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Interval cycle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In music, an interval cycle is a collection of pitch classes created from a sequence of the same
interval class.[1] In other words a collection of pitches by starting with a certain note and going up
by a certain interval until the original note is reached (e.g. starting from C, going up by 3 semitones
repeatedly until eventually C is again reached - the cycle is the collection of all the notes met on the
way). In other words, interval cycles "unfold a single recurrent interval in a series that closes with a
return to the initial pitch class". See: wikt:cycle.

Interval cycles are notated by George Perle using the letter "C" (for cycle), with an interval class
integer to distinguish the interval. Thus the diminished seventh chord would be C3 and the
augmented triad would be C4. A superscript may be added to distinguish between transpositions,
using 0–11 to indicate the lowest pitch class in the cycle. "These interval cycles play a fundamental
role in the harmonic organization of post-diatonic music and can easily be identified by naming the
cycle.".[2]

Here are interval cycles C1, C2, C3, C4 and C6:

Interval cycles assume the use of equal temperament and may


not work in other systems such as just intonation. For example,
if the C4 interval cycle used justly-tuned major thirds it would
fall flat of an octave return by an interval known as the diesis.
Put another way, a major third above G♯ is B♯, which is only
enharmonically the same as C in systems such as equal
temperament, in which the diesis has been tempered out.

Interval cycles are symmetrical and thus non-diatonic.


However, a seven-pitch segment of C7 will produce the diatonic
major scale:[2]

Twelve-tone interval cycles[1]


complete the aggregate: C1 once
(top) or C6 six times (bottom).

This is known also known as a generated collection. A minimum of three pitches are needed to
represent an interval cycle.[2]

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Interval cycle - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_cycle

Cyclic tonal progressions in the works of Romantic composers such as Gustav Mahler and Richard
Wagner form a link with the cyclic pitch successions in the atonal music of Modernists such as Béla
Bartók, Alexander Scriabin, Edgard Varèse, and the Second Viennese School (Arnold Schoenberg,
Alban Berg, and Anton Webern). At the same time, these progressions signal the end of tonality.[2]

Interval cycles are also important in jazz, such as in Coltrane changes.

"Similarly," to any pair of transpositionally related sets being reducible to two transpositionally
related representations of the chromatic scale, "the pitch-class relations between any pair of
inversionally related sets is reducible to the pitch-class relations between two inversionally related
representations of the semitonal scale."[3] Thus an interval cycle or pair of cycles may be reducible
to a representation of the chromatic scale.

As such, interval cycles may be differentiated as ascending or descending, with, "the ascending
form of the semitonal scale [called] a 'P cycle' and the descending form [called] an 'I cycle'," while,
"inversionally related dyads [are called] 'P/I' dyads."[4] P/I dyads will always share a sum of
complementation. Cyclic sets are those, "sets whose alternate elements unfold complementary
cycles of a single interval,"[5] that is an ascending and descending cycle:

Cyclic set (sum 9) from Berg's Lyric Suite

In 1920 Berg discovered/created a "master array" of all twelve interval cycles:

Berg's Master Array of Interval Cycles


Cycles P 0 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
P I I 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 0
_______________________________________
0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
11 1 | 0 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
10 2 | 0 10 8 6 4 2 0 10 8 6 4 2 0
9 3 | 0 9 6 3 0 9 6 3 0 9 6 3 0
8 4 | 0 8 4 0 8 4 0 8 4 0 8 4 0
7 5 | 0 7 2 9 4 11 6 1 8 3 10 5 0
6 6 | 0 6 0 6 0 6 0 6 0 6 0 6 0
5 7 | 0 5 10 3 8 1 6 11 4 9 2 7 0
4 8 | 0 4 8 0 4 8 0 4 8 0 4 8 0
3 9 | 0 3 6 9 0 3 6 9 0 3 6 9 0
2 10 | 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0
1 11 | 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 0
0 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

[6]

See also
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Interval cycle - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_cycle

Equal-interval chord
Identity (music)
Interval vector

Sources
1. Whittall, Arnold. 2008. The Cambridge Introduction to Serialism, p.273-74. New York: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68200-8 (pbk).
2. Perle, George (1990). The Listening Composer, p. 21. California: University of California Press. ISBN
0-520-06991-9.
3. Perle, George (1996). Twelve-Tone Tonality, p.7. ISBN 0-520-20142-6.
4. Perle (1996), p.8-9.
5. Perle (1996), p.21.
6. Perle (1996), p.80.

External links
The "Giant Steps" Progression and Cycle Diagrams (http://danadler.com/misc/Cycles.pdf) by
Dan Adler

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Categories: Intervals (music) Musical symmetry

This page was last modified on 26 March 2015, at 21:59.


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