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Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom

Robert Hutchinson

Section 34.5 Row Form Presentation in Music

In a piece of music, twelve-tone rows may not be clearly presented. One manner of presentation is overlap, where the final note of one row is the starting note of the next row.
Figure 34.5.1. Twelfth note overlapping with first note in successive row statements
Rows may also be presented contrapuntally or harmonically. In the example below, the row is separated into three tetrachords and presented contrapuntally.
Figure 34.5.2. Two examples of tetrachords from a row presented contrapuntally
In the final example in this section, the two rows are presenting in melody-accompaniment texture, with P\(\text{}_{0}\) containing the melody and R\(\text{}_{0}\) occurring as chords.
An analyst would first attempt to find a clear presentation of a twelve-tone row somewhere in the composition in order to analyze harmonies.
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