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:

    Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    We find it easy to set limits when the issue is safety.... But 99 percent of the time there isn’t imminent danger; most of life takes place on more ambiguous ground, and children are experts at detecting ambivalence.
    Cathy Rindner Tempelsman (20th century)

    Psychotherapy—The theory that the patient will probably get well anyway, and is certainly a damned ijjit.
    —H.L. (Henry Lewis)