Serial Composition and Tonality.

This technical handbook provides a concise and first-time overview of an approach to serial composition that can be summarized by the term „Klangreihen“ composition. A Klangreihe is a series of chords (with an underlying twelve-tone row) that constitutes the potential intervallic relations of a subsequent composition on the levels of harmony and progression. Starting with the developments of Josef Matthias Hauer, this book outlines the basic techniques of Klangreihen theory as used by Hauer and the school of Othmar Steinbauer. Furthermore, it provides detailed instruction for the use of the 44 tropes that have never before been published. The book primarily addresses composers and theorists that are interested in learning about little-known and sophisticated ways of serial composition based on a tradition that represents just a small, though inherent part of the history of twelve-tone composition.