Modulatory space

The spaces described in this article are pitch class spaces which model the relationships between pitch classes in some musical system. These models are often graphs, groups or lattices. Closely related to pitch class space is pitch space, which represents pitches rather than pitch classes, and chordal space, which models relationships between chords.

The simplest pitch space model is the real line. In the MIDI Tuning Standard, for example, fundamental frequencies f are mapped to numbers p according to the equation

This creates a linear space in which octaves have size 12, semitones (the distance between adjacent keys on the piano keyboard) have size 1, and A440 is assigned the number 69 (meaning middle C is assigned the number 60). To create circular pitch class space we identify or "glue together" pitches p and p + 12. The result is a continuous, circular pitch class space that mathematicians call Z/12Z.

Other models of pitch class space, such as the circle of fifths, attempt to describe the special relationship between pitch classes related by perfect fifth. In equal temperament, twelve successive fifths equate to seven octaves exactly, and hence in terms of pitch classes closes back to itself, forming a circle. We say that the pitch class of the fifth generates – or is a generator of – the space of twelve pitch classes.

By dividing the octave into n equal parts, and choosing an integer m<n such that m and n are relatively prime – that is, have no common divisor – we obtain similar circles, which all have the structure of finite cyclic groups. By drawing a line between two pitch classes when they differ by a generator, we can depict the circle of generators as a cycle graph, in the shape of a regular polygon.

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