Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Series | Book | Chapter

226967

Can a musical scale have 14 generators?

Emmanuel Amiot

pp. 349-360

Abstract

A finite arithmetic sequence of real numbers has exactly two generators: the sets ({a, a+f, a+2f,dots a+ (n-1)f = b}) and ({b, b-f, b-2f, dots , b-(n-1)f = a}) are identical. A different situation exists when dealing with arithmetic sequences modulo some integer c. The question arises in music theory, where a substantial part of scale theory is devoted to generated scales, i.e. arithmetic sequences modulo the octave. It is easy to construct scales with an arbitrary large number of generators. We prove in this paper that this number must be a totient number, and a complete classification is given. In other words, starting from musical scale theory, we answer the mathematical question of how many different arithmetic sequences in a cyclic group share the same support set. Extensions and generalizations to arithmetic sequences of real numbers modulo 1, with rational or irrational generators and infinite sequences (like Pythagorean scales), are also provided.

Publication details

Published in:

Collins Tom, Meredith David, Volk Anja (2015) Mathematics and computation in music: 5th international conference, MCM 2015, London, UK, June 22-25, 2015. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 349-360

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-20603-5_35

Full citation:

Amiot Emmanuel (2015) „Can a musical scale have 14 generators?“, In: T. Collins, D. Meredith & A. Volk (eds.), Mathematics and computation in music, Dordrecht, Springer, 349–360.