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JOSEPH STAHL
1. Introduction
There are many different ways to analyze a piece of music. Some of the philosophies are mostly selfcontained in the realm of music, but there are many methods that utilize a decent amount of mathematics.
Because human beings like symmetries, group theory provides us a valuable, natural tool with which we can
talk about the symmetries and themes of music. In this talk, we will look at some of the different ways group
theory is used to analyze music, focusing on Hugo Riemanns Neo-Riemannian theory, which is based on
the actions of two isomorphic groups (both of which are isomorphic to D12 ) on the set of major and minor,
or consonant, triads.
2. Group Theory
To begin, we must establish some preliminary group theory knowledge. So, it makes sense to start with
the definition of a group.
Definition 1. A group is a set G equipped with a binary operation that satisfies the following properties:
1) Associativity: @a, b, c P G, a pb cq pa bq c
2) Identity: De P G s.t. a e e a a @a P G
3) Inverses: @a P G, Da1 P G s.t. a a1 a1 a e
In general, it is good to think of a group as describing the symmetries of an object, such as the symmetries
of a square. Note that elements of groups do not necessarily commute with each other. A very familiar
example of a group is the set Z under addition. For a slightly less familiar, more illustrative example, we
turn to the symmetries of a square.
Example. D4 tsymmetries of a squareu
We call this group the dihedral group of order 8, because it has eight elements (as we will see). The
elements of D4 are:
e, the identity,
r, rotation counterclockwise by 90 degrees,
r2 , rotation counterclockwise by 180 degrees,
r3 , rotation counterclockwise by 270 degrees,
f , a flip across the vertical,
rf , a flip across the lower right to upper left diagonal,
r2 f , a flip across the horizontal, and
r3 f , a flip across the lower left to upper right diagonal.
It isnt hard to verify that this is a group (but this should be done in the privacy of ones own room). As the
notation suggests, we really only need to specify two elements of this group to define it. r and f will suffice
to characterize D4 completely once we also specify some of their properties. Specifically, we can characterize
D4 as the group generated by r and f , where r4 f 2 e, and f rf 1 f rf r1 r3 . That is,
D4 xr, f | r4 f 2 e, f rf 1 r1 y
This contains all the information that D4 contains. What we have done is specified the order of the elements
of D4 (how many times you must compose it with itself to get the identity) and a commutative relation,
which tells us how to swap elements.
The main group that will concern us will be a group similar to D4 : D12 , the symmetries of a dodecagon. This
1
group is characterized as being generated by two elements, s and t, such that s12 t2 e, and tst s1 .
In the same notation as above,
D12 xs, t | s12 t2 e, tst1 tst s1 y
Now, we want to discuss the way that this group applies to music, so specifically we are concerned with the
way this group will operate on sets of musical notes. When a group acts on a set, this is called a group
action. We will quickly give the definition for completeness sake.
Definition 2. If G is a group and X is a set, a group action of G on X is a binary operator : G X X
such that
1) pghq x g ph xq @g, h P G, x P X
2) e x x @x P X
What is happening here, in a sense, is that G is moving around the elements of X. For example, D4 acts
on the set of vertices of a square. For example, r acts on the set of vertices by taking the upper right vertex
to the upper left vertex, the upper left vertex to the lower left vertex, and so on. (See the accompanying
figure for an idea of group actions). Note that a group can always act on itself.
pmod 12q
In : x n x
pmod 12q
I claim this is a group (under the operation of function composition) that acts on Z12 . With a couple of
easy (i.e. check it yourself) computations, we see that
Tn pT1 qn
In Tn I0
Tm Tn Tm`n
Tm In Im`n
Im Tn Imn
Im In Tmn
Where the subscripts are always taken mod 12. These computations show closure of the T {I group. T0 is
obviously the identity, and associativity follows after a few calculations. T12n pTn q1 , and In pIn q1 .
Thus, the T/I group is, in fact, a group. From the relations above or by the way the T/I presents itself as
symmetries of a dodecagon, we can see that the T {I group is isomorphic to D12 . With a few calculations,
we can also come to the conclusion that the elements that take the roles of s and t as generators of the T/I
group are T1 and I0 (note that there are other choices of elements in T/I that also satisfy the generating
relations). This group acts on S by extending the notion of its action on Z12 : an element X P T {I acts on
rn, m, n ` 7s (where m n ` 3 or n ` 4) as such: Xprn, m, n ` 7sq rXpnq, Xpmq, Xpn ` 7qs, so elements
of T/I act on elements of S by acting on each component of an element individually. There is another
musically interesting way to operate on the elements of S. Earlier, we said a triad was determined solely by
its root and modal parity. So we might want a set of operations that take major triads to minor triads in
specific ways. As remarked, one way to do this is to take a major triad to a minor triad on the same root.
That is, we take rr, r ` 4, r ` 7s to rr, r ` 3, r ` 7s and vice versa. This action, which we will call P , changes
the modal parity of a triad by changing the middle note by a semitone. Similarly, we can change the parity
by moving the other two notes: L takes rr, r ` 4, r ` 7s to rr 1, r ` 4, r ` 7s and vice versa, and R takes
rr, r ` 4, r ` 7s to rr, r ` 4, r ` 9s and vice versa. This is our motivation for defining the PLR-group.
Now that we have shown this surprising isomorphism, we shall discuss an interesting way to interpret
actions of the PLR-group: motions on a torus.
5. Musical Paths on Tori
As mentioned above, we can construct a torus on which the PLR-group acts visibly. The specific torus
we look at is called the tonnetz or tone network. If we position pitch classes in triangles such that
each triangle is surrounded by three pitch classes that form either a minor or major triad, then we get the
Figure 5. We can identify the lower edge with the upper edge and the the two sides with each other to