asword: Algebraic word of a set's step sizes

In musicMCT: Analyze the Structure of Musical Scales

Algebraic word of a set's step sizes

Description

Among others, Carey & Clampitt (1989) and Clampitt (1997) have shown that much can be learned about a set by representing it as a word on m "letters" which represent the m distinct steps between adjacent members of the set. This is more or less what is done in theory fundamentals classes when a major scale is represented as TTSTTTS (if we temporarily forget that T and S represent specific interval sizes). In scholarship the algebraic letters are usually represented as letters of the Latin alphabet, but for some computational purposes it is useful for these to be explicitly ordered. That is, the major scale should be represented as integers 2212221, which is distinct from 1121112. (Thus asword makes finer distinctions than you might expect coming from a word-theoretic context.)

Usage

asword(set, edo = 12, rounder = 10)

Arguments

set	Numeric vector of pitch-classes in the set
edo	Number of unit steps in an octave. Defaults to 12.
rounder	Numeric (expected integer), defaults to 10: number of decimal places to round to when testing for equality.

Value

Vector of integers of the same length as set. 1 should always be the lowest value, representing the smallest step size in the set.

Examples

dia_12edo <- c(0, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11)
qcm_fifth <- meantone_fifth()
qcm_dia <- sort(((0:6)*qcm_fifth)%%12)
just_dia <- j(dia)
asword(dia_12edo)
asword(qcm_dia)
asword(just_dia)

#### asword() is less discriminating than colornum(). 
#### See "Modal Color Theory," 16
set1 <- c(0, 1, 4, 7, 8)
set2 <- c(0, 1, 3, 5, 6)
set1_word <- asword(set1)
set2_word <- asword(set2)
isTRUE(all.equal(set1_word, set2_word))
colornum(set1) == colornum(set2) 
# (Last line only works with representative_signvectors loaded.)

musicMCT documentation built on June 21, 2026, 9:06 a.m.