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For writing 12 tone or serial music, one generally makes a tone row, and then uses that for constructing a melody. I want to know what would be the maximum range of intervals between any 2 consecutive notes of the tone row that will be feasible to sing/play?

For example, can I move from a B down by a major 7th to a C (if B and C were two successive notes of the tone row)? Will this jump be ok for a singer or any instrument (especially wind instruments) to play?

Richard
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Grace
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    General rule of thumb - keep it singable. Any really big jump needs a note after to be closer to the first note. – Tim Jul 07 '19 at 06:07
  • Ok, that makes sense @Tim. Could you explain with an example please, to make it more clear? – Grace Jul 07 '19 at 06:30
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    You're not locked to one octave when using the row. You can use B - C as a minor second. Rows are about pitch classes, you can get creative with the intervals. – Your Uncle Bob Jul 07 '19 at 11:03
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    Following up on what Your Uncle Bob says, I've seen 12-tone serialist piano music change which hand plays successive tone row notes (e.g. right hand plays Note 6, left hand plays Note 7). – Dekkadeci Jul 07 '19 at 13:52
  • So, @YourUncleBob, would the major 7th leap be alright to do? Also, I want to know what is the maximum interval between any 2 successive notes in general, when you write a melody. – Grace Jul 07 '19 at 15:03
  • Well, that is really a general instrument question, not specific to 12-tone music. And it not only depends on the instrument, but also on the abilities of the player. I don't think there's really a theoretical reason to limit the intervals in a melody; the listener may or may not consider consecutive notes to form a melody, depending on many details in the orchestration. Look at klangfarbenmelodie, where a melody is shared between instruments; whether or not that is one melody is quite intangible. – Your Uncle Bob Jul 07 '19 at 15:53
  • You should probably split this question in two: one about the technical aspects of playing large intervals (to which the answer will probably be different for every instrument) and one about what the largest interval is before a melody is no longer perceived as such. – Your Uncle Bob Jul 07 '19 at 17:02
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    One of the first twelve tone row pieces I learned at the university was Dallapiccola's _Die Sonne Kommt,_ and the very first interval is a major seventh, B down to C (in the transcription for high voice). Not a problem with a little practice. https://vdocuments.mx/dallapiccola-die-sonne-kommt.html – Scott Wallace Jul 10 '19 at 12:42
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    This is not a well posed question. Feasible to sing or play is dependent on the instrument and/or vocalist. Withe a 4 octave range there aren't too many limits. And the difficulty in getting from one note to another is not, imo, dependent on the instrument as much as the instrumentalist. Singing a Maj 7 should be east for a well trained singer. I can think of some classic musicals that have that interval in solos. –  Apr 10 '20 at 15:30

1 Answers1

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As the comments suggest, there is no real maximum range between two pitches of the tone row.

This is because, more accurately stated, these are pitch classes, not just pitches. In other words, we are dealing with octave equivalence: if the next member of your tone row is a B, it can be a B in any octave. Thus, if you come from a C, this B could be a major seventh above it, a minor second below it, or any other B. In short, the octave equivalence makes these intervals largely moot.

As for the technical demands of vocalists and wind players, serial composers were pretty demanding. In the opening measures of the first movement of his Op. 21 Symphony, Webern asks one horn player to move a descending major fourteenth (a major seventh plus an octave), another horn player to move this same interval ascending, and then the clarinet to return to this interval in its descending form.

It seems that the intervallic demands you speak of are less the demands regarding intervallic leaps and more the demands of the ranges of the instruments themselves.

Richard
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