Dodecaphunoku – Twelve-tone Scale Sudoku (12 x 12)

Dear music nerds,

The Avantgarde has finally reached the well-known number-placement puzzle, Sudoku. The combination of both systems
seems obvious and long overdue since their rules are so similar: Twelve-tone serialism aims to ensure ‘that all 12 notes of the
chromatic scale are sounded as often as one another (...) while preventing the emphasis of any one note’1. Likewise, in Sudoku,
each digit 1-12 must represented equally in various combinations.

Instead of using numbers, this musical version of Sudoku consists of the following chromatic scale:

The objective of the Dodecaphunoku is to fill the 12x12 grid with these notes so that each column, each row, and each of the
twelve 4x3 subgrids that compose the grand grid contains all notes of the chromatic scale one time only.

The result of the solved Dodecaphunoku is kind of a Twelve-tone Matrix, which was used as a composition technique in the
Viennese School.
Second Viennese School. In the Schoenbergian spirit, numbers and notes are interchangeable, so let’s say: mi, re, do – go!

1
PERLE, George. 1977. Serial Composition and Atonality: An Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, London, S. 2.
© Dominik Göbel, 2018