Twelve-Tone Composition
a day ago
- #music-theory
- #math-in-music
- #atonality
- Atonal music is challenging to compose as it goes against human instincts.
- Composers use the twelve-tone row technique to avoid tonal patterns, strictly following a permutation of 12 chromatic scale notes.
- Variations include reversing (retrograde), inverting, or combining both (retrograde inverted) the tone row.
- Mathematically, there are 11! unique tone rows considering cyclic permutations.
- The operations of retrograde (R) and inversion (I) form an Abelian group isomorphic to ℤ₂ × ℤ₂.
- The author prefers math applied to rhythm over melody, disliking most atonal music but enjoying some math rock.
- Anecdote: The author once mistook an improvised organ fugue for a Schoenberg tone row, impressing the organist by chance.
- Shared a humorous video link related to math and music.