Ternary parallelogram scales are MOS substitution

This article proves the following theorem:

Ternary parallelogram scale words are MOS substitution scale words, where the period count of the template MOS is the number of rows of the parallelogram parallel to the unique step size parallel to a side of the parallelogram.

Definitions

Pitch-class group

The pitch-class group of a scale word w in letters x₁, ..., x_r with step signature e ∈ ℤ^r⟨x₁, ..., x_r⟩ is the abelian group C(w) := ℤ^r⟨x₁, ..., x_r⟩/⟨e⟩. The pitch-class group is associated with a canonical map π that sends every step vector to its pitch class.

Parallelogram scale

A scale word w is a parallelogram scale word if C(w) is torsion-free (equiv. a free abelian group) and there exists integers m, n > 1 and linearly independent elements v and w in C(w) such that the π-image of

[math]\displaystyle{ \mathcal{I}_w := \{\mathrm{ab}(\epsilon), \mathrm{ab}(w[0:1]), ..., \mathrm{ab}(w[0:|w|-1])\} }[/math]

is of the form

[math]\displaystyle{ \{i\mathbf{v} + j\mathbf{w} : i \in [0:m], j \in [0:n]\}. }[/math]

MOS substitution scale

See MOS substitution.

Proof

Step 1: Get a surjective homomorphism [math]\displaystyle{ \mathbb{Z}^2 \to \mathbb{Z}/mn\mathbb{Z} }[/math]

The π-image of any k-step interval (abelianized slice) ab(w[i : i + k]) is identical to that of ab(w[i : i + k + mn]). Hence there is a well-defined map from the pitch classes of intervals of w to ℤ/mnℤ. Traversing w step by step gives a traversal of [0 : m] × [0 : n] where we label each grid point with the index of the current note in w. We also recall that the pitch-class vector v has a representative that is a k_v-step interval in w, 0 < k_v < mn, and similarly for w.

We thus wish to constrain ways of labeling [0 : m] × [0 : n] with ℤ/mnℤ elements such that

• v = (1, 0) is consistently the π-image of a k_v-step interval of w, 0 < k_v < mn, so traveling one step east (while staying within the grid) always shifts the label by k_v
• w = (0, 1) is consistently the π-image of a k_w-step interval, 0 < k_w < mn, so traveling one step north (while staying within the grid) always shifts the label by k_w
• every element of ℤ/mnℤ is used exactly once in the labeling.

After rotating w, we may assume that (0, 0) is labeled 0. The labeling now extends to a surjective homomorphism [math]\displaystyle{ \varphi: \mathbb{Z}^2\langle \mathbf{v},\mathbf{w}\rangle \to \mathbb{Z}/mn\mathbb{Z}, }[/math] where φ(v) = k_v and φ(w) = k_w. φ has [0 : m] × [0 : n] as a fundamental domain.

Lemma: Any m × n window in ℤ² has the same cyclic ordering of elements under the φ-labeling

For any integers i₀ and j₀, if φ((i₀, j₀)) = a, then for any (i, j) in [0 : m] × [0 : n], we have

[math]\displaystyle{ \begin{align*}\varphi((i_0 + i, j_0 + j)) &= \varphi((i_0, j_0)) + \varphi((i, j)) \\ &= a + \varphi((i, j)),\end{align*} }[/math]

as φ is a homomorphism. Hence corresponding elements of any two m × n windows get the same ℤ/mnℤ labeling under φ modulo a shift.

Step 2: By ternarity, exactly one of the 1-step vectors is parallel to a coordinate axis

Consider the following four "quadrants":

1. Q₁ = [0 : m] × [0 : n]
2. Q₂ = [-m + 1 : 1] × [0 : n]
3. Q₃ = [-m + 1 : 1] × [-n + 1 : 1]
4. Q₄ = [0 : m] × [0 : n]

By the previous lemma, φ restricted to any m × n window in ℤ² is surjective, hence all of the four windows Q₁, ..., Q₄ have 1 somewhere in them. Call these positions v₁, ..., v₄ (note that none of them are the zero vector). Since φ((0, 0)) = 0 by another application of the lemma we have v₁, ..., v₄ as the images of 1-step vectors of w. Since w is ternary, exactly two of these vectors will be pairwise equal, say v_k = v_l. These four "quadrants" intersect in [math]\displaystyle{ [-m : m] \times \{0\} \cup \{0\} \times [-n : n], }[/math] entailing that v_k = v_l is on a coordinate axis (either the v-coordinate is 0 or the w-coordinate is 0).