serialism

noun

se·​ri·​al·​ism ˈsir-ē-ə-ˌli-zəm How to pronounce serialism (audio)
: serial music
also : the theory or practice of composing serial music

Examples of serialism in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Messiaen’s first batch of students, in the 1940s, included Pierre Boulez, who would become the de facto face of French serialism and modernist thought. Joshua Barone, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2024 In Darmstadt, she was attracted to spectralism — which departed from serialism by approaching composition with a focus on the nature of sound, rather than on mathematical systems — and learned the music of Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail. Joshua Barone, BostonGlobe.com, 3 June 2023 His creative palete includes chamber and electro-acoustic music, choral music and string quartets, song cycles and serialism, the past and the present, to forge new artistic paths. San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Feb. 2023 The Bechers were recognized by the New York art world in the early ’70s for the affinity of their deadpan serialism with the aims of Minimalism. Richard B. Woodward, WSJ, 10 Aug. 2022 An essay by Young in the accompanying booklet, though, lays out his thoughts on the limitations of serialism. New York Times, 24 Mar. 2022 A decade after basing a whole festival on Bruckner and minimalist master John Adams, Franz Welser-Most Thursday night at Severance Music Center juxtaposed the grand Austrian symphonist with Arnold Schoenberg, the father of serialism. Zachary Lewis, cleveland, 25 Feb. 2022 University music departments were dominated by an approach whose variants were known as atonality, twelve-tone music, and serialism. Walter Simmons, Harper's Magazine, 25 May 2021 And the serialism and the sadness and the all of it. Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2021

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'serialism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1955, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of serialism was in 1955

Dictionary Entries Near serialism

Cite this Entry

“Serialism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/serialism. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.

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