Hexatonic systems and dual groups in mathematical music theory

Abstract

Motivated by the music-theoretical work of Richard Cohn and David Clampitt on late-nineteenth century harmony, we mathematically prove that the PL-group of a hexatonic cycle is dual (in the sense of Lewin) to its T/I-stabilizer. Our point of departure is Cohn's notions of maximal smoothness and hexatonic cycle, and the symmetry group of the 12-gon; we do not make use of the duality between the T/I-group and PLR-group. We also discuss how some ideas in the present paper could be used in the proof of T/I-PLR duality by Crans--Fiore--Satyendra.