<P> Serialism of the first type is most specifically defined as the structural principle according to which a recurring series of ordered elements ( normally a set -- or row -- of pitches or pitch classes ) are used in order or manipulated in particular ways to give a piece unity . Serialism is often broadly applied to all music written in what Arnold Schoenberg called `` The Method of Composing with Twelve Notes related only to one another '' ( Schoenberg 1975 , 218 ; Anon . n.d. ) , or dodecaphony , and methods that evolved from his methods . It is sometimes used more specifically to apply only to music where at least one element other than pitch is subjected to being treated as a row or series . In such usages post-Webernian serialism will be used to denote works that extend serial techniques to other elements of music . Other terms used to make the distinction are twelve - note serialism for the former , and integral serialism for the latter . </P>
who abandoned traditional harmony and created the twelve-tone system for composition
Arnold Schoenberg