What kind of scale is tone row based on?

Answer 1

Tone rows are not based on scales, they are a series of tones in a particular order. The most classic tone row is a 12 tone row. In western music there are only 12 possible tones, then they repeat themselves. A 12 tone row puts all possible tones in a particular order that the composer develops. The row is then plugged into a matrix which transposes the row in several ways, reverses it and retrogrades it. The resulting matrix gives the only possibilities that notes can be ordered in that particular piece of music. It is like a mathematical/musical game. This is why 12 tone music sounds so dissonant and harsh to most listeners. Even professional musicians who are not trained and skilled in 12 tone structures can find it difficult to follow the different patterns as they progress in the piece, and frankly many don't see the point of trying to do so. The original idea was to free music from all constraints of having a tonal 'center' (having the sound of being written in a specific key) or of being bound by any of the standard rules of harmony. That's why you really can't say that tone rows are based on a 'key'; that's part of what is deliberately avoided. However, you could say informally that tone rows come from a dodecaphonic (12 sounds) or chromatic scale (all the keys on a piano played in order, from any starting point). You wouldn't refer to a scale by letter-name.