How to Write a 12-Tone Piece Using Eggs

One day, when I was cooking some eggs, I was feeling particularly creative...

Beautiful eggs! What else can I do for breakfast this morning? Cereal? Nah...

Serial? Perhaps...

My eyes fell upon the egg carton to my side, and I quickly zeroed in on its serial code. Eureka! How about a 12-tone, serialist piece using the digits off of the egg carton as inspiration? I mean, why not?

Here's what my process looked like:

Well, I got through all of the steps–including step five–and the result was "Carton." This is the first movement from my piano work "The Egg Suite."

Check out the rest of the suite here.

Dominant inner-voice shift

Voices in blue are the ones that move. Notice that the outsides
of the chord stay put, while the inner voices make small changes.

Here's a way to add some extra crunch to a dominant chord, with the 13th on the top.











A few reasons I like this harmonic shift:

1. It all happens in the middle of the voicing. The outter voices stay put.
2. The shifts are small (half steps), but the harmonic effect is big.
3. The top two shifting voices in the right hand move in contrary motion, which is great.

Handwritten break-down of this shift.

May your dominant chords be prolonged and extra-crunchy. Enjoy.