's perceptual opacity ensures its aesthetic inferiority. Lerdahl has in turn been criticized for excluding "the possibility of other, non-hierarchical methods of achieving musical coherence," and for concentrating on the audibility of tone rows,{{sfn|Grant|2001|p=219}} and the portion of his essay focusing on Boulez's "multiplication" technique (exemplified in three movements of ''Le Marteau sans maître'') has been challenged on perceptual grounds by Stephen Heinemann and Ulrich Mosch.{{sfn|Heinemann|1998}}{{sfn|Mosch|2004}} Ruwet's critique has also been criticised for making "the fatal mistake of equating visual presentation (a score) with auditive presentation (the music as heard)".{{sfn|Grant|2006|p=351}}

In all these reactions discussed above, the "information extracted", "perceptual opacity", "auditive presentation" (and constraints thereof) pertain to what defines serialism, namely use of a series. And since Schoenberg remarked, "in the later part of a work, when the set [series] had already become familiar to the ear",{{sfn|Schoenberg|1975|p=226}} it has been assumed that serial composers expect their series to be aurally perceived. This principle even became the premise of empirical investigation in the guise of "probe-tone" experiments testing listeners' familiarity with a row after exposure to its various forms (as would occur in a 12-tone work).{{sfn|Krumhansl, Sandell & Sergeant|1987}} In other words the supposition in critiques of serialism has been that, if a composition is so intricately structured by and around a series, that series should ultimately be clearly perceived or that a listener ought to become aware of its presence or importance. Babbitt denied this:
{{Quote|That's not the way I conceive of a set [series]. This is not a matter of finding the lost [series]. This is not a matter of cryptoanalysis (where's the hidden [series]?). What I'm interested in is the effect it might have, the way it might assert itself not necessarily explicitly.{{sfn|Babbitt|1987|p=27}}}}
Seemingly in accord with Babbitt's statement, but ranging over such issues as perception, aesthetic value, and the "poietic fallacy", Walter Horn offers a more extensive explanation of the serialism (and atonality) controversy.{{sfn|Horn|2015}}

Within the community of modern music, exactly what constituted serialism was also a matter of debate. The conventional English usage is that the word "serial" applies to all twelve-tone music, which is a subset of serial music, and it is this usage that is generally intended in reference works. Nevertheless, a large body of music exists that is called "serial" but does not employ note-rows at all, let alone twelve-tone technique, e.g., Stockhausen's ''Klavierstücke I–IV'' (which use permuted sets), his ''[[Stimmung]]'' (with pitches from the [[overtone series]], which is also used as the model for the rhythms), and Pousseur's ''[[Scambi]]'' (where the permuted sounds are made exclusively from filtered [[white noise]]).{{cn|date=December 2020}}

When serialism is not limited to twelve-tone techniques, a contributing problem is that the word "serial" is seldom if ever defined. In many published analyses of individual pieces the term is used while actual meaning is skated around.{{sfn|Koenig|1999|p=298}}