Pitch and texture

New kinds of pitch and texture were widely experimented within this period.

Pitch

• Tone row (note row): a compositional technique which uses all 12 semitones organised into an order by the composer.
• Retrograde: the playing of a musical figure such as a tone row backwards.
• Inversion: playing a musical figure upside down, with the intervals [Interval: The distance between two pitches or notes. Usually expressed in terms of steps. ] inverted.
• Modulation: moving from one key [Key: The main note of a piece of music ] to another.
• Atonal: music with no key.

Texture

• Orchestra: As Romantic, but extended use of percussion including a variety of drums, rattle, tubular bells, gongs, cymbals, xylophones, glockenspiels, marimba etc. Saxophones are sometimes added also.
• Electronic music: music produced by electronic means, often recorded and then manipulated.
• Experimental sound production: for example, in prepared piano, invented by John Cage, objects such as rubber bands, nuts, bolts and hairpins are attached to the piano strings to produce unusual sounds when the keys are struck.