tone row
noun Music.
a series of tones in which no tone is duplicated, and in which the tones generally recur in fixed sequence, with variations in rhythm and pitch, throughout a composition.
Also called
note row,
twelve-tone row.
Origin of tone row
First recorded in 1940–45
Words nearby tone row
tone down,
tone language,
tone painting,
tone poem,
tone policing,
tone row,
tone up,
tone-deaf,
tone-setter,
tone-up,
toneless
British Dictionary definitions for tone row
tone row
tone series
noun
music
a group of notes having a characteristic pattern or order that forms the basis of the musical material in a serial composition, esp one consisting of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale
Also called: note row See also serialism, twelve-tone