twelve-note music
Preserved but no longer current.
A modern system of musical composition in which the twelve notes of the chromatic scale have each exactly the same importance, not being centred round any one tone. By a selected order of tones these are unified for any given composition.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “twelve-note music” mean?
A modern system of musical composition in which the twelve notes of the chromatic scale have each exactly the same importance, not being centred round any one tone. By a selected order of tones these are unified for any given composition.
Is “twelve-note music” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.