Page 266 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

row must always come in the same order, segments of it may sound together as chords. Music in which elements such as pitch, timbre, or dynamics come in a fixed series is called serial music. To give just one example, here is the tone row from the Trio of Schoenberg’s Suite for Piano (1924), along with its three serial permutations:
E F G D♭ G♭ E♭ A♭ D B C A B♭ B♭ A C B D A♭ E♭ G♭ D♭ G F E 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Row Retrograde
Inversion Retrograde-inversion
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Listening to Music with Craig Wright
Although the twelve-tone process became the rage among Modernist composers—even Stravinsky came under its sway—the listening public never fully embraced it. Why would anyone write music that isn’t pretty? For Schoen- berg “pretty” was not the point; for him the job of art was to stimulate as much as satisfy. For most listeners, however, Schoenberg’s twelve-tone style remained as inaccessible as his earlier atonal music. Ultimately the listening public won out, and twelve-tone composition ended with the Modernist movement. Indeed, the twelve-tone system has been called one of the two great failed experiments of the twentieth century, the other being Communism. Schoenberg was philosophical about the public’s general dislike of his music, offering this conundrum: “If it is art, it is not for all, and if it is for all, it is not art.”
practice . . .
your understanding of this chapter’s concepts by working once more with the chapter’s Active Listening Guides online.
do . . .
online multiple-choice and critical thinking quizzes that your instructor may assign for a grade.
E E♭ D♭ G D F C F♯ A G♯ B B♭ B♭ B G♯ A F♯ C F D G D♭ E♭ E 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
244 chapter fifteen european impressionism and modernism
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