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The 12-tone system, also known as dodecaphony or twelve-tone technique, is a method of musical composition developed by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg in the early 20th century. It is a form of serialism, which is a compositional technique where a series of musical elements are arranged. In the 12-tone system, all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale are used in a predetermined order. This order is called a tone row or series.

The fundamental principle of the 12-tone system is that no single pitch is given prominence over any other. This is achieved by ensuring that all twelve notes of the chromatic scale appear in the tone row before any note is repeated. The composer can manipulate the tone row in various ways, such as inversion (playing the series upside down), retrograde (playing the series backward), and retrograde inversion (playing the inverted series backward). These manipulations can be applied to the entire row or to segments of it.

The goal of the 12-tone system was to create a new way of organizing musical material, particularly in the absence of traditional tonality. Composers like Alban Berg and Anton Webern, who were students of Schoenberg, also adopted and further developed the technique. While the 12-tone system was influential in the mid-20th century, its strict application has since been modified or abandoned by many composers who have incorporated its principles into broader compositional approaches. It remains a significant historical development in Western classical music.