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Science Volume 313 Issue 5783 2006 (Doi 10.1126 - Science.1126287) Tymoczko, D. - The Geometry of Musical Chords PDF
Science Volume 313 Issue 5783 2006 (Doi 10.1126 - Science.1126287) Tymoczko, D. - The Geometry of Musical Chords PDF
Dmitri Tymoczko
Science 313, 72 (2006);
DOI: 10.1126/science.1126287
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REPORTS
The content of a collection of notes is often
more important than their order. Chords can
therefore be modeled as multisets of either
The Geometry of Musical Chords pitches or pitch classes. (BChord[ will hence-
forth refer to a multiset of pitch classes unless
Dmitri Tymoczko otherwise noted.) The musical term Btranspo-
sition[ is synonymous with the mathematical
A musical chord can be represented as a point in a geometrical space called an orbifold. Line term Btranslation[ and is represented by addi-
segments represent mappings from the notes of one chord to those of another. Composers in a tion in pitch or pitch-class space. Transposi-
wide range of styles have exploited the non-Euclidean geometry of these spaces, typically by using tionally related chords are the same up to
short line segments between structurally similar chords. Such line segments exist only when chords translation; thus, the C major chord, AC, E,
are nearly symmetrical under translation, reflection, or permutation. Paradigmatically consonant GZ or A0, 4, 7Z, is transpositionally related to
and dissonant chords possess different near-symmetries and suggest different musical uses. the F major chord, AF, A, CZ or A5, 9, 0Z,
because A5, 9, 0Z K A0 þ 5, 4 þ 5, 7 þ 5Z
estern music lies at the intersection of cy f with a real number p according to the modulo 12Z. The musical term Binversion[ is
1
Department of Physics, MIT–Harvard Center for Ultracold
more practical Equantum cryptography (2) and emerging that demand large pair-generation rates Atoms, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts
quantum computation (3)^. A key parameter de- into the narrow bandwidths (5 MHz) suitable for Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cam-
bridge, MA 02139, USA. 2Department of Physics, MIT–
termining the usefulness of a particular source is its strong interaction of the photons with atoms and Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, Harvard University, 17
brightness, i.e., how many photon pairs per second molecules (2, 4–7). Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
are generated into a particular electromagnetic We report the development of a source of *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
mode and frequency bandwidth. Parametric down- photon pairs with spectral brightness near fun- jkthomps@mit.edu