My goal here is to compare visual symmetry and express the temporal symmetry of music in a similar visual manner.
I'm not very well versed at math and hence I'm not sure how to go about this.
UPDATE: I've attached a few examples I worked on in mathematically trying to express the varying patterns. The chromatic notes have been expressed numerically in a way that C = 0, C# = 1........C'= 12 - I've divided the various segments of the melodies into smaller bits like motifs, repeating melodic sequences and etc. I've noticed a few patterns in each of the melodies which i've denoted. 'D.M' = Descending Motif 'A.M'= Ascending Motif 'X.M' = A motif that's neither descending nor ascending and 'Desc' refers to a non-motival segment that's descending.
The value of x, unless stated explicitly, is the value M1 or S1 of any given sequence or motif. For example; x in a sequence {1,2,5,6} would be 1 and x in a sequence {4,5,9} would be 4. But in the first melody, x is given the value a = -3 and e = 4 at certain phrases.
Square parentheses indicate a motif phrase and round parentheses represent the conjunct movement (though this only appears in one of the scores attached)
Can you assist me on whether or not this is a satisfactory way of expressing a pattern based relationship within a melody? Is there a better and neater way? And if I wanted to graph these relationships, how do I go about it?
Thank you!
There are too many aspects of music that you can talk about: tonality, dynamics, nuance, timbre, etc.
It is not so simple to map all of them simultaneously. You have to narrow it down. There are some items from physics, signal processing, and acoustics: harmonics (ratios of intervals as they relate to signals).
3Blue1Brown, a YouTube creator with a strong math background, very elegantly presents this here: Music and Measure Theory
Hope this helps, and if you need more ideas, I have enough background in both music and math to be helpful.