Building Generalized Neo-Riemannian Groups of Musical Transformations as Extensions

Chords in musical harmony can be viewed as objects having shapes (major/minor/etc.) attached to base sets (pitch class sets). The base set and the shape set are usually given the structure of a group, more particularly a cyclic group. In a more general setting, any object could be defined by its position on a base set and by its internal shape or state. The goal of this paper is to determine the structure of simply transitive groups of transformations acting on such sets of objects with internal symmetries. In the main proposition, we state that, under simple axioms, these groups can be built as group extensions of the group associated to the base set by the group associated to the shape set, or the other way. By doing so, interesting groups of transformations are obtained, including the traditional ones such as the dihedral groups. The knowledge of the group structure and product allows to explicitly build group actions on the objects. In particular we differentiate between left and right group actions and we show how they are related to non-contextual and contextual transformations. Finally we show how group extensions can be used to build transformational models of time-spans and rhythms.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures ; submitted to Journal of Mathematics and Music - v.4: corrected many errors, clarified some proposition

Using Monoidal Categories in the Transformational Study of Musical Time-Spans and Rhythms

Transformational musical theory has so far mainly focused on the study of groups acting on musical chords, one of the most famous example being the action of the dihedral group D24 on the set of major and minor chords. Comparatively less work has been devoted to the study of transformations of time-spans and rhythms. D. Lewin was the first to study group actions on time-spans by using a subgroup of the affine group in one dimension. In our previous work, the work of Lewin has been included in the more general framework of group extensions, and generalizations to time-spans on multiple timelines have been proposed. The goal of this paper is to show that such generalizations have a categorical background in free monoidal categories generated by a group-as-category. In particular, symmetric monoidal categories allow to deal with the possible interexchanges between timelines. We also show that more general time-spans can be considered, in which single time-spans are encapsulated in a "bracket" of time-spans, which allows for the description of complex rhythms.Comment: 17 pages; 7 figures - Minor corrections brought to the first versions; comments welcom

Total quality management and public administration: the case of Vila Real town hall

The quality movement is based on a main idea: every good and service must have the maximum quality. To get to the bottom of this movement one has to understand in the first place the implications of its assumptions and how they reflect themselves upon the institutions (Connor, 1997). In most countries, public administration is the economic sector which weights more heavily on employment and also the one which produces more goods and creates more services. Naturally one cannot remain indifferent to this Total Quality Management (TQM) movement in public administration. The Government is aware that "quality is now recognized and accepted worldwide as the client’s satisfaction at an adequate cost and an imperative for all public organizations (…) in view of the public’s and consumers’ growing awareness of their rights.” (DL n.º 166-A/99 de 13 de Maio). In Portugal, public administration faces new and more complex challenges everyday as a result of economic, social and technologic changes the country is going through. Thus it is the aim of the present paper to try and answer some questions, namely: how can the town hall of Vila Real cope with the TQM implementation in a context of change? Are there any obstacles or else favourable conditions to that implementation

A Model of the Tonal-Chromatic System and Its Application to Selected Works of Gustav Mahler

During the latter half of the twentieth century there was a marked shift in the way that many scholars approached analysis of late-nineteenth-century tonality. This shift in approach was motivated by the behavior and interaction of harmonic and melodic entities encountered in the music of the great composers of the nineteenth century, such as Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Mahler, Wagner, and Strauss. The question arose: did the diatonic system remain at the heart of tonality during the late nineteenth century, or—as some propose—did a new chromatic-based tonality emerge? The acceptance of this new chromatic-based tonality is at the heart of this project. In order to address the acceptance of this premise, this dissertation brings together two disparate strands of research and posits a system termed the tonal-chromatic scale. First, the writings of Mitchell, Marra, and Proctor help define the need for and structure of a chromatic scale that implies tonal function; second, the mechanics of transformational theory, stemming from the work of Lewin underpins the methodology of the system. The recent work of Rings is an influential aspect of the methodology. Throughout past century, different analysts have used a myriad of methodologies to explore the complex musical language of Gustav Mahler. Mahler’s work represents an important turning point in the evolution of tonal music. Specifically, his work contributed to the onset of and evolution toward the complete breakdown of tonality. The chromatic tendencies in Mahler’s music make it an especially relevant candidate for analysis using this type of system. Even though his music exhibits an inordinate amount of chromaticism, the pillars of functional tonality are still operative. Three selected works of Gustav Mahler serve as the examples of the analytical usefulness of the proposed system: 1) the first movement of the Piano Quartet in A minor, which was composed as a student at the Vienna conservatory; 2) the fourth movement of Symphony no. 5, Adagietto; and 3) Kindertotenlieder, no. 2, “Nun seh’ ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen.

A Transformational Approach to Japanese Traditional Music of the Edo Period

Analysis of sōkyoku jiuta, Japanese traditional music of the Edo period for koto and shamisen, has in the past relied primarily on static tetrachordal or hexachordal models. The present study takes a transformational approach to traditional Japanese music. Specifically, it develops a framework for six-pitch hexachordal space inspired by Steven Rings’s transformational approach to tonal music. This novel voice-leading space yields insights into intervallic structure, trichordal transposition and hexachordal voice leading and transformations of this music at both its surface and large-scale levels. A side-by-side comparison with Rings’s approach highlights differences between the hexachordal and diatonic systems

Science Goals and Overview of the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma (ECT) Suite on NASA’s Van Allen Probes Mission

The Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP)-Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma (ECT) suite contains an innovative complement of particle instruments to ensure the highest quality measurements ever made in the inner magnetosphere and radiation belts. The coordinated RBSP-ECT particle measurements, analyzed in combination with fields and waves observations and state-of-the-art theory and modeling, are necessary for understanding the acceleration, global distribution, and variability of radiation belt electrons and ions, key science objectives of NASA’s Living With a Star program and the Van Allen Probes mission. The RBSP-ECT suite consists of three highly-coordinated instruments: the Magnetic Electron Ion Spectrometer (MagEIS), the Helium Oxygen Proton Electron (HOPE) sensor, and the Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope (REPT). Collectively they cover, continuously, the full electron and ion spectra from one eV to 10’s of MeV with sufficient energy resolution, pitch angle coverage and resolution, and with composition measurements in the critical energy range up to 50 keV and also from a few to 50 MeV/nucleon. All three instruments are based on measurement techniques proven in the radiation belts. The instruments use those proven techniques along with innovative new designs, optimized for operation in the most extreme conditions in order to provide unambiguous separation of ions and electrons and clean energy responses even in the presence of extreme penetrating background environments. The design, fabrication and operation of ECT spaceflight instrumentation in the harsh radiation belt environment ensure that particle measurements have the fidelity needed for closure in answering key mission science questions. ECT instrument details are provided in companion papers in this same issue. In this paper, we describe the science objectives of the RBSP-ECT instrument suite on the Van Allen Probe spacecraft within the context of the overall mission objectives, indicate how the characteristics of the instruments satisfy the requirements to achieve these objectives, provide information about science data collection and dissemination, and conclude with a description of some early mission results

Southern California Regional Transit Training Consortium: Skills Gap & Needs Assessment

The transit sector grows and evolves quickly with the needs of growing, busy cities. With this growth comes a need for more transit workers and more training to ensure workers can best serve their diverse communities. This report contains a transit training needs assessment and gap analysis to identify the most pressing challenges of the evolving transit workforce served by the Southern California Regional Transit Training Consortium (SCRTTC). Most importantly, this report documents and determines SCRTTC priorities to ensure the incumbent and future transit workforce is equipped with the professional and technological skills required to address the transformational trends affecting the transit sector. The report primarily utilized qualitative methods with the use of a series of interviews, a focus group, a workshop, and an online survey. Above all, this assessment discovered that existing SCRTTC training curriculum is respected, and there is strong demand for additional topics. Transit maintenance professionals consistently endorsed the value and quality of SCRTTC training—they just want more of it. They want it to be developed more efficiently and at a higher volume. They seek more localized and customized delivery methods for training and curriculum. All of those findings compel a question: How can SCRTTC make organizational changes to more rapidly develop curriculum and provide targeted training programs for technicians? This report recommends SCRTTC integrate a suite of digital products into the SCRTTC website to respond to the needs documented in this assessment—namely higher capacity for more training offerings and more online delivery methods while simultaneously enhancing member demands for more customized and location-based training. Implementing the digital platform recommended in this report would empower SCRTTC leadership to foster increased interactivity between transit agencies, training partners, and SCRTTC management. These digital tools would enable SCRTTC to expand its coverage to all of California. This statewide approach to transit training could be used to implement similar consortia in states throughout the U.S

Introducing the Green Book: A practical planning tool for adapting South African settlements to climate change

The Green Book is not a book, but a novel, practical online planning tool to support the adaptation of South African settlements to the impacts of climatic changes and severe events. It provides evidence of current and future (2050) climate risks and vulnerability for every local municipality in South Africa (including settlements) in the form of climate-change projections, multidimensional vulnerability indicators, population-growth projections, and climate hazard and impact modelling. Based on this evidence, the Green Book developed a menu of planning-related adaptation actions and offers support in the selection of appropriate actions from this menu to be integrated into local development strategies and plans. The second half of this article describes the steps involved in the process of developing and structuring this menu of actions and explains how the information contained in the Green Book can be used to promote the planning of climate-resilient settlements in South Africa