Serial Analyser

This repo provides code for working with 12-tone serial rows and a corpus of examples from the repertoire.

‘A very useful resource’ — Professor Robert D. Morris

Code

Row Analyser

Functions for investigating the properties of tone rows, centered on:

• sub-segments (overlapping or discrete) for derived rows, and
• combinatoriality properties

Transformations

Routine serial functions for transforming pitch like tone rows:

• transposition,
• inversion,
• retrograde,
• rotation,

in any combination (e.g. transposed retrograde inversion), along with a couple of more niche operations.

PC Sets

Supporting data setting out the properties of pc sets with cardinality 2-10 (dyads, trichords, tetrachords, ...) along with functions for retrieving one such property directly from another, or directly from any list of pitch classes (e.g. pitchesToIntervalVector).

Each pitch class set entry features at least the following properties:

• Forte index;
• prime form (according to Forte's system);
• interval vector;
• number of distinct transformations (non-invariant transpositions and / or inversions).

Anthology

A substantial list of rows used in the repertoire, set out both 'neutrally' and anthologized according to row properties.

The version of record (from which other representations are derived) is this json file.

Other versions

Full list of all rows:

• as a tabular list
• in musical notation: .mscz, .mxl

Anthology by properties:

• as an html page for the OMT textbook

Text formating

Year:

• Always starts with a 4-digit year e.g., 2008 (except if Year unknown) then optionally ...
• dash - for a range e.g., 1924-25: blank after dash for unknown / unfinished (e.g., 1944-); otherwise 4 digits when needed (1977-2003) and 2 otherwise.
• comma , for non-continuous e.g., 1924,26
• forward slashes / for month and date e.g., 1950/03/18
• question mark 1950s? for approximate year (round number indicates decade).
• Combinable e.g., 1975-77,96

Other text formatting:

• Always comma separated, e.g., String Quartet, No.2, likewise , mvt 1 also , row i
• mvt for movement (lower case, no .)

Links to this material hosted elsewhere

The musical notation is also viewable here and embedded in this textbook chapter along with the anthology listings.

I report on all of this (code, list, anthology, and more) in a joint paper with Jason Yust published with DLfM, that is viewable here, and open access to all when approached from this table of contents page. . Please cite that piece in any public-facing use of this work:

Gotham, Mark and Jason Yust. 2021. ‘Serial Analysis: A Digital Library of Rows in the
 Repertoire and their Properties, with Applications for Teaching and Research'. In 8th International Conference on Digital Libraries for Musicology (DLfM2021), July 28–30, 2021, Virtual Conference, GA, USA. , Ove Nordwall (Ed.). ACM, New York, NY, USA 9 Pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3469013.3469018

Thanks to Jason and all who contributed entries to the list.