Symbolic dynamical scales: modes, orbitals, and transversals

Abstract

We study classes of musical scales obtained from shift spaces in symbolic dynamics through the first symbol rule, which yields scales in any $n$-TET tuning system. The modes are thought as elements of orbit equivalence classes of cyclic shift actions on languages, and we study their orbitals and transversals. We present explicit formulations of the generating functions that allow us to deduce the orbital and transversal dimensions of classes of musical scales generated by vertex shifts, for all $n$, in particular for the 12-TET tuning system.