Abstract Algebra in the Music Theory Work of

Allen Forte
Sandow Sinai
May 3, 2014

Introduction

Allen Forte is a professor of music at Yale University[Forte()]. He is most wellknown in the music community for his seminal text on analysis of the atonal
music of the twentieth century, The Structure of Atonal Music[Forte(1973)].
In this text, he analyzes, rigorously and mathematically, the harmonic structures used in atonal music, building off the similar work of music theorists such
as notable composer Milton Babbitt[Babbitt and Peles(2003)]. In this paper I
will show how his work relates to and uses, in different notation, principles of
abstract algebra.

Music Background

The commonplace Western musical canon recognizes twelve notes. Typically

counted starting at C, they are: C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, and
B. Upon reaching B, you continue again from C, in a higher-pitched register.
When played consecutively they are referred to as the chromatic scale.
Definition 1. A half-step, or semitone, is the difference between two consecutive notes.
Definition 2. An octave is the difference between a note and the similarly
named note 12 tones higher. It is equivalent to 12 half-steps.
Definition 3. A chord is a collection of several notes played at the same time.
The overwhelming majority of history has focused on certain subsets of these
notes that are found to be pleasing to the ear. For example, C, E, and G, form
a C Major chord, which most listeners will find quite tonally pleasing to listen
to. Prior to the 19th century, all music followed the rules of functional harmony,
which dictates which chordsd are to be used when, and what purpose they are
to serve. Beginning the late 19th century, composers such as Claude Debussy
began abandoning the rules of functional harmony. Finally, in the early years
of 20th century, German composer Arnold Schoenberg abandoned entirely the
conventions of tonality, and composed atonal music without regard for aurual
aesthetics. He eventually developed the first theory of serialist music.
Definition 4. A tone row is a permutation of the 12 notes of the chromatic
scale. Serialist music is any work of music in which note choice is soley determined by following the order of a tone row.
1

Mathematics

From an algebraic perspective, it is very easy to see how the chromatic scale is
isomorphic to Z+
12 and how the set of tone rows is isomorphic to the permutation
group of Z12 .
Definition 5. A pitch-class set (abbreviated pc set) is any subset of the chromatic scale.
The set of all pc sets is a group isomorphic to the power set of Z1 2
Definition 6.
Definition 7. A b-semitone transposition of a size-n pc set a = a1 , a2 , . . . , an ,
denoted T (a, b) is the pc set a1 + b, a2 + b, . . . , an + b.
Definition 8. An inversion of a size-n pc set a = a1 , a2 , . . . , an , denoted I(a)
is the pc set 12 a1 , 12 a2 , . . . , 12 an .
For a size-n pc set a, the normal order norm(a), is an ordering of the elements of a formed by the following process.
1. Convert a to its analogous set in Z.
2. n times, move the first element of a to the end and add 12 to it.
3. Select the permutation among these for which the difference between the
first and last elements is smallest.
4. convert this back to Z1 2. This is norm(a).
Using this definition of a normal order, Forte defines musical equivalence
between two pc sets.
Definition 9. Two pc sets are transpositionally equivalent if and only if they
are reducible to the same form by transposition or by inversion followed by transposition.
It is easy to show that transpositional equivalence is indeed an equivalence
relation.
The final concept that Forte establishes is what he calles the vector of a
pc set. The vector measures the total interval content of a setthe differences
between tones.
Definition 10. The vector of a pc set is a vector in Z6 , denoted v = v1 , v2 , v3 , v4 , v5 , v6 ,
constructed from a size-n pc set in normal order a = a1 , a2 , . . . , an by the following process:
1. Initially, set v =
(0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0).
2. For each of the n2 pairs of integers (x, y) in a, increment vmin(xy,yx) by1.

Conclusion

With pc sets and vectors, Forte creates an algebraic framework for the analysis
of post-tonal music. His work is of groundbreaking influence to the study of
modernist classical music.

References
[Babbitt and Peles(2003)] M. Babbitt and S. Peles. The Collected Essays of
Milton Babbitt. Princeton University Press, 2003. ISBN 9780691089669.
URL http://books.google.com/books?id=lmv UbLz yMC.
[Forte()] Allen
Forte.
Website
of
http://www.allenforte.com/index.html.

allen

forte.

URL

[Forte(1973)] Allen Forte. The Structure of Atonal Music. Yale University

Press, 1973.