subsetspectrum: Subset varieties for all subsets of a fixed size

In musicMCT: Analyze the Structure of Musical Scales

Subset varieties for all subsets of a fixed size

Description

Applies subset_varieties() not just to a particular subset shape but to all possible subset shapes given a fixed cardinality. For example, finds the specific varieties of all trichordal subsets of the major scale, not than just the varieties of the tonal triad. Comparable to intervalspectrum() but for subsets larger than dyads.

Usage

subsetspectrum(
  set,
  subsetcard,
  simplify = TRUE,
  mode = "tn",
  edo = 12,
  rounder = 10
)

Arguments

set	The scale to find subsets of, as a numeric vector
subsetcard	Single integer defining the cardinality of subsets to consider
simplify	Should "inversions" of a subset be ignored? Boolean, defaults to TRUE
mode	String "tn" or "tni". When defining subset shapes, use transposition or transposition & inversion to reduce the number of shapes to consider? Defaults to "tn".
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.

Details

The parameter simplify lets you control whether to consider different "inversions" of a subset shape independently. For instance, with simplify=TRUE, only root position triads (0, 2, 4) would be considered; but with simplify=FALSE, the first inversion (0, 2, 5) and second inversion (0, 3, 5) subset shapes would also be displayed.

Value

A list whose length matches the number of distinct subset shapes (given the chosen options). Each entry of the list is a matrix displaying the varieties of some particular subset type.

Examples

c_major_scale <- c(0, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11)
subsetspectrum(c_major_scale, 3)
subsetspectrum(c_major_scale, 3, simplify=FALSE)
subsetspectrum(c_major_scale, 3, mode="tni") # Note the absence of a "0, 2, 3" matrix

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