Year 9 - Music
Creating a tone row
Approaches to contemporary composition
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit pupils are introduced to contemporary compositional approaches and techniques. They learn about a range of current contemporary music and the differences in approach of how this is structured and put together from earlier classical style music and current popular music.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to explain the fundamentals of serialism and create a tone row.
Key Notes
- Serialism developed in the 20th century, with composers searching for a new approach to composition.
- It is atonal, meaning that it has no key or tonic note.
- Everything in a piece is based on a unique tone row - the 12 notes of the chromatic scale arranged in a specific order.
- A tone row must use all 12 notes and avoid repeating any.
- Arnold Schoenberg and Elisabeth Lutyens are two well-known serialist composers.
Vocabulary To Learn
- atonal: lacking a key or tonic
- serialism: an atonal composition method based on a specific order of pitches (a tone row)
- tone row: a specific order of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale, forming the basis of a piece of serialism
- chromatic scale: the 12 notes used in most Western music
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- A tone row is just a scale.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Serialism developed in the 20th century, with composers searching for a new approach to composition. It is atonal, meaning that it has no key or tonic note.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'atonal'
lacking a key or tonic.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: A tone row is just a scale. Correction: A tone row is different because it isn't just a set of notes to choose from, but a specific order. When you are composing something in C major, you can use the notes of the C major scale in any order. With a tone row, they have a specific order.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 9 Music guide library.