Blues for Alice: The Interplay of Neo-Riemannian and Cadential Viewpoints

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteur principal: Agustín-Aquino, Octavio A.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Agustín-Aquino, Octavio A.
author_facet Agustín-Aquino, Octavio A.
contents We extend a property of Mazzola's theory of cadential sets in relation to the modulation between minor and major tonalities from triadic to tetradic harmony, using the PLRQ group of Cannas et al. (2017) as the analogue of the classical PLR group. While the PLR group connects triadic cadential sets via the relative morphism $R$, the tetradic case reveals a richer structure: two pairs of cadential sets connected by distinct morphisms forming a ``prism'' in the coslice category over the common chords of the paired cadential sets, and a single pair for those that allow quantized modulations. We demonstrate this structure through an analysis of Charlie Parker's Blues for Alice (1951) and Ray Noble's Cherokee (1938), showing how the prism morphism, PLRQ transformations and quantized modulations organize harmonic navigation in bebop. The categorical framework models a formal correlate of the transformational vécu that musicians experience when navigating between cadential regions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_07161
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Blues for Alice: The Interplay of Neo-Riemannian and Cadential Viewpoints
Agustín-Aquino, Octavio A.
History and Overview
00A65, 18B99
We extend a property of Mazzola's theory of cadential sets in relation to the modulation between minor and major tonalities from triadic to tetradic harmony, using the PLRQ group of Cannas et al. (2017) as the analogue of the classical PLR group. While the PLR group connects triadic cadential sets via the relative morphism $R$, the tetradic case reveals a richer structure: two pairs of cadential sets connected by distinct morphisms forming a ``prism'' in the coslice category over the common chords of the paired cadential sets, and a single pair for those that allow quantized modulations. We demonstrate this structure through an analysis of Charlie Parker's Blues for Alice (1951) and Ray Noble's Cherokee (1938), showing how the prism morphism, PLRQ transformations and quantized modulations organize harmonic navigation in bebop. The categorical framework models a formal correlate of the transformational vécu that musicians experience when navigating between cadential regions.
title Blues for Alice: The Interplay of Neo-Riemannian and Cadential Viewpoints
topic History and Overview
00A65, 18B99
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.07161