Editing Serialism (section)

===Before World War II===
{{see also|Second Viennese School}}
In the late 19th and early 20th century, composers began to struggle against the ordered system of chords and intervals known as "functional [[tonality]]". Composers such as Debussy and Strauss found ways to stretch the limits of the tonal system to accommodate their ideas. After a brief period of free atonality, Schoenberg and others began exploring tone rows, in which an ordering of the 12 pitches of the equal-tempered chromatic scale is used as the source material of a composition. This ordered set, often called a row, allowed for new forms of expression and (unlike free atonality) the expansion of underlying structural organizing principles without recourse to common practice harmony.{{sfn|Delahoyde|n.d.}}

Twelve-tone serialism first appeared in the 1920s, with antecedents predating that decade (instances of 12-note passages occur in Liszt's ''[[Faust Symphony]]''{{sfn|Walker|1986|p={{Page needed|date=September 2014}}}} and in Bach.{{sfn|Cope|1971|p={{Page needed|date=September 2014}}}})  Schoenberg was the composer most decisively involved in devising and demonstrating the fundamentals of twelve-tone serialism, though it is clear it is not the work of just one musician.{{sfn|Whittall|2008|p=1}} In Schoenberg's own words, his goal of {{lang|fr|l'invention contrariée}} was to show constraint in composition.{{sfn|Moore|1995|page=77}} Consequently, some reviewers have jumped to the conclusion that serialism acted as a predetermined method of composing to avoid the subjectivity and ego of a composer in favor of calculated measure and proportion.{{sfn|Granade|2015}} In the 1930s, serial composers such as Schoenberg, Krenek, Wolpe, and Eisler left Europe for the U.S. to escape World War II. This sparked a change in American music as well as the works of the European composers now residing in the U.S.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Straus |first=Joseph N. |date=2008-07-18 |title=A Revisionist History of Twelve-Tone Serialism in American Music |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-society-for-american-music/article/abs/revisionist-history-of-twelvetone-serialism-in-american-music/DBBF1D5303FCF3452639CF2C794A51DD |journal=Journal of the Society for American Music |language=en |volume=2 |issue=3 |page=355 |doi=10.1017/S1752196308080115 |issn=1752-1971}}</ref>