Tonal and "Anti-Tonal" Cognitive Structure in Viennese Twelve-Tone Rows.

Area of Science:

• Musicology
• Music Theory
• Acoustics

Background:

• Serialism, particularly twelve-tone technique, is a compositional method developed in the early 20th century.
• The tonal-harmonic system has been the foundation of Western music for centuries, relying on hierarchical relationships between notes.
• The perception of tonality in music is influenced by learned schemata and acoustic properties of musical intervals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether twelve-tone rows by Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern exhibit structural properties that undermine tonal perception.
• To compare the tonal characteristics of Schoenberg's and Webern's rows against randomly generated rows and Alban Berg's rows.
• To determine if the 'anti-tonal' nature of these rows persists when controlling for other compositional features.

Main Methods:

• Quantitative analysis of musical segments from twelve-tone rows.
• Statistical comparison of tonal fit to major and minor key profiles for actual versus randomly generated rows.
• Controlled statistical analysis accounting for row features like symmetry, derived structures, and interval/trichord preferences.

Main Results:

• Twelve-tone rows by Schoenberg and Webern demonstrate significantly lower tonal fit to major and minor key profiles compared to random rows.
• This 'anti-tonal' structuring is statistically significant even after controlling for other row characteristics.
• Alban Berg's twelve-tone rows, in contrast, frequently contain segments with a strong fit to tonal key profiles.

Conclusions:

• Schoenberg and Webern intentionally structured their twelve-tone rows to avoid or disrupt tonal schemata.
• The compositional choices in twelve-tone music actively work against traditional tonal perception.
• Alban Berg's compositional approach within twelve-tone music shows a greater tendency to incorporate tonal elements.