Serialism

In the music theory of European classical music serialism is a set of methods for composing and analyzing works of music based on structuring those works around the parameterization of parts of music: that is, ordering pitch, dynamics, instrumentation, rhythm, and on occasion other elements into a row or series in which each gradation is assigned a numerical value within that series. In its strict definition each pitch, dynamic, colour or rhythmic element should only be used in its order in the series and used only once until the series repeats. The terms total serialism, integral serialism, and multiple serialism describe music which is serial in several parameters.

Sources

• Serial Music Serial Aesthetics Grant, MJ & Whittall, Arnold S, (eds) 2002
• Structure and Sorcery: The Aesthetetics of Post-War Serial Composition and Indeterminancy Savage, Roger Caldell, John (eds)
• Atonal Music of Anton Webern Forte, Allen
• New Grove:Modern Masters "Stravinsky" White, Eric Walter, Noble, Jeremy
• Structure of Atonal Music Forte, Allen 1973
• Basic Atonal Theory Rahn, John
• Style and Idea Schoenberg Arnold
• Serial Composition and Atonality:An Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern Perle, George
• Serial Composition Brindle, Reginald-Smith 1966
• Scruton, Roger (1997). Aesthetics of Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Quoted in The Pleasure of Modernist Music, p.122. ISBN 1580461433.