July 19, 2002

Not Sorry to See Serial Music Go

To the Editor:

Greg Sandow doesn't mention the crucial rule of classic 12-tone (or dodecaphonic) music: that no tone may be repeated until all 12 tones in the row have been used ("Serialism as a Museum Piece," The Review, June 14). Nor does he explain the background for Arnold Schoenberg's invention.

Schoenberg was following a natural progression of the breakdown of tonality in Western music. Up until then, all such music had been based on keys -- that is, relationships among