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Fractals, Vol. 15, No. 1 (2007) 89–95

c World Scientific Publishing Company

STRUCTURAL SCALING IN BACH’S

CELLO SUITE NO. 3

HARLAN J. BROTHERS
Director of Technology, The Country School
341 Opening Hill Road
Madison, CT 06443, USA
hbrothers@thecountryschool.org
harlan@brotherstechnology.com

Received April 30, 2006

Accepted May 24, 2006

Abstract
The Bourrée Part I from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3 provides a clear example
of structural scaling. The recursive form of this structure can be visualized in the manner of a
well known fractal construction — the Cantor set.

Keywords: Fractal; Music; Scaling; Structure; Power Law; Recursion; Bach; Cantor.

1. INTRODUCTION it possesses what we perceive as depth. That is

Music is a profoundly rich and often complicated
form of artistic expression. In contrast to dancing,
writing, and the visual arts, music is far less tan-
gible. Its ephemeral form is fundamentally psycho-
logical in nature.
In a purely physical sense, music is a serial phe-
nomenon; a longitudinal sound wave that unfolds
one moment at a time. Psychologically, however,
to say, polyphonic music is heard as the simul-
taneous propagation of a collection of individual
sounds that are layered or intertwined. The precise
mechanism for how we process, understand, and
appreciate music is not well-understood. Nonethe-
less, it seems that the truth of its mysterious power
to emotionally move and inspire us is universally
accepted.

89
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90 H. J. Brothers
The fact that musical structure takes shape in
the mind presents unique challenges with regard to
assessing the existence, manner, and extent of frac-
tal scaling in a given composition. However, the idea
that we might naturally compose in some inherently
fractal fashion should not be surprising; we are, in a
fundamental sense, fractal beings living in a fractal
universe.1,2 Not only are we physiologically fractal
with regard to our nervous, vascular, and respira-
tory systems, but expanding research shows grow-
ing evidence of underlying fractal structure in our
creative and artistic endeavors.1
The earliest attempt to measure fractal-related
scaling in music was carried out by Richard Voss
and John Clarke while Voss was a graduate student
at the University of California.3 They found strong
indications of 1/f scaling in the distribution of
both program loudness and the set of zero-crossings
for the audio signals of several different genres of
music.
The idea that music possessed this type of inher-
ent power law relation led Voss, and others, to
explore the algorithmic generation of compositions
using 1/f scaling as a guideline.4,5 It turns out
that music composed in this fashion sounds rela-
tively pleasing to most listeners. By contrast, music
generated using 1/f 0 scaling (associated with white
noise) sounds too random, while music derived from
1/f 2 scaling (associated with brown noise) sounds
too monotonous. Based on these findings, Gardner
later wrote a column in Scientific American on frac-
tals, scaling noise, and algorithmic composition.6
In discussing music’s requisite mixture of surprise
and expectation, he characterized the significance
of Voss’ and Clarke’s work by saying “...what Voss
has done is to suggest a mathematical measure of
the mixture.”
Due to the circumstances of their discovery, Voss
and Clarke used audio signals as the basis for their
analyses. However, given the highly complicated
nature of musical sound, this method has limita-
tions; it is currently problematic to electronically
discern and quantify specific musical characteristics
directly from audio data.
An alternative approach to ascertaining and
assessing the fractal properties of music is to use
a
MIDI is an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It is a communications protocol that encodes information about
characteristics like timing, pitch, volume, and instrument selection. This data is then interpreted by a dedicated synthesizer
or computer sound card and played live in much the same fashion as a scroll-driven player piano performs.
b
Le Ray Au Soleyl, composed by Johannes Ciconia (ca. 1335–1411) is one of the earliest known examples of a three part
mensuration canon.
a pre-audio representation of a composition. This
can be thought of as a way of measuring, in a
pure sense, what the composer conceived, inde-
pendently of a particular orchestration, the per-
formance of the musicians, or the acoustic quali-
ties of the instruments. The representation can take
the form of either a written score or its electronic
analog, a MIDI data file.a Accurately implemented
MIDI representations are ideal for examining dis-
tributions with respect to pitch, interval, and note
duration.
As with all scientific inquiry, the appropriate
methodology for measurement and analysis is best
determined by a well-informed understanding of the
phenomenon being studied.
2. FRACTAL SCALING IN MUSIC
There are many ways in which fractal structure can
manifest itself in music. The four most fundamental
of these can be categorized as follows:
(1) Motivic scaling has been practiced since at
least the late 14th century with the develop-
ment of the mensuration or prolation canon
(Ref. 7, pp. 197–198).b This type of canon is
characterized by a melody or rhythmic motif
that is repeated in different voices simultane-
ously at different tempos. Modern composers
such as Martin Bresnick, György Ligeti, Con-
lon Nancarrow, and Arvo Pärt have developed
sophisticated compositional styles that often
incorporate forms of motivic scaling. It is easy
to explore this approach to composition using
commercially available MIDI sequencing soft-
ware or algorithmic music programs.8
(2) Duration scaling requires that, given a hetero-
geneous distribution of values, the overall sta-
tistical distribution of note durations satisfies a
power law relation. A composition that exhibits
motivic scaling will also exhibit duration scal-
ing if its primary voice consists of isochronal
pitches.
(3) Pitch-related scaling can take several different
forms. While a detailed account is beyond the
March 7, 2007 13:22 00337
scope of this article, the first clearly success-
ful pitch-related analysis of music was devel-
oped by the father and son team, Kenneth and
Andrew Hsu, who found evidence of interval
scaling in the works of Bach, Mozart, and a
collection of Swiss folk songs.9 As in the case
of duration scaling, it is the statistical distri-
bution of elements that satisfies a power law
relation.
(4) Structural scaling refers to large scale patterns
in characteristics such as song form or dynam-
ics. These patterns display a nested or recur-
sive form.
It is important to note that, regardless of the
type of scaling under consideration, in order to ful-
fill a power law relation, any inherent pattern in
a group of musical elements requires the presence
of a minimum of three distinct levels of scaling.10
This requirement reflects the fact that the log-log
plot of a power law relation appears linear; at least
three data points are needed to assert a linear
relationship. For example, a mensural canon with
only two unique voices cannot be said to possess a
power law relation and hence cannot be considered
fractal.
3. BACH’S CELLO SUITE NO. 3
Johann Sebastian Bach is widely acknowledged for
his exceptional skill in combining aesthetic sensibil-
ity with mathematically derived musical transforms
(Ref. 7, pp. 446–449).11 Although his works were
not, in all likelihood, “algorithmic” in the modern,
recursive sense of the word, the structural scaling
found in the first Bourrée from Cello Suite No. 3
suggests an innately hierarchical construction. The
pattern of this scaling satisfies an easily measured
power law relation and can be viewed from a fractal
perspective.
Based on the written score, this paper will exam-
ine the structure of first section of the first Bourrée
with respect to phrasing. Musical phrasing is analo-
gous to linguistic phrasing in that it deals with how
certain sequences of notes are “naturally” associ-
ated with each other.
This particular piece of music can be decomposed
into phrases that occur in a pattern of the form
c
An excerpt from a recording by Pablo Casals on the Naxos Historical label (CD 8110915-16) can be heard at http://www.
brotherstechnology.com/math/fractals-supp.html.
d
In music analysis, the symbol “↓” and “v” respectively denote “download transposition” and “variation.”
Structural Scaling in Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3 91
AAB, wherein the duration of each A section is
“short” relative to each B section, which lasts twice
as long. Figure 1 shows the first 16 measures of this
piece (eight measures repeated) along with horizon-
tal braces that mark phrase groupings.c
The first beat of music is a phrase, m1, that
begins with a double eighth note pickup followed
by a quarter note (see Appendix for a list of terms
along with relevant note durations and their sym-
bols). Phrase m1 forms the pattern:
Short (1 quarter beat) Short (1 quarter beat)
Long (1 half beat).
The same can be said for the next three-note
phrase, m2. Figure 2 shows a graphical represen-
tation of these “Level 1” phrases. In the following
graphs, blue notes constitute short elements, red
notes constitute long elements, and gray notes are
of no concern. The x-axis is time and the y-axis is
pitch.
Referring back to Fig. 1, the phrases m1 and m2,
are each one-beat tonic phrases leading to the two-
beat dominant phrase, m3. Together, m1, m2, and
m3 form the antecedent, s1, which consists of the
pattern.
Short (1 beat) Short (1 beat) Long (2 beats).
The last half beat of measure 2 begins with a dia-
tonic transposition of m1, m1↓, which is followed
by a diatonic transposition of m2, m2↓.d These
two one-beat dominant phrases (the second pair of
three-note phrases in Fig. 2) are followed by the
two-beat tonic variation of m3, m3v↓, which com-
pletes the consequent, s2. Figure 3 shows a graphi-
cal representation of these “Level 2” phrases.
The first eight beats of music can therefore be
divided into two four-beat subjects, s1 and s2.
These directly precede a long, eight-beat continua-
tion, s3. Taking s1, s2, and s3 together, once again,
we find the pattern:
Short (4 beats) Short (4 beats) Long (8 beats).
Figure 4 shows a graphical representation of these
“Level 3” phrases.
What we find then is a nested series of scaled
phrases of the same form, AAB. This pattern, in
fact, continues to the extent that the first eight mea-
sures repeat, giving us two “short” sections that
are then followed by an extended and harmonically
March 7, 2007 13:22 00337

92 H. J. Brothers

Fig. 1 Analysis of the first 16 measures of the Bourrée from Suite No. 3.

Fig. 2 A graphical representation of the Level 1 phrases for the first eight measures (with pickup). Blue notes are members
of “short” groups and red notes are members of “long” groups.

Fig. 3 Graph of the Level 2 phrases.

Fig. 4 Graph of the Level 3 phrases.

March 7, 2007 13:22 00337
different 20 measure, “long” section. Interestingly,
although Bach wrote the piece with a repeat symbol
at the end of this 20-measure section, anecdotal evi-
dence suggests that some cellists choose to perform
it without this second repeat.12 Performed in this
fashion, the Bourrée Part I exhibits a full four levels
of structural scaling symmetry.
4. VISUALIZING THE
STRUCTURE OF THE
COMPOSITION
The Cantor set is a classic fractal that can be
constructed by beginning with a line segment and
successively removing the middle third of each
remaining segment.13 In the limit, it has zero
length. Because the substance of the line disappears
rapidly, its structure is often illustrated by reverse-
stacking successive iterations of the set, beginning
with the full line segment. The combined iterations
then take the form of what is sometimes referred to
as a “Cantor comb” (see Fig. 5).e
The Cantor set can be modeled using L-systems,
a formal set of rules and symbols that can be used
to generate a wide variety of fractal constructions.14
Specifically, it is produced by the substitution map
A→ABA, B→BBB. In this light, it is easy to
see that the A and B sections do not necessar-
ily have to correspond to the classic “line, gap”
sequence. Indeed, depending on the field of inter-
est, one could assign an unlimited number of related
Fig. 5
Fig. 6 This Cantor map of the first 16 measures illustrates the nested structure of the phrasing.
e
The term “Cantor comb” was originally used to describe the product of the Cantor set with an interval. Its usage has
subsequently broadened to include comb-like objects generated by a Cantor process.
f
Examples of musical compositions based on substitution maps can be heard at http://www.brotherstechnology.com/math/
fractals-supp.html.
Structural Scaling in Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3 93
characteristic pairs such as “red, blue,” “loud, soft,”
or most broadly, “same, different.”f
In this composition, the hierarchical nesting of
the AAB pattern (short, short, long), can be rep-
resented in the form of a Cantor map wherein each
A section is, itself, composed of the pattern AAB.
Figure 6 shows a map of the first 16 measures of the
piece.
Here, the red regions each represent four beats
(two measures); the blue regions, 1 beat; and the
yellow regions, quarter beats (eighth notes). The
white regions represent the everything that is not
part of a short phrase at each scale of measurement.
Visualizing the composition in this fashion helps
illustrate not only the overall structure of the piece,
but also the relative frequencies of its constituent
elements. In this case, it is easy to see that, across
levels, as the length of the short phrase increases
by a factor of 4, its frequency decreases by a factor
of 1/2.
Figure 7 shows a log-log plot of the count, N ,
against the inverse of the size, s (as measured in
beats), for the short phrases at a given level of scal-
ing. The straight line that results confirms the exis-
tence of a power law relation. The slope, m, of a
line generated in this fashion can be interpreted as
the dimension of the object being measured. In this
case m = 1/2. It is important to emphasize, how-
ever, that this particular value has relevance only in
relation to the characteristic of phrase structure; it
should not be construed as an overall fractal mea-
sure for the composition.
“Cantor comb.”
March 7, 2007 13:22 00337
94 H. J. Brothers
Fig. 7 Log-log plot of the “short phrase” count against the
inverse of their respective sizes as measured in beats.
5. CONCLUSION
Benoit Mandelbrot’s seminal term fractal became
popular with his publication in 1982 of The Frac-
tal Geometry of Nature.g It did not take long
before composers such as György Ligeti and Charles
Wuorinen began to describe their work in relation
to fractal structure.15−17
The fact that Bach was born almost three cen-
turies before the formal concept of fractals came
into existence may well indicate that an intuitive
affinity for fractal structure is, at least for some
composers, an inherent motivational element in the
compositional process. Six centuries of exploration
and development of the mensural canon argue in
favor of this possibility. Further support is sug-
gested by the numerous examples fractal structure
in other areas of artistic endeavor; scaling symmetry
arises in art, architecture, and literature.1
Fractal analysis of music is in its infancy. It is cer-
tainly possible, given Bach’s superlative skill at pat-
tern manipulation and his prodigious body of work,
that the clear, if simple example presented here rep-
resents a rare or even unique case of phrase-related
scaling in the pre-Mandelbrot era. Nonetheless, it is
hoped that the simple fact of its existence will help
promote research that will reveal further examples
of scaling symmetry in the rich and vast body of
musical expression.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to thank Silas Meredith
of the Hopkins School for identifying the musical
g
The earliest published reference to the word fractal can be found in Mandelbrot’s 1975 book entitled Les Objets Fractals:
Forme, Hasard et Dimension (Flammarion, Paris).
subject of this article. Thanks also to Eric Nathan
for his help with formal analysis and to Matthew
Pickett for pointing the author to the work of Mar-
tin Bresnick. Professor Bresnick was, in turn, very
generous with his time and expertise. The author
would like to express deep appreciation to Benoit
Mandelbrot of Yale University for his fundamental
support of this research.
REFERENCES
1. M. L. Frame and B. B. Mandelbrot, Fractal Geome-
try: A Panorama of Fractals and Their Uses, http://
classes.yale.edu/Fractals/Panorama/welcome.html.
2. B. B. Mandelbrot, The Fractal Geometry of Nature
(W. H. Freeman and Co., New York, 1982).
3. R. F. Voss and J. Clarke, 1/f noise in music and
speech, Nature 258 (1975) 317–318.
4. R. F. Voss and J. Clarke, 1/f noise in music: music
from 1/f noise, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 63(1) (1978),
258–263.
5. R. F. Voss, Random fractals: self-affinity in noise,
music, mountains, and clouds, Physica D 38 (1989)
362–371.
6. M. Gardner, Mathematical games: white and brown
music, fractal curves and one-over-f fluctuations,
Sci. Am. 4 (1978) 16–32.
7. D. J. Grout and C. V. Palisca, A History of Western
Music, 7th edn. (W. W. Norton & Co, Inc., 2005).
8. M. L. Frame, G. Booth and H. J. Brothers, Fractal
Music Composer, http://gingerbooth.com/course-
ware/fracmusic.html.
9. K. Hsu and A. Hsu, Fractal geometry of music, Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87 (1990) 938–941.
10. M. L. Frame and H. J. Brothers, Fractal Geom-
etry: Labs, Fractal Music, http://classes.yale.edu/
fractals/ labs/ fractalmusiclab/ FracMusicBground/
Frac.html.
11. D. R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal
Golden Braid (Basic Books, 1980).
12. T. Janof, Conversation with Anner Bylsma, Tutti
Celli, Newsletter of the Internet Cello Society, 4(6)
(1998).
13. E. W. Weisstein et al., Cantor set, from Math-
World — A Wolfram Web Resource, http://math-
world.wolfram.com/CantorSet.html.
14. E. W. Weisstein, Lindenmayer system, from Math-
World — A Wolfram Web Resource, http://math-
world.wolfram.com/LindenmayerSystem.html.
15. J. Rockwell, Laurels at an auspicious time for
György Ligeti, The New York Times, Cultural Desk
(11 November 1986).
March 7, 2007 13:22 00337
16. D. J. Soria, György Ligeti, Musical Am. 107(4)
(September 1987) 12, 14, 15 and 27.
17. C. Wuorinen, Biography, http://www.charleswuori-
nen.com/documents/bio.cw.doc.
Appendix
A.1. Glossary of Musical Terms
Antecedent: The first of a pair of musical state-
ments that complement each other in rhythmic
symmetry and harmonic balance. As with a rhymed
couplet in poetic verse, the dynamics set in motion
during the first section are completed in the second
section.
Beat: The underlying pulse of a composition. This
is often indicated by the movement of the hands
or baton of the conductor or by the click of a
metronome.
Consequent: The second of a pair of musical state-
ments that complement each other in rhythmic
symmetry and harmonic balance. (See Antecedent
above.)
Continuation: A melodic development of a subject
that extends an anticipated resolution of harmony.
(See Subject below.)
Diatonic: The notes that occur naturally in a scale
without being modified are said to be diatonic.
Dominant: The fifth tone of a major or minor
scale. A chord built on the fifth tone of a major scale
(and certain minor scales) is a dominant chord. A
dominant chord tends to engender a sense of antic-
ipation that is resolved by returning to the tonic
chord. (See Tonic below.)
Structural Scaling in Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3 95
Measure: A metrical division of music marked off
by vertical lines (bar lines). Each measure contains
a fixed number of beats. (See Beat above.)
Pickup: A note or short group of notes that pre-
cede the first strong metrical beat of a composition.
Subject: A melody, motif, or theme upon which a
composition is based.
Tonic: The note upon which a scale or key is based;
the first note of a scale or key. A chord built on this
note is the tonic chord.
Transposition: The process of changing the key of
a composition. A diatonic transposition uniformly
shifts a group of notes in a given scale to other
notes in the same scale by a specified number of
scale steps. (See Diatonic above.)
A.2. Duration Values and Their
Symbols
The musical excerpt under consideration consists
of quarter notes and eighth notes. A quarter note
lasts twice as long as an eighth note. Each measure
of this composition contains the equivalent of four
quarters notes (or 8 eighth notes) worth of music.
1 quarter
2 eighths 4 eighths