Use of the Exclusion Relation to Profile Pitch-Class Sets

Abstract

In the development of pitch-class set (pc set) theory, there is no concept more central than that of inclusion. It is the basis of Forte's setcomplex and plays an important role in recent investigations by Lewin, Morris, and Rahn.1 Taking a different (or complementary) approach to the problem of characterizing and comparing pc sets, I shall explore here the exclusion relation, which in many cases yields sharp profiling of pc sets and provides an alternative perspective for judging the similarity of pc sets of the same or different cardinality.2 My discussion uses the following notational conventions: