Editing Twelve-tone technique (section)

===Application in composition===
Note that rules 1–4 above apply to the construction of the row itself, and not to the interpretation of the row in the composition. (Thus, for example, postulate 2 does not mean, contrary to common belief, that no note in a twelve-tone work can be repeated until all twelve have been sounded.) While a row may be expressed literally on the surface as thematic material, it need not be, and may instead govern the pitch structure of the work in more abstract ways. Even when the technique is applied in the most literal manner, with a piece consisting of a sequence of statements of row forms, these statements may appear consecutively, simultaneously, or may overlap, giving rise to [[harmony]].

[[File:Schoenberg - Wind Quintet opening.png|thumb|center|upright=2.5|Schoenberg's annotated opening of his [[Wind Quintet (Schoenberg)|Wind Quintet]] Op. 26 shows the distribution of the pitches of the row among the voices and the balance between the hexachords, 1–6 and 7–12, in the principal voice and accompaniment<ref>Whittall 2008, 52.</ref>]]

Durations, dynamics and other aspects of music other than the pitch can be freely chosen by the composer, and there are also no general rules about which tone rows should be used at which time (beyond their all being derived from the prime series, as already explained). However, individual composers have constructed more detailed systems in which matters such as these are also governed by systematic rules (see [[serialism]]).

==== Topography ====
Analyst Kathryn Bailey has used the term 'topography' to describe the particular way in which the notes of a row are disposed in her work on the dodecaphonic music of Webern. She identifies two types of topography in Webern's music: block topography and linear topography.

The former, which she views as the 'simplest', is defined as follows: 'rows are set one after the other, with all notes sounding in the order prescribed by this succession of rows, regardless of texture'. The latter is more complex: the musical texture 'is the product of several rows progressing simultaneously in as many voices' (note that these 'voices' are not necessarily restricted to individual instruments and therefore cut across the musical texture, operating as more of a background structure).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bailey |first=Kathryn |title=The twelve-note music of Anton Webern: old forms in a new language |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-39088-0 |edition=Digitally printed 1st pbk. version |series=Music in the twentieth century |location=Cambridge [England] New York |pages=31}}</ref>

==== Elisions, Chains, and Cycles ====
Serial rows can be connected through elision, a term that describes 'the overlapping of two rows that occur in succession, so that one or more notes at the juncture are shared (are played only once to serve both rows)'.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bailey |first=Kathryn |title=The twelve-note music of Anton Webern: old forms in a new language |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-39088-0 |edition=Digitally printed 1st pbk. version |series=Music in the twentieth century |location=Cambridge [England] New York |pages=449}}</ref> When this elision incorporates two or more notes it creates a row chain;<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moseley |first=Brian |date=2019-09-01 |title=Transformation Chains, Associative Areas, and a Principle of Form for Anton Webern's Twelve-tone Music |url=https://academic.oup.com/mts/article/41/2/218/5514243 |journal=Music Theory Spectrum |language=en |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=218–243 |doi=10.1093/mts/mtz010 |issn=0195-6167|url-access=subscription }}</ref> when multiple rows are connected by the same elision (typically identified as the same in set-class terms) this creates a row chain cycle, which therefore provides a technique for organising groups of rows.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moseley |first=Brian |date=2018 |title=Cycles in Webern's Late Music |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/journal-of-music-theory/article/62/2/165/136725/Cycles-in-Weberns-Late-Music |journal=Journal of Music Theory |language=en |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=165–204 |doi=10.1215/00222909-7127658 |s2cid=171497028 |issn=0022-2909|url-access=subscription }}</ref>