Compact Sets

A rational theory of harmony based on Michael Winter's theory of conjunct connected sets in harmonic space, combining ideas from Tom Johnson, James Tenney, and Larry Polansky.

Installation

# Activate virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate

# Run
python -m src.io --dims 4 --chord-size 3

CLI Options

Graph Parameters

• --dims 4|5|7|8 - Number of prime dimensions (default: 7)
• --chord-size 3|4 - Size of chords (default: 3)
• --max-path - Maximum path length (default: 50)
• --symdiff-min, --symdiff-max - Symmetric difference range (default: 2-2)
• --seed - Random seed (default: random)
• --cache-dir - Graph cache directory (default: ./cache)
• --output-dir - Output directory (default: output)
• --rebuild-cache - Force rebuild graph
• --no-cache - Disable caching

Voice Leading Constraints (Hard Factors)

These factors eliminate edges that don't meet the criteria.

• --voice-crossing - Allow edges where voices cross (default: rejected)
• --direct-tuning - Require edges to be directly tunable (default: enabled)

Voice Leading Weights (Soft Factors)

These factors weigh edges without eliminating them. Set weight to 0 to disable.

• --weight-melodic - Weight for melodic threshold (default: 1)
• --weight-contrary-motion - Weight for contrary motion (default: 0)
• --weight-hamiltonian - Weight for Hamiltonian path (default: 1)
• --weight-dca - Weight for DCA
• --weight-target-range - Weight for target register range (default: 1)

Target Range

• --target-range - Target range in octaves for rising register (default: disabled)
  • When set, enables target_range factor with weight 1
  • Use --weight-target-range to adjust the weight

Weight Factor Details

Hard Factors (Eliminate edges)

• Direct tuning: If enabled, eliminates edges that are not directly tunable
• Voice crossing: If not allowed (default), eliminates edges with voice crossing

Soft Factors (Weigh edges)

• Melodic threshold: Penalizes edges with voice movements outside the melodic range
• Contrary motion: Boosts edges where some voices move up and others move down
• Hamiltonian: Penalizes edges that revisit nodes already in the path
• DCA: Boosts edges where voices change/move (rather than staying)
• Target range: Boosts edges that move toward the target register

Examples

# Basic usage
python -m src.io

# Rising register to 2 octaves
python -m src.io --target-range 2

# Heavy target range, no DCA
python -m src.io --target-range 2 --weight-target-range 10 --weight-dca 0

# Disable Hamiltonian (allow revisiting nodes)
python -m src.io --weight-hamiltonian 0

# Enable voice crossing
python -m src.io --voice-crossing

Legacy

The legacy/ folder contains earlier versions of this code, used to create the musical works published at unboundedpress.org/works/compact_sets_1_3.

Output

Generated files go to output/:

• output_chords.json - Chord data
• output_chords.txt - Human-readable chords
• output_frequencies.txt - Frequencies in Hz