<P> In music , serialism is a method of composition using series of pitches , rhythms , dynamics , timbres or other musical elements . Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg 's twelve - tone technique , though some of his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as a form of post-tonal thinking . Twelve - tone technique orders the twelve notes of the chromatic scale , forming a row or series and providing a unifying basis for a composition 's melody , harmony , structural progressions , and variations . Other types of serialism also work with sets , collections of objects , but not necessarily with fixed - order series , and extend the technique to other musical dimensions ( often called `` parameters '' ) , such as duration , dynamics , and timbre . </P>
who abandoned traditional harmony and created the twelve-tone system for composition
Arnold Schoenberg