of, relating to, or denoting the type of serial music invented and developed by Arnold Schoenberg, which uses as musical material a tone row formed by the 12 semitones of the chromatic scale, together with its inverted and retrograde versions. The technique has been applied in various ways by different composers and usually results in music in which there are few, if any, tonal centres
serialism
twelve-tone in American English
(ˈtwɛlvˈtoʊn)
adjective
Music
designating or of a system or technique of serial composition, developed by Arnold Schönberg, in which the twelve tones of the chromatic scale are arranged into some arbitrary, fixed succession (tone row) which then forms a basis for development