Related papers: Golden Tonnetz
Is the specific structure of Western tonal harmony a physical inevitability derived from acoustics, or is it merely one solution among many in a purely algebraic landscape? In this paper, we strip away the physics of vibrating strings and…
We study generalized circular chord graphs $\mathcal C^{(k)}_n$, formed from a cycle $C_n$ by adding fixed-offset chords of length $k$ and, for even $n$, diameters. Using transfer matrix methods, we derive exact formulas for 3-colorings…
This paper provides a new mathematical axiom system for classical harmony, which is a prescriptive rule system for composing music, introduced in the second half of the 18th century. The clearest model of classical harmony is given by the…
The mathematics of musical intervals and scales has been extensively studied. Vastly simplified, our ears seem to prefer intervals whose frequency ratios have small numerator and denominator, such as 2:1 (octave), 3:2 (perfect fifth), 4:3…
We develop aspects of music theory related to harmony, such as scales, chord formation and improvisation from a combinatorial perspective. The goal is to provide a foundation for this subject by deriving the basic structure from a few…
Consonance is related to the perception of pleasantness arising from a combination of sounds and has been approached quantitatively using mathematical relations, physics, information theory, and psychoacoustics. Tonal consonance is present…
Equal temperament, in which semitones are tuned in the irrational ratio of $2^{1/12} : 1$, is best seen as a serviceable compromise, sacrificing purity for flexibility. Just intonation, in which intervals are given by products of powers of…
Raga is a central musical concept in South Asia, especially India, and we investigate connections between Western classical music and Melakarta raga that is a raga in Karnatak (south Indian) classical music, through musical icosahedron. In…
The perception of consonance/dissonance of musical harmonies is strongly correlated with their periodicity. This is shown in this article by consistently applying recent results from psychophysics and neuroacoustics, namely that the just…
We introduce the concept of dynamical score networks for the representation and analysis of tonal compositions: a score is interpreted as a dynamical network where every chord is a node and each progression links successive chords. This…
Transformational music theory mainly deals with group and group actions on sets, which are usually constituted by chords. For example, neo-Riemannian theory uses the dihedral group D24 to study transformations between major and minor…
Musical chords, harmonies or melodies in Just Intonation have note frequencies which are described by a base frequency multiplied by rational numbers. For any local section, these notes can be converted to some base frequency multiplied by…
Most music theory books are like medieval medical textbooks: they contain unjustified superstition, non-reasoning, and funny symbols glorified by Latin phrases. How does music, in particular harmony, actually work, presented as a real,…
The golden ratio and Fibonacci numbers are found to occur in various aspects of nature. We discuss the occurrence of this ratio in an interesting physical problem concerning center of masses in two dimensions. The result is shown to be…
To date, calculating the frequencies of musical notes requires one to know the frequency of some reference note. In this study, first-order ordinary differential equations are used to arrive at a mathematical model to determine tonal…
In a previous work [Scientific Reports 4, 6193(2014)] we proved the existence of scale symmetry in square and triangular (thus honeycomb) lattices by investigating the functiony=\arcsin(\sin(2\pinx)), where the parameter is either the…
We introduce a model to study magnon scattering in skyrmion crystals, sandwiched between ferromagnets which act as the source of magnons. Skyrmions are topological objects while skyrmion crystals break internal and translational symmetries,…
A new musical scale devised by the author, based on natural logarithms, is described. Most of the logarithmic pitches bear no correspondence to the twelve tones of the ancient tuning system attributed to Pythagoras, based on ratios of whole…
The combinatorial approach to knot theory treats knots as diagrams modulo Reidemeister moves. Many constructions of knot invariants (e.g., index polynomials, quandle colorings, etc.) use elements of diagrams such as arcs and crossings by…
After our book---Mathematics and Music: Composition, Perception, and Performance, 2nd edition, CRC Press, 2020---was published, we found a striking example of the importance of the Tonnetz for analyzing the harmonic structure of The…