Editing Twelve-tone technique (section)

===Other===
In practice, the "rules" of twelve-tone technique have been bent and broken many times, not least by Schoenberg himself. For instance, in some pieces two or more tone rows may be heard progressing at once, or there may be parts of a composition which are written freely, without recourse to the twelve-tone technique at all. Offshoots or variations may produce music in which:
* the full chromatic is used and constantly circulates, but permutational devices are ignored
* permutational devices are used but not on the full chromatic

Also, some composers, including Stravinsky, have used [[cyclic permutation]], or rotation, where the row is taken in order but using a different starting note. Stravinsky also preferred the [[Inverse retrograde|inverse-retrograde]], rather than the retrograde-inverse, treating the former as the compositionally predominant, "untransposed" form.<ref>Spies 1965, 118.</ref>

Although usually atonal, twelve tone music need not be—several pieces by Berg, for instance, have tonal elements.

One of the best known twelve-note compositions is ''[[Variations for Orchestra (Schoenberg)|Variations for Orchestra]]'' by [[Arnold Schoenberg]]. "Quiet", in [[Leonard Bernstein]]'s ''[[Candide (musical)|Candide]]'', satirizes the method by using it for a song about boredom, and [[Benjamin Britten]] used a twelve-tone row—a "tema seriale con fuga"—in his ''Cantata Academica: Carmen Basiliense'' (1959) as an emblem of academicism.<ref>Brett 2007.</ref>