Serialism is a Western experimental genre pioneered in the early-ish 20th Century. The principle behind it is simply a sort of base-12 mathematics.
The composer chooses a row of notes that he finds musically interesting. The row consists of all 12 notes in the chromatic scale in a certain order. The row can be retrograded, inverted or a combination of the two.
Now each instrument must start on a row which must be finished, though rows can be passed between instruments. The notes can be verticalised (notes adjacent to each other in the row can be played together) or octave-displaced.
It takes a lot of thought to compose because every note needs to be calculated. This one definitely requires a lot of listens. I was going for a spooky 'haunted-house' sound.
