Suite op. 29 - Bi-directional twelve-tone row chart

Arnold Schönberg Estate.

A twelve-tone row is the basis for the structure of a work composed according to Arnold Schönberg’s “Method of composing with twelve tones which are related only with one another”. It is initially an abstract arrangement of tones, which only becomes a musical event in the compositional act.

For Schönberg, who was also active as a visual artist throughout his life, it seems to have been a special challenge to transform abstract tonal relationships into a visually comprehensible form of representation.

One of his most graphically demanding works can be found among the materials for the Suite, op. 29, where Schönberg glued a sheet of paper onto an almost square cardboard. With a rastral he drew twelve horizontal and twelve vertical lines of notes in red and black ink.

In the lowest red line is the basic row marked “T” (theme/subject). After turning the page 90° clockwise, the twelve notes of the basic row are reversed – retrogrades result from reading from right to left. Black and red slurs divide the row into groups of three or four notes each. The corner tones of all four groups of four are in fourth or fifth intervals to each other.

The Arnold Schönberg Estate contains the records of Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951), a composer, painter, teacher, theoretician, and innovator who is ranked amongst the prominent artistic figures in the history of western culture. His writings, apart from his compositions, are valuable documents for the musical, intellectual, and cultural history of the first half of the 20th century, as well as for exile studies, and thus for contemporary history. They are evidence of the multifaceted interests of an eminent artistic personality, and also address questions of aesthetics, Jewish affairs, politics, and religion.