Favorite pitch class set

I think this makes more sense than "favorite key", since chordal sonorities can be expressed in sets anyway.

Mine is...

[0 1 6]

[0, 5, 6, t] is one of my personal favorites.

[0, 5, e] is fun too.

[0, 1, 4, 7] I also like.

And who could forget [0, 4, 8]

Okay, I'll play along...though I expect not many folks around here are familiar with set theory.

[0 1 7]

I like the versatility, and modal implications of it.

Hmmm...I'm really, really not very familiar with musical set theory, but I'd say [0 4 6 10].

Hmmm...I'm really, really not very familiar with musical set theory, but I'd say [0 4 6 10].

10 would be "t", it's all good

Hmm, 2 major thirds, and you get that tritone separation. Spicy, I like.

What's e? Not e for eleven..?

Pffh, [0 1 6] and [0 1 7] (which are really the same thing anyways) are sooo Vienna in the 1920s :P

It's kind of a pity though that they have such a strong connotation with that school/period though - as it is a pretty awesome set of pitches.

[0 4 6 t] sounds quite Debussyian.

I'm not too fond of talking about pitch class sets though. Register and order of the pitches just matters way too much for me. Reducing a chord like (from lowest to highest) C Ab B D A Eb to [0 2 3 8 9 e] just makes it something entirely different, in my opinion. It is of course fitting for music for which octave transposition isn't harmonically relevant and which is based on an abstract concept of pitch classes (instead of pitches) anyways, such as 12-tone music. But I think taking it as an universally applicable theory for all music just doesn't work, and can't really be justified acoustically.

P.S. Set theory isn't that widely used in Europe as it is in the US and maybe England. Where I live for example, it's a rather unknown concept. So, Robin may be right that many people around here won't be familiar with it.

e is a major 7th. I'm not actually sure what it stands for but I'd imagine so. It'd make sense; t for ten, e for eleven.

What's e? Not e for eleven..?

yes,

t = 10

e = 11

Pffh, [0 1 6] and [0 1 7] (which are really the same thing anyways) are sooo Vienna in the 1920s :P

It's kind of a pity though that they have such a strong connotation with that school/period though - as it is a pretty awesome set of pitches.

P.S. Set theory isn't that widely used in Europe as it is in the US and maybe England. Where I live for example, it's a rather unknown concept. So, Robin may be right that many people around here won't be familiar with it.

Interesting, what's used in Europe?

There are too many awesome combinations to list.

For now, a couple of cool ones:

[0, 2, t]

[0, 3, e]

[0, 4, 6, 9, t] That one approaches a common 7th chord.

[0, 2, 6, 7] Nice mixture of warmth and crunch.

(Btw, I've rarely seen pitch classes/set theory used in Britain.)

What's e? Not e for eleven..?

2.71828..?

I know little of musical set theory - any links?

2.71828..?

I know little of musical set theory - any links?

All About Musical Set Theory

Cheers RJ :)

*begins reading*

Interesting, what's used in Europe?

Mostly just interval names. You might just say something like "tritone plus fourth" instead of [0 1 7] (or [0 6 e]), and from the context it would be clear that it's meant to either include inversions and octave transpositions of pitches, or not. Or you might say so specifically. It's not a real system though and not standardised at all, so pitch set theory is actually quite useful as a clear, formulized language.

The strength of pitch class theory is that it's very clear what it is about and what not, whereas something like "tritone-fourth combination" is more ambiguous about whether the order of the pitches and octavation matters or doesn't. The problem is that in actual music it's often some kind of mixture. If you look at Sch

[0 4 6] is awesome

[0 9 e] also.

My point remains from the key thread.

At any rate, PCST is great for analyzing free jazz tracks :)

[0 2 3 7] those of you who are into indoor drumline might recognize that from Rhythm X's show

Just a couple:

[0 3 8]

[0 4 e]

[0 6 t]