Transposition (music)

Transposition example from Koch[1] . In this chromatic transposition, the melody on the first line is in the key of D, while the melody on the second line is identical except that it is a major third lower, in the key of B.

In music, transposition refers to the process or operation of moving a collection of notes (pitches or pitch classes) up or down in pitch by a constant interval.

The shifting of a melody, a harmonic progression or an entire musical piece to another key, while maintaining the same tone structure, i.e. the same succession of whole tones and semitones and remaining melodic intervals.

— Musikalisches Lexicon, 879 (1865), Heinrich Christoph Koch (trans. Schuijer)[1]

For example, a music transposer might transpose an entire piece of music into another key. Similarly, one might transpose a tone row or an unordered collection of pitches such as a chord so that it begins on another pitch.

The transposition of a set A by n semitones is designated by Tn(A), representing the addition (mod 12) of an integer n to each of the pitch class integers of the set A.[1] Thus the set (A) consisting of 0–1–2 transposed by 5 semitones is 5–6–7 (T5(A)) since 0 + 5 = 5, 1 + 5 = 6, and 2 + 5 = 7.

  1. ^ a b c Schuijer, Michiel (2008). Analyzing Atonal Music, pp. 52–54. ISBN 978-1-58046-270-9.

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