Transformations of Triads and Seventh Chords: Group Extensions and Duality

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Fiore, Thomas M., Noll, Thomas, Bonnell, Ethan, Pyle, Hayden, Rodriguez, Noé, Williams, Meredith, Cannas, Sonia, Andreatta, Moreno
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866908469518401536
author Fiore, Thomas M.
Noll, Thomas
Bonnell, Ethan
Pyle, Hayden
Rodriguez, Noé
Williams, Meredith
Cannas, Sonia
Andreatta, Moreno
author_facet Fiore, Thomas M.
Noll, Thomas
Bonnell, Ethan
Pyle, Hayden
Rodriguez, Noé
Williams, Meredith
Cannas, Sonia
Andreatta, Moreno
contents Transformational music theory, pioneered by David Lewin, uses simply transitive group actions to analyze music. In this paper, we construct a simply transitive group action on a disjoint union of two sets, built from a simply transitive action on each set and an equivariant bijection connecting them. Motivational examples are the omnibus progression and the reflected omnibus progression, which involve the consonant triads and the dominant/half-diminished seventh chords, connected by the inclusion bijection. We provide other examples from Jazz tunes. More generally, we combine multiple simply transitive group actions via a "meta-rotation"; examples include a simply transitive group acting on consonant triads and a variety of seventh chords, as well as a meta-rotation that realizes the root position seventh chord sequence of the flattening transformation (described by Clough-Douthett's J-function). The constructions in our theorems extend Lewin dual pairs to Lewin dual pairs. We formulate the constructions in terms of short exact sequences and central extensions as well. Contextual groups are also elucidated: the interval content of the generating pitch-class segment determines whether or not a generalized contextual group is generated by contextual inversions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_20811
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Transformations of Triads and Seventh Chords: Group Extensions and Duality
Fiore, Thomas M.
Noll, Thomas
Bonnell, Ethan
Pyle, Hayden
Rodriguez, Noé
Williams, Meredith
Cannas, Sonia
Andreatta, Moreno
Group Theory
00A65, 20B35
Transformational music theory, pioneered by David Lewin, uses simply transitive group actions to analyze music. In this paper, we construct a simply transitive group action on a disjoint union of two sets, built from a simply transitive action on each set and an equivariant bijection connecting them. Motivational examples are the omnibus progression and the reflected omnibus progression, which involve the consonant triads and the dominant/half-diminished seventh chords, connected by the inclusion bijection. We provide other examples from Jazz tunes. More generally, we combine multiple simply transitive group actions via a "meta-rotation"; examples include a simply transitive group acting on consonant triads and a variety of seventh chords, as well as a meta-rotation that realizes the root position seventh chord sequence of the flattening transformation (described by Clough-Douthett's J-function). The constructions in our theorems extend Lewin dual pairs to Lewin dual pairs. We formulate the constructions in terms of short exact sequences and central extensions as well. Contextual groups are also elucidated: the interval content of the generating pitch-class segment determines whether or not a generalized contextual group is generated by contextual inversions.
title Transformations of Triads and Seventh Chords: Group Extensions and Duality
topic Group Theory
00A65, 20B35
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.20811