Abstract. The sequence of pitches which form a musical melody can be transposed or inverted. Since the 1970s, music theorists have modeled musical transposition and inversion in terms of an action of the dihedral group of order 24. More recently music theorists have found an intriguing second way that the dihedral group of order 24 acts on the set of major and minor triads. We illustrate both geometrically and algebraically how these two actions are dual. Both actions and their duality have been used to analyze works of music as diverse as Hindemith and the Beatles.

Abstract. The sequence of pitches which form a musical melody can be transposed or inverted. Since the 1970s, music theorists have modeled musical transposition and inversion in terms of an action of the dihedral group of order 24. More recently music theorists have found an intriguing second way that the dihedral group of order 24 acts on the set of major and minor triads. We illustrate both geometrically and algebraically how these two actions are dual. Both actions and their duality have been used to analyze works of music as diverse as Hindemith and the Beatles.

We begin the development of a categorical perspective on the theory of generalized interval systems (GIS's). Morphisms of GIS's allow the analyst to move between multiple interval systems and connect transformational networks. We expand the analytical reach of the Sub Dual Group Theorem of Fiore-Noll [8] and the generalized contextual group of Fiore-Satyendra [9] by combining them with a theory of GIS morphisms. Concrete examples include an analysis of Schoenberg, String Quartet in D minor, op. 7, and simply transitive covers of the octatonic set. This work also lays the foundation for a transformational study of Lawvere-Tierney upgrades in the topos of triads of Noll [21].

A familiar problem in neo-Riemannian theory is that the P , L, and R operations defined as contextual inversions on pitch-class segments do not produce parsimonious voice leading. We incorporate permutations into T /I-P LR-duality to resolve this issue and simultaneously broaden the applicability of this duality. More precisely, we construct the dual group to the permutation group acting on n-tuples with distinct entries, and prove that the dual group to permutations adjoined with a group G of invertible affine maps Z 12 → Z 12 is the internal direct product of the dual to permutations and the dual to G. Musical examples include Liszt, R. W. Venezia, S. 201 and Schoenberg, String Quartet Number 1, Opus 7. We also prove that the Fiore-Noll construction of the dual group in the finite case works, and clarify the relationship of permutations with the RICH transformation.

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