Dodecaphony (from Greek “dodeka” — twelve) is atonality ordered into a system. The composer creates a row — a sequence of all twelve chromatic pitches in a chosen order. All musical elements of the work derive from this row: melody, accompaniment, harmony.
The row can be used in four forms: prime, inverted (inversion), retrograde (backward), and retrograde inversion. Each can be transposed to any pitch — giving 48 variants in all. The most famous dodecaphonic works: Berg's Violin Concerto (“To the Memory of an Angel”), Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra, Berg's Lyric Suite. In Ukraine, dodecaphonic technique was used by Valentyn Silvestrov in his early period.
