dodecaphonist

A dodecaphonist is a composer or musician who employs dodecaphony, a musical technique developed by Arnold Schoenberg in the early 20th century. Dodecaphony involves the use of a series of twelve distinct pitches, each used exactly once within a given span of music, before the series is repeated or a new series is introduced. This technique is a key aspect of Schoenberg's twelve-tone compositional method, which he introduced in his 1923 work "Theory of Harmony."

The dodecaphonic series can be manipulated through various transformations, such as inversion, retrogression, and transposition, to create a rich and complex musical texture. Composers who have significantly contributed to the development and application of dodecaphony include Schoenberg himself, along with Alban Berg and Anton Webern, who are collectively known as the Second Viennese School.

Dodecaphony has had a profound influence on 20th-century music, shaping the compositional techniques of numerous musicians and composers. Its use of all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale, without repetition within a series, creates a sense of tension and resolution that is unique to this compositional method. Despite its complexity, dodecaphony has been adopted by composers across various genres, from classical to experimental and contemporary music.