Dancing with math: Using Kleins quartic for music generation

Abstract

Studying music from a mathematical perspective is often based on the notions of symmetry and topological space. A group G acting on some set S of musical objects in a meaningful way is seen as a symmetry group in music. This can be used in analysing motif development and chord progressions. In neo-Riemannian analysis, one has three principal chord transformations that generate a group GD_12, acting on the set S of 24 major and minor triads. Moreover, this theory is visualized through a simplicial complex whose underlying space is a topological torus. In this paper, we first introduce various symmetry groups and graphic presentations in music theory. We then propose a way of doing neo-Riemannian analysis on Kleins quartic, which is a genus 3 surface instead of a torus, realizing an idea of John Baez. Finally, we use our theory to perform a harmonic analysis of The Imperial March from Star Wars.