English noun: twelve-tone system | |||
1. | twelve-tone system (communication) a type of serial music introduced by Arnold Schoenberg; uses a tone row formed by the twelve semitones of the chromatic scale (and inverted or backward versions of the row) | ||
Synonyms | 12-tone music, 12-tone system, twelve-tone music | ||
Broader (hypernym) | serial music, serialism | ||