Sunteți pe pagina 1din 177
From Polychords to Pélya Adventures in Musical Combinatorics Michael Keith Vinculum Press + Princeton Lines from "Sultans of Swing": Lyrics and music by Mark Knopfler © 1978 Straitjacket Songs, Ltd. All rights administered by Rondor Music (London) Ltd. Administered in the U.S. and Canada by Almo Music Corp. (ASCAP) All rights reserved. Used by permission. © 1991 by Vinculum Press (P.O. Box 486, Princeton NJ 08542-0486). All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews and scholarly analysis. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 91-75182 ISBN 0-9630097-0-2 “For, as you of course perceive, the literary artist plays: and the sole end of his endeavor is to divert himself.” JAMES BRANCH CABELL, ‘Straws and Prayer-Books Preface Thave often admired the mystical ‘Music has many resemblances to algebra. way of Pythagoras, and the secret — Novalis magic of numbers. (Baron Friedrich Von Hardenberg) - Sir Thomas Browne From the time of Pythagoras, who was the first to realize that the difficulty in constructing musical scales is due to the fact that there are no integer solutions to the equation er» until the present time, when computer algorithms are used to compose musical pieces, there has been a lively interaction between the musical arts and the mathematical sciences. In this book, we explore various connections between the basic musical building blocks — chords, scales, and rhythms — and the area of mathematics knowrras combinatorics, which is primarily concerned with counting and classifying configurations of objects. We consider questions such as the following: + How many essentially different chords are there? * How many different chords are there of certain types, such as containing exactly one pair of adjacent notes of the scale? + How many different scales are there? How many of a certain type, such as 7-note diatonic scales? + How many essentially different rhythms can be constructed? In addition to these counting problems, we also consider questions of a combined musical and mathematical nature, such as: * Which chords are the harmonically simplest or most complex? Or, loosely speaking, which are the simplest or the strangest chords? * Which are most ordinary or the most unusual musical scales? * Why are certain rhythms more popular than others? There are several motivations for the mathematical study of various musical objects: + There are many mathematical questions involved which are interesting in their own right. Their solutions involve the application of combinatorics, number theory, and other mathematical techniques to new and practically useful problems. + This leads to new musical insights into the structure of music. For example, the classification of musical chords by "number of adjacencies" (Chap. 3) leads to a better understanding of the subjective qualities of different chords. The concept of the idealness of a musical scale (Chap. 4) provides a measure for quantifying the musical characteristics of various scales. In Chapter 5 we suggest several mathematical reasons why certain meters and rhythms are more popular than others. + The classifications can be applied to algorithms for computer music composition. By mathematically quantifying (to some degree) the different musical qualities of chords, scales, and rhythms, we can improve the musicality of algorithms for music composition, by incorporating the results of our analyses into them. + They also find applications not only in computer music, but also in human composition and performance. For example, the 351 chords and 462 scales described in Chapters 3 and 4, and the enumeration of all possible n-beat rhythms given in Chapter 5, provide a rich source of musical ideas for jazz improvisation, or for music composition in general. By systematically studying the various ingredients, we extend the boundaries of musical possibility. Overview of topics. Chapter 1 begins by introducing the necessary musical terminology and developing precise mathematical definitions of the terms chord and scale. We also consider the question of isomorphisms; i.e., under what conditions two chords or scales are considered “essentially the same". Chapter 2 introduces three mathematical concepts — chains, necklaces, and partitions — which form the basis for deriving solutions to the various musical counting problems. It also describes Polya's theorem, a powerful tool for counting combinatorial configurations, which is used to solve the basic necklace-counting problem. In Chapter 3 we solve the basic chord-counting problems, including classifying chords by the number of notes they contain, their minimum interval, the number of semitone intervals present, and other properties. In addition, we consider the problem alluded to in the title of this book, which involves counting and classifying polychords. This leads to a (probably) new mathematical concept: the polynecklace coverage problem. Chapter 4 discusses various problems in counting musical scales. Several useful measures for classifying scales are discussed, including a surprising connection between musical scales and least-squares linear regression. We also introduce the spelling problem for scales, which asks for a classification of the 7-note scales in each musical key according to the number of accidentals required to spell the scale using the 7 musical letters (A,B,C,D,E,F,G) once each. In Chapter 5 we conclude by discussing the combinatorics of musical thythms. Among other things, we discover a surprising relationship between musical rhythms and the delayed Fibonacci sequence. Throughout, we attempt to keep the mathematics and musical applications equally in mind. Several musical pieces are offered as examples of the usefulness of the mathematical study of musical structures. What's new. Chapters 1 and 2 are primarily expository. We believe that most of the combinatorial/musical applications in Chapters 3-5 are new. The author would be pleased to hear of any errors in what follows, or of improvements to tables such as Table 3.21 which represent unsolved problems. Acknowledgements. For providing inspiration, either wittingly or unwittingly, thanks to: Keith Jarrett, Martin Gardner, Thomas De Quincey, Pat and Rebecca Mercuri, F. J. Budden, George Crumb, Sandra oe Karlheinz Stockhausen, Dave Brubeck, and, of course, George olya. Special thanks to Chris Kocher and Rich Poulo for reviewing the entire manuscript and making numerous valuable suggestions for improvement. iv (3) CE A(L,n,a) a) Ac(L,n,k,a) Ch(L,n) d $(n) Fn) Fen) (L,nm) x(n,C) K(,n,m) m(n,k) Mk) Preface List of Symbols binomial coefficient; value in Pascal's triangle multinomial coefficient number of n-note chords in an L-note scale containing exactly a semitone intervals number of n-note scales in an L-note musical scale that require a accidentals to spell in key k number of n-note chords in an L-note scale fraction denominator in rational representation of a musical frequency or interval Mean-square error between intervals in a scale and the ideal set of all-equal intervals Mean-square error between the notes of a scale and the ideal scale Euler $ function; number of integers m number of n-beat metrical patterns with with complexity c number of n-note chords in an L-note scale with minimum interval equal to m length of musical scale minimum number of subnecklaces of an (n,k) necklace maximum number of subnecklaces of an (n,k) necklace N(.k) N(1,ky,..km) n(n) (n,k) P(L,np) PG; 21,22,..2n) n(n,k) r(n) q(n,k) S(L,n,s) Sc(L,n) SpL.np) Sy(p.n,s) T v alm nim Tm (] number of n-bead 2-color necklaces with k beads of one color number of n-bead m-color necklaces with k, beads of color i number of n's in a partition of an integer number of partitions of 1 into exactly k parts number of n-note chords in an L-note scale with period equal to p cycle-index polynomial of a group G number of elementary k-fold polychords in ‘an n-note equal-tempered scale. number of metrical patterns on n beats number of partitions of n into parts < k (or into < k parts) number of n-note chords in an L-note scale with span equal to s number of -note scales in an L-note musical scale number of n-note scales with period p number of p-position, n-event rhythms with syncopation value s taxicab distance between two scales or chords variety value of a chord: number of distinct intervals present nis an even divisor of m ("n divides m") nis not an even divisor of m (n does not divide m) smallest integer > n; e.g, [3.61 = 4. greatest integer < n; e.g., [3.6] = 3.

S-ar putea să vă placă și