retrograde
A compositional technique where a melody is played backwards.
In Depth
Retrograde reverses a melody note by note — the last note becomes the first, and so on. In a retrograde of C-D-E-F, the result is F-E-D-C. The technique has been used since the Renaissance but became central to 20th-century composition through the twelve-tone method, where the tone row can be presented in its original, retrograde, inverted, and retrograde-inverted forms.
Retrograde is one of the fundamental transformations in serial music, giving composers four versions of every tone row. But the technique also appears in earlier music — Bach wrote canons that work both forwards and backwards simultaneously. The concept appeals to composers who value structural symmetry and intellectual rigour.
The second movement of Haydn's Symphony No. 47 is a palindrome — the second half is the first half played in exact retrograde, note for note.