Square Dances with Cubes

Author(s): Richard Cohn

Source: Journal of Music Theory , Autumn, 1998, Vol. 42, No. 2, Neo-Riemannian
Theory (Autumn, 1998), pp. 283-296
Published by: Duke University Press on behalf of the Yale University Department of
Music

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/843879

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 SQUARE DANCES WITH CUBES

Richard Cohn

My earlier paper on hexatonic systems (Cohn 1996) observed, in pass-

ing, a rough correlation between the position of two triads in the hyper-
hexatonic system (see Figure 3, page 175) and the efficiency of the voice-
leading between them. The current paper refines the correlation by
replacing voice-leading efficiency with a closely related construct, uses
this new construct to illuminate brief passages from music of Schubert,
Liszt, and Brahms, and explores its relationship to several other neo-Rie-
mannian configurations of triadic space.
Voice-leading efficiency, informally sketched in my earlier paper, is
here defined as a function that acts on a pair of triads (X = {X1,X2,X3}, Y=
Y1,Y2,Y3}) whose pitch classes are 1-to-1 paired {Xn,yn}. Each of the three
pairs constitutes a "voice." We stipulate further that the pcs are paired such
that the sum of the distances travelled by the three voices is as small as
possible, i.e., the "voice-leading" involves the "principle of least motion."
There follow two preliminary definitions, both familiar. Arithmetic is
modulo 12 here and throughout this paper, unless otherwise stipulated.

Definition (1). min(j,k) is the smaller of j and k.

Definition (2). ic(j,k) = min((j - k), (k -j)).

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 Cmajor 0 Emajor 2 Ab major 2

C minor 1 E minor 1 Ab minor 3 NORTH

C# minor 2 Fminor 2 Aminor 2

C# major 3 F major 3 Amajor 3 EAST

Ebmajor 3 Gmajor 3 Bmajor 3

Eb minor 4 G minor 4 B minor 4 WEST

D minor 5 F# minor 5 Bb minor 5

D major 6 F# major 6 Bb major 6

Figure 1. Voice-Leading Efficiency of Each Tri

in Relation to C major

Definition (2) provides a measure of the distance trav

the three voices, regardless of direction. The function
these distances:
3

Definition (3). VLE(X,Y) = ic(xn,yn). n=l

Throughout this paper, plus (+) and (-) symbols are used to represent
major and minor triads, respectively. Figure 1 provides the values for
VLE(C+, Y), that is, VLE(X,Y) where X is fixed as a referential C-major
triad and Y ranges across the 24 consonant triads. The values are collated
in an 8x3 matrix. The content of the rows is dictated by the circumstance
that, with several exceptions, the voice-leading efficiency from C major
to some triad is equal to the efficiency from C major to that triad's trans-

position by a major third; symbolically, VLE(C+,Y) = VLE(C+,T4n(Y)).

The invariance applies to rows 3 through 8 exclusively. We will take up
the anomaly of the first two rows shortly.
The ordering of the rows is dictated by the content of its first column,
whose values increment from 0 to 6, with a single duplication of 3, the
mean value. The ordering correlates with the hexatonic constituency of
the triads, as indicated in the right-most column of Figure 1. Rows 1-2
include the triads of C major's "home system;" rows 3-6 include the tri-

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ads of its two neighboring systems; and rows 7-8 indicate the contents of
its complementary system.
The anomalous values are clustered in the northeast corner of the table,
where they are enclosed by special borders. If voice-leading efficiencies
of each of these three triads were reduced by 2, then each of the rows
would have invariant values, each of the columns would echo the sym-
metry of the first column, and the correlation between hyper-hexatonic
distance and voice-leading efficiency would be complete. The anomaly
unravels once we realize that the three triads enclosed in the box-E
major, Ab major, and Ab minor-are exactly those whose voice-leading
from C major involves contrary motion. (In all three cases, the upward
motion G --> G# / Ab is offset by a downward motion (C --> B / Cb, E --
Eb) in one or both of the remaining voices.) These are the only triads for
which this is the case. For each of the remaining twenty-one triads, the
"least motion" connection to the reference triad involves no contrary
motion.
This circumstance suggests measuring the motion of the individual
voices as directed intervals rather than as unordered interval classes. Two
voices moving by semitone in contrary motion "cancel each other out,"
summing to 0 rather than to 2. We define now a new function DVLS(X,Y),
the directed voice-leading sum from triad X to triad Y, which sums (mod-
ulo 12) the directed intervals of the three individual voices.1
3

Definition (4). DVLS(X,Y) = _(y,-xn). n=1

Figure 2 presents the values of this new function for X = C+, where Y
again ranges across the 24 triads. The 21 unboxed values from Figure 1
are either identical to the values presented there, or they replace those
values with their mod-12 inverses. The three anomalous values of Fig-
ure 1 are replaced by ones which allow the invariance DVLS(C+,Y) =

DVLS(C+,T_4(Y))
are to obtain
presented only once per row.without exception.2
The pattern of values is Accordingly,
identical to the the values
pitch classes of an octatonic collection. Values for major triads are divis-
ible by 3; those for minor triads are congruent to 2, modulo 3; and the val-
ues that are congruent to 1, modulo 3, are missing altogether. The pattern
implies a "wrap-around" from bottom to top. Such a geometry will soon
be presented explicitly in a related figure.
The pattern formed by the values in Figure 2 is replicated regardless
of which of the 24 triads is selected as referential. This suggests that we
seek a way to discard the notion of a reference chord, whose choice might
skew our intuitions about the systematic relations. This desideratum is
met by assigning an integer to each of the 12 pitch classes (where C = 0),
and then summing the pitch classes of a triad X = {xJx2,x3}, modulo 12.3

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 3

Definition (5). SUM(X) = x,.

n=l

SUM(X) decrements by 1 the values for DVLS(C+, X) presented in

Figure 2. Thus the invariance associated with the DVLS function holds
for SUM(X) as well: SUM(X) = SUM(T?4(X)). Accordingly, the two func-
tions induce identical partitions on the 24 consonant triads. These parti-
tions are reflected in Figure 3, which presents the rows of Figure 2 in
cyclic form and replaces the DVLS values with SUM values. The pattern
is again "octatonic," but the modulo 3 congruences are shifted: where X
is major, SUM(X) = 2; where minor, SUM(X) - 1. There exist no conso-
nant triads X such that SUM(X) - 0.
The following theorem states that the directed voice-leading sum be-
tween two triads equals the difference between the sums of the two tri-
ads, modulo 12.

Theorem (la). DVLS(X,Y) = SUM(Y) - SUM(X).

3

Proof: DVLS(X,Y) = I (n, - xn) = (y1

n=l
- xl) + (y2 - x2)3
+ (3 -3) 3
(Y1 + Y2 + Y3) - (X
n=l n=l

SUM(Y)- SUM(X).

To illustrate the theorem, we now expl

minor triad to a G-major triad.

Bb minor consists of { 10, 1, 5}, he

G major consists of {7, 11, 2 }, hence SUM(G+) = 7 + 11 + 2 = 8;
The difference between the sums is 4 SUM(G+) - SUM(Bb-) = 8 - 4 = 4;
The directed voice-leading from Bb- to G+ B 1B
sums to 4.
F-2->G 1+2+1=4

Db VL>D
Thus DVLS(Bb-,G+) = SUM(G+) - SUM(Bb-) = 4, as predicted by Theorem la.

If either Bb minor or G major is replaced by any triad of equivalent

sum, the result is the same: the DVLS value is 4. Figure 4 illustrates by
presenting a Cartesian product of the sum-4 and sum-8 triads. Theorem
la guarantees that a similar invariance governs all pairs of sums.
The equivalence classes constituted by the eight triadic sum values
will be referenced as follows:

Definition (6). Q is the class of consonant triads X such that

SUM(X) = Q.

Accordingly, ] symbolizes the class of triads whose pitch classes

sum to 4 (modulo 12), i.e., the class that includes Bb-, D-, and F#-, and so

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 11 C minor E minor Ab minor NORTH
0 C major E major Ab major
2 C# minor F minor A minor EAST
3 C# major F major A major

5 D minor F# minor Bb minor SOUTH

6 D major F# major Bb major
8 Eb minor G minor B minor
major Gmajor BEST

9 Eb major G major B major

Figure 2. Directed Voice-Leading Sums of Each Triad From C Major

C- E- G#- C+ E+ Ab+

Eb+ 10 11i
C#-

G+ F-

B+ 8A-
Xj Xi

Eb-2 C#+

B- A+
5 4
D+ F#+ Bb+ D- F#- Bb-

Figure 3. The Triadic (3-11) System o

forth. This reference system allows expr

= 4, which claims that, from any triad of su
directed voice-leading sums to 4, as demon
eral form of this claim is offered here with

Theorem (ib). DVLS(X-,Y) ==Y - X.

The equivalence relations projected by Fi
tional approach modelled closely after the

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 G+ B+ Eb+

Bb ) B Bb I)B Bb -0 )Bb
Bb- F G F 1 0 F# F G
Db D Db -- # Db -2 Eb

A 2 )B A 2)B A IBb
F# 1)G F# F# F# 1 )G
C# S12
-D C# )D# Eb
C#- ,-Eb

2
A - B A ,)
)-B)D 2A ' " ; Bb

D- F G F F# F 24G
D0)D D--I D# D )Eb
Figure 4. Directed Voice-Leading Sum from Tr
of Sum 0 to Triads of Sum r

mutative "eXchange" operations introduced in Lewin

B), modified in Lewin 1995, and further pursued in Cl
transformational group here consists of the operations
YO, Y3, Y6, and Y9, defined as follows, where OPn con
Yn, and is a sum as in Definition (5) :

Definition (7). OPn(s)= s+n if s 1 modulo 3; s - n if

The sum-class transformations, as we shall call this
complex to pursue fully in the current forum.4 For inter
ure 5 presents the principles that govern their binary
restrict our attention here to X1 and X10, the two transf
fundamental from the standpoint of voice-leading effi
exchange sum classes that are adjacent. X1 exchanges
are separated by a distance of 1, e.g., with M; X10 ex
separated by 2, e.g., fl with , and with D. In Figur
eight sum classes is connected to its "neighboring" su
directional arrows labelled X1, to one side, and X10, to th
ure suggests that these two transformations can be de
tions, as follows:

S = (288 , (P,9) (, (io-,)-)

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 Each sum class thus has an Xl "partner" and a different X10 "corner."
The terms are borrowed from New England-style square dancing, whose
structure is closely related to the eXchange system proposed here.5 The
figure further suggests that one can efficiently circumnavigate ("gener-
ate") the figure by an X1/X10 alternation, i.e., alternately exchanging
partners and comers.
Like the eight sum classes themselves, the eight sum-class transfor-
mations are equivalence classes, each inducing equivalences on three tri-
adic transformations. For example, X1 includes the triadic transforma-
tions that take C+ to C-, E-, and G#-, respectively. In approaching this
topic, we are confronted with the remarkable circumstance that there
exists no standard system for labelling the triadic transformations. The
only exhaustive system, the Schritt/Wechsel method proposed in Rie-
mann 1880, is cumbersome for English users and at any rate has not
achieved any currency.6 Fortunately, the triadic transformations included
in X1 and X10 are the ones most common to recent neo-Riemannian the-
ory, so we can rely in part on a symbology that is rapidly achieving stan-
dardization. Where necessary, this symbology is augmented in what fol-
lows.
The sum-class transformation X1 includes the transformations that
take a triad to its Leittonwechsel (L) ; its parallel major or minor (P); and
its hexatonic pole (H). The symbols L and P are by now standard; the
symbol H is suggested by Cook 1994.7 Any concatenation of these trans-
formations, in any order, will produce a progression that toggles back and
forth between a sum class and its partner. The series can be strongly pat-
terned, as when two distinct transformations are selected for alternation,
but it need not be. Cohn 1996 viewed the alternation of L and P as fun-
damental, because of the maximal voice-leading efficiency of the con-
stituent transformations, and the relative frequency of their occurence in
the most familiar triadic repertories. Here we regard H as on equal foot-
ing, although H/P and H/L alternations are more difficult to find 'in the
literature.'8 Each of these three alternations generates the entire set of six
triads united by an X1 sum-class partnering. As suggested by Figure 2,
each such set is a hexatonic system.
The sum-class transformation X10 includes the transformations that

Xb Yb
Xa Ya-b Xa-b
Ya Xa+b Ya+b
Figure 5. Composition of Triadic eXchange Operations

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 C_- -R Eb + --. N Ab- -B+ -. E- - G + - C-
Figure 6a. Schubert, Symphony No. 9, D. 944 first movement,
mm. 328-38

F- C + sDb- E + + A - A E + F -
Figure 6b. Schubert, Fantasy in F Minor, D. 940, mm. 57-91

take a triad to its relative major or minor (R); invert a triad about its third
(S); and invert a triad about its Riemannian root (N). The R symbol is
standard. S stands for "Slide," a term suggested in Lewin 1987.9 N, intro-
duced here for the first time, stands for "Nebenverwandt" ("next-" or
"neighbor-related"), a term introduced in Weitzmann 1853 to character-
ize the relationship between C+ and F-. Cohn 1997 took R as fundamen-
tal because it concentrates its motion into a single voice moving by whole
step, whereas N and S disperse the motion between two voices moving
semitonally in parallel motion. Thus, unlike X1, the three X10 transfor-
mations are equivalent in terms of voice-leading efficiency as well as of
directed voice-leading sums. The equivalence thus engages intuition
more readily.
Does the union of X 10-related sum classes create any constructs anal-
ogous to the hexatonic systems produced by X1 partnerships? We begin
to approach this question by inspecting 8 u T10 = { G+, B+, Eb+, Ab-,
C-, E-}. Each of these six triads is related to the augmented triad { G, B,
D# } by a single semitonal displacement. Each of the three other X10
"cornerships" bears a similar relationship to one of the three other aug-
mented triads. This observation aligns our work with aspects of Carl
Friedrich Weitzmann's remarkable monograph on the augmented triad
(1853), which partitioned the 24 consonant triads into four classes on the
basis of their voice-leading proximity to one of the four augmented
triads.10 We will call each of the four X10-related sum-class unions a
Weitzmann region. Note that each of the four Weitzmann regions par-
tially intersects two hexatonic systems, and, reciprocally, that each hexa-
tonic system intersects two Weitzmann regions.
The expression of a hexatonic system via an alternation of two X1 tri-
adic transformations finds its analogue in the expression of a Weitzmann
region via an alternation of two of the three distinct triadic transforma-
tions constituent of X10. Because of their synonymy with common dia-
tonic progressions, R and N are the X10 constituents most frequently
selected for alternation by nineteenth-century composers. Figure 6a shows
one such N/R alternation. It models the progression that supports the well-
known trombone entry (and related passages) from the first movement of
Schubert's Ninth Symphony. Each N transformation distributes the voice

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leading into two voices, both ascending by semitone. Each R transfor-
mation concentrates the voice leading in a single voice which descends
by whole step. The progression toggles between the minor triads of sum
10 and the major triads of sum K, eventually sounding all six triads of
the Weitzmann region." Figure 6b, which models mm. 57-91 of Schu-
bert's Fantasy in F minor for Piano Four Hands, shows a less patterned
series of X10 sum-class transformations, this time alternating between
sum classes 11 and j. Here all three X10-type triadic transformations
are used, and five of the six triadic members of the Weitzmann region are
sounded.
Having explored the two fundamental sum-class transformations in
isolation of each other, we now investigate how they interact to generate
the sum-class system. From the standpoint of voice leading, the most pat-
terned way to realize an X1/X10 alternation is to alternate two triadic
transformations, one selected from each class. Since each class contains
three transformations, nine different alternations are available. Two such
alternations, P/R and L/R, were explored in Cohn 1997. P/R alternation
creates a cycle that is octatonic in pitch-class content, and that closes
back on its initial triad after eight iterations, thus achieving triadic clo-
sure at the moment that it achieves sum-class closure. L/R alternation
progresses through a series of diatonic mediants, traverses all 24 triads
before triadic closure occurs, but achieves sum-class closure after eight
iterations (at which point the initial triad is transposed either up or down
by major third). Two other realizations of the X1/X10 alternation, P/N
and L/N, also create common chromatic sequential progressions. P/N
alternation forms a series of fifth-related V-i motions (e.g. <(C+,F-), (F+,
Bb-), (Bb+, Eb-)....>), while L/N alternation sequences a similar set of
motions by semitone (e.g., <(C+, F-), (C#+, F#-), (D+, G-)....>).12 The
remaining five pairings are more rare, since they involve H and/or S, the
Xl and X10 transformations, respectively, that are most foreign to a dia-
tonic context and thus most exotic to the nineteenth-century ear.
An X1/X10 alternation can also be realized by a more complex pat-
tern of triadic transformations. Figure 7, which models a fragment from
Brahms's German Requiem, includes two disjunct segments of the
<LR> chain: from Bb- to B+, and from E- to Bb+. The fragment was
recently analyzed in Brown et al., 1997, which in turn glosses Forte
1979. The segments are connected by an N transformation that takes
B+ to E-. From the perspective of triadic transformations (as well as from
the more tonally centric perspective cultivated by Forte and by Brown et
al.), B+ - E- replaces the projected continuation of the <LR> chain
via B+ -R G#-, and thus constitutes a disruption. Yet this substitution is
not disruptive from a sum-class transformational perspective, which
views B+ E- as the substitution of one X10 transformation for
another. The two-layer transformational analyses presents the triadic

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 L R L N L R

Bb-

Figure

Bb+ D -Figure
sDb + F"- E + C#
8. Liszt, "Kyrie," from the M

Figure 8. Liszt, "Kyrie," from the M

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transformations, and then "reduces" them to their sum classes.
A somewhat more varied X1/X10 alternation is illustrated by the
"Kyrie" from Liszt's Mass for Organ, S. 264. Figure 8 is derived from the
model offered by Satyendra 1992, whose work serves as the basis for my
observations. The piece, which begins and ends on a Bb-major triad, con-
sists entirely of consonant triads, yet lacks diatonic coherence. Reducing
the piece to its pitch-class counterpoint, Satyendra observes that each
pitch-class strand constitutes a palindrome around the E-major chord of
mm. 20-27, but that the strands are paced and ordered differently in the
two halves, whose triads thus vary. The triadic-transformational model
presented in Figure 8 expresses the first half of the piece as an L/S alter-
nation. The arrival of the central E major triggers a less patterned series
of triadic transformations for the second half. The sum-class "reduction"
shows a more coherent underlying model. The X1/X10 alternation of the
first half is reversed at E major by an immediate replication of X10, caus-
ing a reversal of the sum-class transformational path. X10 and X1 now
continue to alternate, with X1 still represented by L, but R and N stand-
ing in for S in the expression of X10.
We noted above that X1-related sum classes together constitute hexa-
tonic systems, and that X10-related sum classes form Weitzmann re-
gions. We now note the relationship of the entire sum-class system, and
of its generation via X1/X10 alternation, to the Cube Dance figure pro-
posed by Douthett and presented as Example 9b of Douthett and Stein-
bach's paper (see page 254). The four hexatonic systems and the four
Weitzmann regions are both extracted from Cube Dance by a different,
indeed complementary, set of deletions.

* The four hexatonic systems, or Xl-related sum-class partners, are ex-

tracted from Cube Dance by deleting those edges that connect the
four augmented triads to the consonant triads. Each of the four cubes
thereby loses six of its edges. What remains are four cycles, each of
which dances solo in isolation from the others.
* The four Weitzmann regions, or X10-related sum-class corners, are
extracted from the Cube Dance figure by deleting the edges that con-
nect major triads directly to minor triads, cleaving each cube in half.
What remains are exactly the edges that were eliminated by the dele-
tions that yielded the hexatonic systems: those that connected the con-
sonant triads to the four augmented triads. The positions occupied in
Cube Dance by the augmented triads serve as the fulcrum about
which swing the corner-related sum-class values, representing trios of
major and minor triads respectively.

X1/X10 sum-class alternation sets into motion a fluid series of part-

nerings and cornerings, bringing overlapping hexatonic and Weitzmann
systems into contact with each other in an interactive square dance. But

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 0Eb*7 F#-7 Ebdom7 F#dom7
C7 V A07 Adom7 Cdom7
7 Ci07G9

Ddom7 Fdom7" 5.... G07

IBdom7 Abdom7

Ab B B7 Bbdom7 Dbdo
I F07 D07 I Edom7 Gd
Figure 9. The Tetrachordal (4-27) Sy

for one set of missing ingredients, the

lent to Douthett's dancing cubes. The m
mented triads themselves.
Augmented triads can, however, be easily imported into the sum-class
design. The absent sum-class values-those integers divisible by 3- con-
stitute available domiciles which the augmented triads are eligible to
occupy, since their pitch classes sum to exactly those values, as follows:
SUM({048}) = 0; SUM({159})= 3; SUM({26t}) = 6; SUM({37e})= 9.
This suggests yet another view of neo-Riemannian space, one that retains
Figure 3's constellation of consonant-triad sum classes and augments it
with the sum classes of augmented triads. Such a space may be modelled
by a system whose elements are the ungapped sum classes from 0 to 11,
and whose transformations consist of the Tn for n = 0 to 11, defined in
the familiar way as Tn(x) = x + n. Unlike the Sum-class System of Fig-
ure 3 that has been our focus, this new GIS is commutative. In one respect
the new GIS engages intuition conveniently: because each operation Tn
involves a motion upward of n semitones, the composition of the opera-
tions is isomorphic with addition modulo 12. For example, the Liszt
"Kyrie" of Example 8 could be modelled in the following manner:

But there is an offsetting disadvantage: the transformations are not invo-

lutions, and so they do not constitute equivalence classes on the neo-Rie-
mannian triadic transformations.

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 Although the machinery of sum-class transformations has been re-
stricted in this paper to triadic space, it is extensible to the tetrachordal
(seventh-chord) space that is the focus of several papers in this volume. I
sketch this extension without elaboration or redundancy here. Each of the
components of this sketch has its analogue in the system of triadic sum
classes; readers may fill out the sketch by contemplating each step of the
analogy. Figure 9 models the tetrachordal space in the manner of Figure
3. The elements are the 24 members of set class 4-27, the 12 dominant
seventh chords (dom7) together with the 12 half-diminished seventh
chords (07). Their 24 pitch-class sums distribute evenly across the six
odd integers from 1 to 11, each of which thereby represents an equiva-
lence class of four tetrachords. Theorem 1 holds for this group. Where Q

= dom7, SUM(Q) - 1, modulo 4. Where Q = 07, SUM(Q) = 3, modulo

4. A non-commutative group of eXchange operations consists of X2, X6,
X10, YO, Y4, and Y8, defined as follows, where OPn equals either Xn or
Yn, and s is an odd integer from 1 to 11 representing a sum :

Definition (8). OPn(s)= s+n if s = 1 modulo 4; s -n if s =3 modulo 4.

Each transformation in this group constitutes an equivalence class.
The fundamental transformations, from the standpoint of voice-leading
efficiency, are X2 and X10, whose constituent members are drawn from
the individual seventh-chord transformations suggested in Childs 1998.
Just as the augmented triads can be seen to fill the interstices of Figure 3,
the three fully-diminished seventh chords (which sum to 2, 6, and 10
respectively) and twelve minor seventh chords (which sum to 0, 4, or 8)
fill the even-sum "slots" that separate adjacent odd values representing
sum-class-equivalent members of set class 4-27. This makes available an
alternative commutative transformational group whose elements are the
ungapped sum classes from 0 to 11, and whose operations are transposi-
tional. As before, the operations compose in an intuitive way, but are not
well-formed with respect to Childs's (1998) individual seventh-chord
transformations. Douthett's geometry-this time the Power Towers fig-
ure, Figure 10 of Douthett and Steinbach's paper (see page 256)-makes
the entire system of relations available at a synoptic glance.

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 NOTES

1. Among the many advantages of this adjustment is that it aligns our inquir
work carried out by John Roeder (1984, 1989, 1994). DVLS(X,Y) correspo
the "voice-leading vector entry sum" introduced in Roeder 1984, 158. An
advantage of the DVLS(X,Y) function is that its results do not depend
voices being paired to insure "least motion." Any 1-to-1 pairing of pitch c
between triads yields the same DVLS value. This circumstance follows di
from material presented in ibid., 169-170.
2. This invariance follows immediately from ibid., Theorem 26, page 170.
3. The technique of summing the pitch classes in a set was first suggested to
Jack Douthett, in correspondence from May 1993.
4. Robert Cook, in conversation, first suggested the idea of applying the eXc
operations to the sum classes. Cook 1998 further investigates this transform
group.
5. The terms should not be construed as assigning conceptual priority to the
ner" relation. In square dancing, the partnering of a square is highly fluid (to
heterosexuality), and dancers often swing their comer more frequently than
partner. Furthermore, in view of historical considerations, some of them
pretable as pernicious, I wish to explicitly disavow any assignment of part
triadic qualities to particular gender roles. Such assignments have no impact
structural relationship that provides the sole fuel for the analogy I develop
6. For an introduction, see Kopp 1995, 112-21.
7. Cohn 1996 considers H to be a composite of <LPL> or <PLP>.
8. An H/L alternation can be found in the chromatic Grail theme from Parsif
Cohn 1996, p. 23. An H/P alternation can be found in the Scherzo of Dv
Symphony No. 9, measures 150-71. Neither alternation generates an entire
9. See page 178. Karg-Elert 1930 names this relationship "Terzgleich." I like th
ter name, but the symbol "T" is reserved for other purposes.
10. The connection of Weitzmann's monograph to neo-Riemannian theory is f
explored in Cohn 2000.
11. Similar progressions may be found in the first movement of Schubert's F
Symphony (mm. 86-106), in the finale of his Octet (mm. 162-67), and in th
movement of Liszt's Faust Symphony (beginning at rehearsal T). The pa
from the Ninth Symphony and the Octet are discussed briefly by Taruskin
who notes (I: 260-261) that the Octet progression supports a counterpoint of
plementary descending whole-tone scales in the upper voices. This feature
present in the passage from the Ninth Symphony modelled by Example 6. Taru
writes, in connection with the Octet passage, that "all the earliest whole-tone s
functioned ... not as an outgrowth of the augmented triad... but as a me
connecting the roots ... in a symmetrical, descending cyclic progression by
thirds." The work presented here, based on Weitzmann, suggests that the tw
ceptions counterpoised by Taruskin are more aptly viewed as fitting togethe
and glove.
12. A retrograde of this progression was used by Rameau in a notorious passage from
Hippolite etAricie. See Christensen 1993, 205-207.

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