Music composed using the twelve-tone compositional method; a system of musical composition using all twelve chromatic tones equally.
From Greek 'dodeca' (twelve) + 'phonē' (sound, voice). This term was developed alongside serialism and twelve-tone technique in early 20th-century musical innovation by Arnold Schoenberg and his contemporaries.
Dodecaphony emerged from the musical chaos of early 20th-century Europe—composers felt traditional major/minor tonality couldn't express the complexity and psychological fragmentation of the modern world, so they invented a completely new language for sound.
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