serialism
A method of composition that uses ordered sequences of pitch, rhythm, dynamics, or other musical elements as the basis for a work.
In Depth
Serialism grew out of Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique developed in the early 1920s, which organized all twelve chromatic pitches into a fixed row that served as the structural foundation of a composition. The row could be transposed, inverted, retrograded, or combined in various ways, but the sequence of intervals remained consistent throughout.
After World War II, composers like Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Milton Babbitt extended serial principles beyond pitch to encompass rhythm, dynamics, articulation, and timbre — an approach known as "total serialism." This rigorous systematization represented both the logical extreme of Western musical rationalism and, paradoxically, sometimes produced results that sounded almost random to listeners.
Igor Stravinsky, long considered serialism's great rival, surprised the music world by adopting serial techniques in his late works after Schoenberg's death.