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Set Class List
by Reginald Bain
Published in Stefan Kostka and Dorothy Payne,
Tonal Harmony:With An Introduction to Twentieth-Century Music
, 6th ed.(New York: McGraw Hill, 2008) as Appendix C
Set Class List
.
T
he seven-column table that follows lists all set classes of cardinality three through nine inclusive. The firstand fifth columns list the Forte names (abbreviated FN) of set classes in increasing order. The second and sixthcolumns give the prime forms. The third and seventh columns give the interval-class vector (abbreviated ICVECTOR). Some Forte names include a Z, for example, 4-Z29. The Z indicates that there is another set class of the same cardinality that has the same ic vector. Set classes that share the same ic vector, such as 4-Z15 and4-Z29, are said to be
Z-related
. Inclusion of the Z in the Forte name is optional. The fourth column of the tablegives the number of distinct forms (abbreviated DF). Most set classes have 24 distinct forms: 12 under T
n
and 12under T
n
I. When nothing appears in the fourth column, the set class has 24 distinct forms. Set classes that havefewer than 24 distinct forms are said to be
symmetrical
because they map onto themselves under T
n
or T
n
I.Intervening spaces have been added to the prime forms and ic vectors to make them easier to read. Theintervening spaces should not be used when notating prime forms and ic vectors. In the prime forms, the symbolsT and E have been substituted for pc integers 10 and 11, respectively.The following example should serve to demonstrate the complement relation on which the Set Class List tableis organized. The pc set (C,C#,D), is a member of 3-1 (012), the first set class listed in the table. Fig. 1 shows thefirst entry in the table.
Listing for the complementary set class
FN PRIME FORM IC VECTOR DF FN PRIME FORM IC VECTOR
3-1
(0 1 2)
2 1 0 0 0 0
12
9-1
(0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8)
8 7 6 6 6 3
Forte name Prime form Interval-classvectorDistinctformsForte name Prime form Interval-class vector
Fig. 1
. The first entry in the Set Class List table with columns labeled.
The
complement
of a pc set is the set of all pitch classes that are not members of the pc set. For example, thecomplement of (C,C#,D) is (D#,E,F,F#,G,G#,A,A#,B), the other nine pitch classes. This pc set belongs to setclass 9-1 (012345678). Notice that the complementary set will always have 12-
n
members, where
n
is the numberof elements in the pc set.
Complementary set classes
are listed on the same line in the table and have the samenumber of distinct forms. For hexachordal set classes that are
self-complementary
, nothing appears in fifth, sixth,and seventh columns.
© 2007 Reginald BainAll rights reserved
