pctheory is a Python library for using atonal music theory. It is useful for both computer-assisted composition in Python and analysis. Some of the many useful features include:
- Set-classes
- Generate all abstract subsets of a set-class
- Get Forte and Carter names for a set-class
- Work with microtonal sets
- Generate set-class-complexes
- Rows
- Generate a twelve-tone matrix
- Generate a rotational array
- Generate an invariance matrix
- Load a random all-interval, all-trichord, ten-trichord, or Babbit ten-trichord row
pctheory is much more specialized than music21, and offers substantially more functionality in atonal theory. Additionally, it does not use music21 objects, so there is less computational overhead when using pctheory. It is not difficult to create music21 objects from pctheory objects, which allows pctheory to be used along with music21.
pctheory is a Python package and can be installed with the command pip install pctheory from the terminal on your computer (Command Prompt or PowerShell on Windows, Terminal on Linux or macOS). Note that you need Python 3.10 or newer.
If the pip install command fails, you will need to build the wheel yourself. Create a virtual environment with the packages build, setuptools, and wheel installed. Then run the command python -m build from the root of this repository. The wheel will be found in the dist/ directory.
There are three Jupyter notebooks in this repository that you can consult to get started with pctheory.
pctheory requires Python 3.10 or newer.
Documentation can be found at https://pctheory.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.
pctheory is copyright © 2024 by Jeffrey Martin. This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. To view the GNU General Public License v.3.0, visit https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html.