Inversion (music) - Musical Set Theory

Musical Set Theory

In musical set theory inversion may be usefully thought of as the compound operation transpositional inversion, which is the same sense of inversion as in the Inverted melodies section above, with transposition carried out after inversion. Pitch inversion by an ordered pitch interval may be defined as:

which equals

First invert the pitch or pitches, x = −x, then transpose, −x + n.

Pitch class inversion by a pitch class interval may be defined as:

Inversion about a pitch axis is a compound operation much like set theory's transpositional inversion, however in pitch axis inversion the transposition may be chromatic or diatonic transposition.

Read more about this topic:  Inversion (music)

Famous quotes containing the words musical, set and/or theory:

    Then, bringing me the joy we feel when wee see a work by our favorite painter which differs from any other that we know, or if we are led before a painting of which we have until then only seen a pencil sketch, if a musical piece heard only on the piano appears before us clothed in the colors of the orchestra, my grandfather called me the [hawthorn] hedge at Tansonville, saying, “You who are so fond of hawthorns, look at this pink thorn, isn’t it lovely?”
    Marcel Proust (1871–1922)

    The Bostonians are really, as a race, far inferior in point of anything beyond mere intellect to any other set upon the continent of North America. They are decidedly the most servile imitators of the English it is possible to conceive.
    Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)

    Osteopath—One who argues that all human ills are caused by the pressure of hard bone upon soft tissue. The proof of his theory is to be found in the heads of those who believe it.
    —H.L. (Henry Lewis)