serialism

American  

[seer-ee-uh-liz-uhm] / ˈsɪər i əˌlɪz əm /

noun

1. twelve-tone technique.

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serialism British  

/ ˈsɪərɪəˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. (in 20th-century music) the use of a sequence of notes in a definite order as a thematic basis for a composition and a source from which the musical material is derived See also twelve-tone

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• serialist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of serialism

First recorded in 1960–65; serial + -ism

Example Sentences

Dunne’s own theory about how time worked, which he called Serialism, was hard to follow, but he encouraged readers to keep dream diaries and to see if their presentiments materialized.

From The New Yorker • Feb. 25, 2019

Advertisement Advertisement Just as the Trio’s meditative spaciousness points ahead to Minimalism, its structure also looks back to Serialism, a musical movement often considered Minimalism’s antithesis.

From New York Times • Aug. 19, 2015

Structured as a palindrome, the Trio stretches the typically pointillist sounds of Serialism into washes of reedy color.

From New York Times • Aug. 19, 2015

Before Mr. Young began composing the Trio, Milton Babbitt — the high priest of American Serialism — attempted to recruit him for graduate school at Princeton.

From New York Times • Aug. 19, 2015

Pizarro blazed through a bewildering range of styles, from faux orientalism to progressive dissonance, that transformed I Got Rhythm into I Got Serialism and back.

From The Guardian • Apr. 8, 2013