Uploaded September 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
A 12-tone row is a randomly shuffled version of all the white and black notes on a piano within one octave. As soon as one mentions the word 12-tone row, people with some music background have come to expect something atonal or "weird".
However 12-tone row does not automatically imply atonality. I'm not alone in thinking so by the way: famous youtuber Ben Levin posted a video (youtube.com/watch?v=k82ds_xIZN0 ) in which he postulated that any melody can sound good, provided one adds the right accompaniment.
Say no more! I made a 4-line computer program to randomly shuffle the notes in a chromatic scale and ended up with notes f, bes, b, ges, des, aes, e, a, es, g, d, c. The challenge I set myself was to make a piece using only these notes in that exact order as melody. I didn't cheat by altering the sequence to get something easier, but I feel like I got somewhat lucky with the start and end intervals, so I may have to redo the excercise in the future with a different shuffle. Note that I allowed myself to repeat some notes (needed to fit some lyrics to the music) and to choose the octaves that I felt fit best.
I used the opportunity to set a poem "Skys so blue" of poet Mary Schwartz to the music (find more of her work here: poetrysoup.com/poems_poets/poems_by_poet.aspx?ID=127398 ).
Side-note that may of interest to viewers: I did a similar quest some time ago to show that "microtonal music" doesn't necessarily have to sound "weird" (unless you have absolute hearing, then no salvation is possible), so if that interests you, you might want to check out my microtonal playlist.
A 12-tone row is a randomly shuffled version of all the white and black notes on a piano within one octave. As soon as one mentions the word 12-tone row, people with some music background have come to expect something atonal or "weird".
However 12-tone row does not automatically imply atonality. I'm not alone in thinking so by the way: famous youtuber Ben Levin posted a video (youtube.com/watch?v=k82ds_xIZN0 ) in which he postulated that any melody can sound good, provided one adds the right accompaniment.
Say no more! I made a 4-line computer program to randomly shuffle the notes in a chromatic scale and ended up with notes f, bes, b, ges, des, aes, e, a, es, g, d, c. The challenge I set myself was to make a piece using only these notes in that exact order as melody. I didn't cheat by altering the sequence to get something easier, but I feel like I got somewhat lucky with the start and end intervals, so I may have to redo the excercise in the future with a different shuffle. Note that I allowed myself to repeat some notes (needed to fit some lyrics to the music) and to choose the octaves that I felt fit best.
I used the opportunity to set a poem "Skys so blue" of poet Mary Schwartz to the music (find more of her work here: poetrysoup.com/poems_poets/poems_by_poet.aspx?ID=127398 ).
Side-note that may of interest to viewers: I did a similar quest some time ago to show that "microtonal music" doesn't necessarily have to sound "weird" (unless you have absolute hearing, then no salvation is possible), so if that interests you, you might want to check out my microtonal playlist.
