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

1940-45

British Dictionary definitions for tone row

tone row

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