A Boolean theory of signatures for tonal scales

We explore the concept of tonal signatures developed and put into musical practice by one of us (Mezzadri). A tonal signature of a scale S is a minimal subset of notes within S that is not contained in any scale S' different from S. We present a set covering model to Find a smallest signature. We also show that the signatures of a scale are the prime implicants of a suitable monotone Boolean function represented by a Conjunctive Normal Form. On this ground, we introduce a more general notion of Boolean signature, depending on a Boolean operator. The computational machinery for generating Boolean signatures remains essentially the same. The richness and variety of Boolean signatures has a great potential for the development of new paradigms in polytonal harmony. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.