12sävelisen

12sävelisen refers to a concept within music theory, specifically related to atonality and serialism. The term, originating from Finnish, directly translates to "12-tone". This system is most famously associated with the twelve-tone technique, also known as dodecaphony, developed by Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils in the early 20th century.

The core principle of 12sävelisen music is that all twelve notes of the chromatic scale are treated equally. This means that no single note is given prominence over others, as would be the case in traditional tonal music where certain notes (like the tonic) are central. To achieve this, composers using the twelve-tone technique arrange the twelve pitches into a specific order, called a tone row or series. This series is then used as the basis for the composition, with the pitches appearing in the order dictated by the row.

The tone row can be manipulated in various ways, including inversion (playing the row upside down), retrograde (playing the row backward), and retrograde inversion (playing the inverted row backward). These transformations allow for a wide range of melodic and harmonic possibilities while still adhering to the fundamental principle of treating all twelve notes equally. Composers like Alban Berg and Anton Webern also made significant contributions to the development and application of the twelve-tone technique. While initially met with resistance, 12sävelisen music has had a profound and lasting impact on the development of 20th and 21st-century classical music.