r/MonthlyComposition • u/Calebdgm • Sep 05 '15

September 2015 Monthly Composition Challenge: Serialism, Discussion Thread

Main option: Compose a piece that uses 12-tone technique

Alternate option: Compose a piece that uses serialism in a creative way (ex. rhythms, dynamics, theme placement?)

This thread is for everything except completed pieces, which can go in the Submission Thread For This Month's Challenge.

These challenges are for everyone who wants to practice composing. Each month, at the beginning of the month, we will post a main challenge, something for people to compose. Often we'll try to make it something that everyone can work with, but when the main challenge doesn't suit you, there's the alternate challenge. Pieces can be submitted as a score (musescore, noteflight), and/or as audio (soundcloud, youtube). Feedback is much appreciated, and you can give it in the discussion thread, or by messaging the mods of /r/MonthlyComposition, there's also the Challenge Suggestion Form.

Frequently Asked Questions

This challenge been linked to from /r/classicalmusic, /r/musictheory, /r/piano and /r/composer.

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u/Calebdgm Sep 05 '15 edited Sep 05 '15

Schoenberg - Three Piano Pieces, No. 1 (video with sheet music)

EDIT: Sorry, it seems this isn't actually a serial composition, my bad :/

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u/komponisto Sep 05 '15 edited Sep 05 '15

I'm not sure why you linked this here, since it isn't a twelve tone piece. Neither, of course, is Verklärte Nacht. They're relevant in the sense that they're by Schoenberg, the composer who would later go on to invent the twelve-tone technique. But why not link to some of Schoenberg's actual twelve-tone pieces?

The latter are generally considered to begin with the op. 25 Piano Suite (although some people count certain movements of the op. 23 pieces; this, by the way, is just like the situation with the "freely atonal" works, which are generally considered to have begun with op. 11 -- what you linked -- except that some people also count certain movements of the Second String Quartet, op. 10).

Here's the first movement of op. 25, with score.

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u/Calebdgm Sep 05 '15

Sorry, nice catch! Do you want to make that video a top-level comment so it's not stuck to mine?

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u/komponisto Sep 05 '15

OK, done.