‘The Structure of All-Interval Series Robert Morris; Daniel Star Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Autumn, 1974), 364-389. Stable URL: httpflinksjstor.orgsicisici=0022-2909% 28197423920 18%3A2Z3C AAR AATSOAS%IE2.0,COSB2-K Journal of Music Theory is curently published by Yele University Department of Music. Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at flip: feworwjtor org/aboutterms.htmal. ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in par, that unless you fave obtained pcior permission, you may not dowaload an cnt isus of @ journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe ISTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial uss. Please contact the publisher cegarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at upsferwe.jstor.org/joumals‘yuden tel. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transtnission. ISTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For more information regarding ISTOR, please contact support @jstor.org- hup:thrww itor. orgy Mon Dec 20.02:08:08 2004364 THE STRUCTURE OF Introduction It.we consider the twelve-tone geries a 4 meansof maintaining anallpiteh-clags saturated texture, then the all-interval-series thenceforth AIS) may be seen as an extension of the saturation concept (0 another dimension. Such series have been used most notably by Berg in the LYRIC SUITE and in more recent works by Nono, Stockhausen, Babbitt and others. This vaper explores the structure and properties of AlSs, their various sub-groups and some of their combinatorial properties. Tt ‘was found convenient ta tabulate certain final and intermediate results with compuler programe, but we prefer to keep that aspect of our work in the background, as computer epplication waa not the object of oar study. Our resulta Mlinateate several interesting properties and pravide, in addition, some useful compositional material.365 ALL-INTERVAL SERIES ROBERT MORRIS DANIEL STARR Basics Anall-iterval ceries ig a twelve-tone row among whose eleven, successive intervals there are no repetitions, where the inter~ val between two succeasive pitch-classes (PCs) Is the reod-42 difference of the second minus the first. The last note of an AIS is always separated from the first by the interval 6, which is the mod-12 sum of the intervals 1 through 11, a0 matter what their order. Considering the series as a cycle, with the Hirst nate succeeding the last. there are always two 6a and one fof each of the other Intervals. ‘Thus among the cyclic permu~ tations of an AIS, there is exactly one other form that fits our definition, with eleven distinct intervals. Tae other cyclic permutations are degenerate, having two 65 and tacking some other interval. A cyetic permutation whose “oster interval” is 6 is rotationsily normal. Since the all-interval property 1s366 unaffected by the level of transposition, there will always be 2 transpositionally aormal form of any AJS, whose first PC te zero. An AIS that is both tranepasitionaily snd rotationally normal 1s in normal form, ‘There are 3856 such series. Generation A simple FORTRAN program is provided in Table 1, which may be used to generate the entire corpus of AISs. ie works essentially along the lines of the algoritim described by Baues = Mengelherg.*1 No detailed analysis of the program is pro vided, as if ts short enough ant utfUzes so Vttle memory that it car easily behand-sfmulated. On an TBM 370/155 computer, it requires about 12 seconds to complete. He output 4s a succession of AISs in ascending slphabetical order by PCs; each series considered az 2 12-digit, base~12 number ie higher taan its predeceasore. We can now refer to normal-form AISs by number, an integer between 1 and 3856 ‘The prageam does not, sn fact, generate all $856 of the series, ‘but stope at aumber 1928, which Is the half-way point. The AiSs remaining are the inversions of those alwoady enumerated. ‘The entice list is symmetricel about the pair 1928-1929, with ASS number 3857 ~ p always being the aversion of AIS mimber fm, which results from the fact that the program in effect ox- amines incrementally mumbered pitch permutations, which considered as « set also exhibit this “mirror property. * Closed operations ‘The set of AISs (henceforth implicitly in normal form)is closed under retrograde (R), inversion @), and the note-wise multi plication of the serfes by 5, mod~13 (M). In addition, there is Blways aw such that the rotation of an AIS w places yields again a rotationally normal AIS.°2 We arbitrarily call wis operation @. One must transpose the results of Q and R so that they are transpositionally normal. For example: "3 Piotr eos PAB ET BE RO: oO 5 1 B 2 4 8 9 3 AT 6 1); 0 BB 3 9 AP 47 5B 1 8 Me: 0 8 8 8 3 A241 BT SB QP: 0 B75 2 4 8 2 8 Ad G ‘Table 2 gives a note-wise description of the operations.367 TABLE DIMENSION N(12),102), NX(),1X(.0) DATA J,K,N/1, 12°0, 6/, 1, NX/6,22°0/, 1/1190 (¢ MOVE RIGHT 7 asset IFU.GT. #1960 TO 1 NGL C18 NG) A DUPLICATED NOTE? 4 TRINKGNIT))- EQ. 01G0 TO 2 5 NGPNGIY TEEN. BA. 6)G0 TO 5 IEQNG).GT.11)GO TO 3 GOTO 4 © CALCULATE 1(9), THE INTERVAL 2 HEN)-NU-1) TPOUS), LE, ONT )=LG)e42 C18 1) A DUPLICATED INTERVAL? 6 IPUXAG)).BQ.19G0 TO 5 NXCNG)=! xa) Goto 7 © CALCULATE THE 11TH INTERVAL 1 1G}eNG2)-NEL) SRG). LT. oMr =r) IF XU(9)).£Q.19G0 TO 3 ¢ LAND HERE WHEN AN AIS IS FOUND KKH © STATEMENT BELOW IS OPTIONAL—SHORTENS THE TABLE, E(k, GE. 1223)SPOP. WRITE(6, 8K, N,I 8 FORMAT (5, 2(4x, 1219) © MOVE LEFT 3 mt IRW.RQ. STOP NINO reH}20 GO TOs END,368 TABLE Basle Operations ep notes normalization constant = w. intervals 1 ony one pew M: i oan, one oow @ Amy, yen Beow Rog ee mew Eplanation: nj ang ty arg the 3th note and tnlerval of a given AIS im normal form, dad fy and fy are the corresponding note and tatervat of the row resuiting {eam a particular operation. Toe normalization con- Stant. 18 te interval to which fy Tust be transposed to normalize the esultant row, ‘The operatare 6, 0 and a correspond to she familiar Signe x of artthmetic, swith tre result bekag taken mod-!2369 All four operations are such that if applied an even number of Wimes, one gels what one started with, and all four are com- mutable with each other, It follows therefrom that there are isteen distinct composite-operations obtainable by applying from one to four of the basic operations in any order. ‘The so= called M7-operation ig the same as the composite MI and need not, therefore, be considered as a basic operation. *< ATSs may then be divided into constellations of sixteen or fewer, allowing for possible duplicate forms, related to each other by some basic or composite operation. [t is convenient to daplay these forme Ia Karaaugh-graph, in which adjacent squares are separated by exactly one operation: 1 ma M P Tey Mey Me) rn [Rw nay | econ | Rowen an [amen [aman [aadamyn | amoawy| e@ Laem | euen | acaremy |" aanen | ‘The graph “wraps around” vertically and horfzontally so that the top and botiom rows are adjacent, ae are the lef! and right-most columns, One can, with this arrangement, refer ta sub-conetellation related by certain operations in commen. ‘The [-sub-group, for instance, constitutes the middle twa col lupins, the MQ-mub-group is the lower right quarter of the graph, andsofort. One cantrace various closed paths through the graph which result from the aucceasive applications of angle functions. Under QR, the ordered content of an AIS, split in two between the notes w = 1 and w, exhibits a useful Identity, which te not in fact restricted to the rotation specified by Q, or to AISs at alt for that matter. For example: Pog1327AR 4 Blo os ORP) Be BATAZIAlE OS Nate that the QR-form has not been transpositionally normalized Bach partition maps under retrageade into tie corresponding partition in the other form. Where w is 6, this identity finds applications in constructing hexachordal combinatorialities (to be discussed later). An analogous phenomenon occurs under QRT in the successive intervals associated witheack row. For example370 Pots 27a ean 596 12BS3A87 6 48 Gotervals sesoctated with Pl Qty: 1 8 4254 9 BO sat 7B8AS5RB21 6 94 [intervals associated with Q(RIMP))} Source seriea 5 ‘The basic operations and their composites: Impose a partition on the set of all AISs, separsting them. into distinct constella- Hane. Since the members af each constellation have structural similarities to each other, the task of examining the eet of all AlGs for various characteristics ia expedited by calculating an abbreviated table in whlch each constellation Js represented ‘only once. Tt turns out chat this shorter sting of source-AISs (henceforth SA1Sa) haa 287 entries carrespanding to constella~ Hone of sizes @ and 16, with each constellation represented by {ts lowest rurmbered, and hence alphabetically Towest, member. ‘The test for Whether ox not an AIS 19 an SAIS 16 to generate the (up to) 15 ther forms of the series and compare their num- bers with that of the series in question. If anyof the relative’s mumbers are lower, the series in question is discarded. The Appendix consists of a Weting of the SAISa. Jevariaat forms inconstellations containing only eight distinct forms instead of the more prevalent sixteen, there ig an operation under which the members of the constellation are tnvarfant. ‘The SAISs extvbit three different invariances: R, Ql, and QRMI.*8 No more than one type of Invariance la presen! in any constellation R-Snvariance is present in the familiar “wedge-row" iT oR1LA2S aa 478 SE ‘Twenty-two constellations exhibit this invariance. In each case, the tritore occurs in the center of the cow; w ix 6. White the notes af these raws are a transposition of their own retro= grade, the intervals form an U1-clement “row” which repro~ Guces Stself under retrograde-{rversion, since the retrograde Operation “Snverts” the interval succession. Note that the classical RI-invariance is ruled outin AlSs, as it would imply the systernatic duplication of intervals371 ‘There are fitteen constellations exktbiting the Ql-trvariance. As in R-invartance, w must again equal 6, which implies, one potes, that the position of the 6 4 not sufficient information to determine the properties of an AIS. For example: 2if0539A7B68 ‘Among the fifteen constellations eghibiting QRMI-invarfance, ‘w takos on an oven value and the inner tritore oceura between PCs 3 and 9 for rows in normal form, ‘The explanation for tia ia that, following the rules in Table 2, the interval-wise description of the QRMI-composite may be constructed as fol~ lows: i, 5 if which becomes an equality when invariance exists under the operation: !aciew) ty = Sai, ‘etjew) ‘Two examples follow with brackets connecting the paira of in~ tervals which map to each otser under M18 4 symmetrical pattern: Piguretay we 4 notes: 0 14032A857H6 intervals: @) 135 6R8A9247 Figure) wet0 nolec: 15 72BA04936 imervala: (6) 14.27 9B,A,85 83 ‘The intervals 2, 6 and 9 map into themselves under M; 3 = 583, 6 + Sa6 and 9='5e9. For these interval, then, * Siaciow) ~ Jegew) {jou which we may re-write as Jel = w= 20372 from which 1t follows that ew, and hence w are even. Now consider the sums of the intervals on elther side of the imerval 6. Back participating M-pair will contribute some multigle of 6 te the sum, since e(Sex) = (xaljo(Sex) = (1e5)ex = 6ax ‘Thus the sum of all. M-palr contributors will be efther 0 or 8. Adeing this t9 the 3 or 9 at the center of either M-nest yields again #3 or Gas 2 grand sum, for whick reason, the wth note of normaleform QRMI-invariant AIS must be either 3 or 3. ‘Feitone pairs and nests ‘The chromatic scale may be divided into six patrs of notes a twitone apart from each other: O68 eT 8 390 A So We connect theac pairs of notes with brackets 25 they Ye in an AIS to produce 2 (ritone-nest (TN) oTRB ZS? oo Lae AlSs related inversionally, by M, or by M1, will have the same ON. ‘Thus, TNa may be sed to partition the set of all AlSs into constellations containing at least four members. Since It hag already been determined that invariance only occurs under R, QI, sné QRMI, the four TN-related forms of each AIS must bbe distinet. Some ‘TNV-conatellations will be larger, as in the case of the AlS¢ possessing the R-invarlance, all of which are constrained to have 8 TN of the following symmetrical shape xxx eS PE XE So that the TN-consteliation containing them must énelude all 176 such AlSe (ad a8 ¢ turns oul, wo others). ‘Watle tt is poselble to generate 12 1! (25x61) = 10,995 distinct "TNs, only 20¢ of them ean be found in the entire corpus of AISs. inorder for a TN to generate an AIS, the first ond last notes373 must be bracketed to form the cuter tritoue. Then of the nine remaining adjacent unbracketed pairs, exactly one peir must be bracketed ta form the internal tritane: Additional brackets may be added provided that (1) no more adjacent pairs are connected, and (2) no two brackets of the same span may have both feet adjacent: as this would Imply the duplication of the Interval betweeneither pair of consecutive feet Using this construction method, it ie possible to generate 230 Alstinet tritone-nests, which {mplies that 26 of them, or about ‘one nin of the total, generate no AISs. Table 2a gives nine ‘TNs which under the’ operation Q, R, and QR generate the 26 feultiess TNs generable with the above algorithm. We were tenable to find any systematic explanation of these nine nests, without whiea 2 very powerful generalization about AIS atrue- ture would result, Hand-genevation of AISs possessing tnvariances ‘Tas programs, presonted earlier generates an exhaustive roster, of AlSs, in the course of which there 1s a considerable amount oof trial and error or backtracking, for watch reagon it ia not feasible to perform the calculation by hand, Als were not therefore readily available to earlier generations of 12-tone composers, except for Hie R-Invariant rows, ‘8 which ane can construct by hand from various hexachords, #ie amount of backtracking being minimal. Knowing, however, that QI- and QRM-invariances also exist, it becomes no longer difficult ta hand-caleuiate rows of these types. This puts us fn a position fof being able vo hand-calculate 418 AiSs or about one ninth of the entire corpus. Referring back to the TN for R-invariant AlSs (see the pre= ous section}, we note that the second half of the series must have the same unordered content as the flret half, traneposed by the interval 6, and that since R-invariance causea all theSTA other intervals tobe paired with their complements in the other half of the series, one must begin the generation process by selecting from the following hexachards, a1) of which contain interyal-classes 1-5, but not 8. All four such hexachords do, infact, generate AlSs: interval vector pitches =9s9210 onza4s 349250 ox2958, a2zaaa o1zdss 143250 13584, One simply “fiddles” with the plich-oréering of the hexachoré chosen until no inleeval-clags te repeated hatween successive holes. Tue hexachord 012365 might, far example, be permuted to get 214082, whose interval-class~succession is 13452. The remainder of an R-invarlantseries is produced by retrograding land transposing by the interval 6: 214083-SBGATE ‘The hand-algorsthm for QI-invariant Alss diffors in that we must select @ Kexachord that ia disjunct from some inverted form of itselt: interval vector pitches 543210 12948, sean o12s46 sazaat o1as7 sa4a2a0 012358, aosaat 012458 22491 012489 1agzar 013578 2eaaai o1g589 #149250 onasaa ‘The hexachords marked with an asterisk here and in the pre~ vious table are common ta hoth tables, whick might be a com= positionally useful relationship between sifferent rows generated from the samme hevachard. Referring to the previous example, in which we arrived at the permutation 214053 derived from the frat heyackord on the lat, a related QI-invariant row eanacer rs Vea e EGU TEx Ee x Bee eee exe exe x TRANG REE Re Tiasiiecen Ts Jae 375376 algo be generated from the same first half, by following these notes with another group a! six obtained by subtracting 214053 from 11, yielding the row 214053-9A7HS8, a QI-invarlant AIS. Note, however, tat the “iddling” required for this class of invariance is & bit more involved than with the R-invariant class. Not only must the permutation ewilbit each of PCs 1-5, Dut the constant witk respect to which we invert the hexachord ‘must be such that @ tritane results between the two hexachords. ‘The procedure for calculaung the QRMI-invariant AISs involves constructing an M-nest as shown shove in figures (a) and First decide on an even value of w, placing the interval 6 in that position. ‘Tais splits the piteh ‘sequence into two even- engthed parts, at the centers of which we place the intervale and 9. ‘The dirst and last notes are then assigqmed to some tritone-pair. For example: ietwes moles: Tannaananant intervals: i 9 SCAU 940 ‘The remaining M-related interval psira can thon be Inserted to form symmetrical nests on elther side of the interval 6, taking care that no duplicated pitches are implied by the place~ ment of the interval notes: TOUAASSBHE21 inervale: 83167429488 Swapping relationships Gtancing through 4 complete Usting of the AISs, one notices many jnstances where Oro series are essentially the same ex- cept for the displacement of a pair or handful of notes. For example: D1sAgaBAaS TIS o14992A857R6 ‘Acomputer search shows that more than hal! of all AISs possess some pair of notes which, if swapped, yield another series ia which the all-interval property is pregerved, and which $s not necessarily related by other operations or ‘by a common tri tone-nest. (Note, however, that te swapping of tritone-related