Multiplication (music)
application of algebraic structures to music
Multiplication is a mathematical practice that can be applied to music. The operation multiplies the numeric value of musical parameters like notes or rhythms to create new ones. Like transposition, inversion, and retrogression, multiplication generates new material from melodic sources. The practice is particularly important in the field of twelve-tone technique and set theory.
Background
Ernst Krenek was the first to describe the technique during a series of lectures in 1936. The antecedents of pitch multiplication can be found in the music of both Béla Bartók and Alban Berg. Bartók described the process as an "extension in range", where chromatic intervals are augmented into diatonic ones. The process can be seen in the outer movements of his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. In Bartók's String Quartet No. 3, the opening chromatic tetrachord eventually expands from a series of semitones (C♯–D–D♯–E) into a series of fifths (C♯–G♯–D♯–A♯).
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This entry incorporates text from “Multiplication (music)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.