Cross-Partitions as Harmony and Voice Leading in Twelve-Tone Music

Abstract

This study explores the analytical implications of cross-partitions, or two-dimensional harmony and voice leading formations, and examines the roles they play in three “classical” twelve-tone compositions. Part I lays the theoretical groundwork for a partitional approach and focuses on a variation in the third movement of Webern's Concerto, op. 24. Part II offers a construct called the trichordal complex and uses this construct to analyze selected passages in Schoenberg's Piano Concerto. Part III traces the development of cross-partitions in the fourth of Dallapiccola's frammenti di Saffo. The article advances new tools for modeling twelve-tone music; suggests new ways of hearing and conceptualizing these works; and shows that it is both possible and profitable to talk about harmony and voice leading in serial music.

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