Word.ws English Dictionary

retrograde inversion

retrograde inversion noun: a technique where the composer will take the inversion of the tone row, and write that backwards, thus creating a retrograded inversion of the original note row.

Noun

retrograde inversion (countable and uncountable, plural retrograde inversions)

  1. A technique where the composer will take the inversion of the tone row, and write that backwards, thus creating a retrograded inversion of the original note row.
  2. A composition technique where the composer inverts the retrograde of a melody or makes the retrograde of the inversion of the melody, using only notes in the same key as the original melody.

Forms of retrograde inversion

pluralretrograde inversions

Questions about retrograde inversion

What does retrograde inversion mean?
Retrograde inversion means a technique where the composer will take the inversion of the tone row, and write that backwards, thus creating a retrograded inversion of the original note row.
What part of speech is retrograde inversion?
Retrograde inversion is a noun.
What is the plural of retrograde inversion?
The plural of retrograde inversion is retrograde inversions.

Words near retrograde inversion in the dictionary

  1. retrograde
  2. retrograde amnesia
  3. retrograde amnesias
  4. retrograde ejaculation
  5. retrograde ejaculations
  6. retrograde inversion
  7. retrograde inversions
  8. retrograde motion
  9. retrograde motions
  10. retrograde neurotransmitter
  11. retrograde neurotransmitters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: retrograde inversion (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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