::Berg and Schoenberg are salutary examples, to be sure (Schoenberg: "My works are 12-tone compositions, not 12-tone compositions"), but things get far worse when it comes to defining "strict" compound (or total) serialism! I have seen textbook definitions so obviously based on Boulez's Structures Ia that we are forced to conclude it is the only work of "strict" serialism ever composed. Despite the fact that the definition cannot even be made to describe Structures  Ib or Ic, the texts go on to name works as varied as Boulez's Le Marteau sans maître, Nono's Il canto sospeso, and Stockhausen's Kontra-Punkte as other examples (before doubling back and telling us that Milton Babbitt got there ahead of Boulez, and used the same "strict technique" in the Three Compositions for Piano and Composition for Four Instruments). It's no wonder that students exposed to this rubbish quickly become angry and frustrated with the concept of serialism.—