Musical Enumerations, Asymmetric Rhythms, & Crab
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The Mathematics Behind the Music: Musical Enumerations, Asymmetric Rhythms, & Crab Canons A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Mathematics Program California State University Channel Islands In (Partial) Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Masters of Science in Mathematics by Marissa Dahme May 2012 Signature page for the Masters in Mathematics Thesis of Marissa Dahme APPROVED FOR THE MATHEMATICS PROGRAM Doctor Cynthia J. Wyels, Thesis Advisor Date 5/23/2012 Doctor Roger Roybal, Thesis Committee Date 5/23/2012 APPROVED FOR THE UNIVERSITY Doctor Gary A. Berg, A V P Extended University Date 5/30/2012 Non-Exclusive Distribution License In order for California State University Channel Islands (C S U C I) to reproduce, translate and distribute your submission worldwide through the C S U C I Institutional Repository, your agreement to the following terms is necessary. 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Table of Contents Introduction 5 Chapter 1: Musical Enumerations, Interval Classes, and Transformations 7 Section 1.1 Interval Class 7 Section 1.2 Enumerating Music 10 Section 1.3 Transformations and Twelve-Tone Technique 12 Chapter 2: Rhythmic Canons 16 2.1 Rhythm Patterns 16 2.2 Counting Rhythm Cycles 17 2.3 Asymmetrical Rhythms 20 2.4 Rhythms as Functions 21 2.5 Hall and Klingsberg's Theorem 1 23 2.6 Hall and Klingsberg's Theorem 2 26 2.7 Hall and Klingsberg: Further Results 28 Chapter 3: Crab Canons 30 3.1 Types of Canons 30 3.2 Well-Known Canons 36 3.3 Crab Canons 36 3.4 Crab Canon Isomorphism 37 Chapter 4: Crab Canon Algorithms 40 4.1 Creating the Algorithms 40 4.2 Outline of Algorithm number 1 43 4.3 Results of Algorithm number1 44 4.4 Creating Algorithm number 2 46 4.5 Outline of Algorithm number 2 48 4.6 Results of Algorithm number 2 50 3 Chapter 5: Further Research 52 References 55 Appendix A 56 Appendix B 60 Appendix C 66 Appendix D 72 4 Introduction Both mathematics and music can be described based on a sequence of rules, boundaries, or axioms. Different areas of mathematics are built upon certain axioms with the most well- known being Euclid's series of axioms and the troublesome parallel postulate. Different areas of music are built upon certain rules or boundaries created, including specified harmonics, major and minor keys, and rhythmic and time signature restrictions; yet Rothstein [10] suggests that "neither axiomatic music nor axiomatic mathematics is a complete or satisfactory description of these arts." He mentions that both music and mathematics are not only generated by a certain set of rules but come into being through "more fundamentally mysterious processes." Although both mathematics and music can be argued to have more artistic substance than what can be described through a series of rules, there is enough structure and design in both that we can see why one tends to describe them using certain boundaries or axioms. The overall goal of this thesis is to provide a glimpse into the inner life of music that can be seen through the use of mathematics. Chapter 1 provides the reader with some background knowledge needed including necessary definitions for intervals and transformations that will be used in subsequent chapters. The main focus of the thesis will be on musical canons, specifically rhythmic canons and crab canons. Chapter 2 is a summary of work by Hall and Klingsberg on counting the number of asymmetrical rhythms which is then applied to rhythmic canons. Chapter 3 includes a brief summary of musical canons, an analysis of Bach's "2 Canon a 2" from Musical Offering, as well as a definition for isomorphic crab canons essential for the work in Chapter 4. Chapter 4 gives two separate algorithms for creating crab canons suggesting that a certain mathematical structure can be used to compose musical crab canons. Chapter 5 provides 5 the reader with possibilities for further research. A brief musical background and prior knowledge of combinatorics techniques are not necessary, but of course helpful, in the reading of this thesis. 6 Chapter 1: Musical Enumerations, Interval Classes, and Transformations In this chapter we will discuss important definitions and give examples of how to enumerate certain musical permutations and count isomorphisms related to music. Most of what is discussed in this chapter is based on the article by Julian Hook [6]. Section 1.1 Interval Class Musicians refer to the twelve different musical tones, each a half step apart, using one letter for each tone (letters A to G). For example, the tones C and D are one half step apart where as the tones C and E are two half steps apart. We can use numbers to refer to the musical tones starting with C equals 0, D sharp equals 1, D equals 2, and so on. In music, notes are often played simultaneously either through multiple voices or on one instrument such as the piano. When analyzing a melody we will often refer to the intervals between two notes as part of our analysis. The interval between notes can be viewed as the distance in half steps between the notes played. We will begin with the most basic definition for determining the number of half steps between two notes and progress through a series of definitions for an interval in order to determine the most suitable definition for our analysis. Definition 1.1: Define pitch interval to be the number of half-steps that separates one pitch from another. Then we can define the pitch interval between notes a and b to be P I parenthesis a,b parenthesis equals b minus a. [8] Example 1.1: Let a equal C equal 0 and let b equal 17 (note F an octave above). Then P I parenthesis 0,17 parenthesis equals 17 minus 0 so the pitch interval is 17. Using the pitch interval definition will only make two notes with the exact same difference of half-steps comparable. For example, the notes a equals 3 and b equals 20 have the same pitch interval, P I parenthesis 3,20 parenthesis equals 17 as the notes in Example 1.1. What is more useful both musically and 7 mathematically is the pitch interval class. The pitch interval class is the pitch interval taking into account that there are only 12 unique musical tones. Definition 1.2: Let the pitch interval class be P I C parenthesis a,b parenthesis equals b minus a (mod 12). [8] Then the pitch interval class for Example 1.1 is P I C (0, 17) equals 17 minus 0 (mod 12) equals 5. This means that a equals 0 and b equals 17 is equivalent to a equals 0 and b equals 5 and you can see that both values of b, 5 and 17 are both note F, just an octave apart. Now using modular 12 arithmetic, we can refer to all possible notes using the numbers 0 through 11. Let all 12 tones be defined as in Table 1.1: Table 1.1 Note Value C 0 C sharp 1 D 2 D sharp 3 E 4 F 5 F sharp 6 G 7 G sharp 8 A 9 A sharp 10 B 11 Using pitch interval class, we now have only twelve different intervals to consider, the intervals 0 through 11 (1 minus 0 equals 1, 2 minus 0 equals 2, 3 minus 0 equals 3, etc.).