Who developed the 12-Tone Technique?

• A. Schoenberg
• B. Bach
• C. Chopin
• D. Handel

Answer: (A)

The idea being tested is using a fixed order of all twelve chromatic pitches to organize a piece instead of relying on a traditional key. This approach centers on a tone row—an exact sequence of all twelve pitch classes—that can be reshaped through transposition, inversion, retrograde, or retrograde-inversion, while the row itself provides the structural backbone.

Arnold Schoenberg introduced this method in the 1920s, as part of the shift toward atonality and serialism. By basing music on the tone row rather than a key center, composers could create coherent structure without traditional tonal goals. The other composers listed—though foundational in their own eras and styles—worked within tonal systems rather than developing this twelve-tone framework.