Interval cycle

A superscript may be added to distinguish between transpositions, using 0–11 to indicate the lowest pitch class in the cycle.

Interval cycles assume the use of equal temperament and may not work in other systems such as just intonation.

Put another way, a major third above G♯ is B♯, which is only enharmonically the same as C in systems such as equal temperament, in which the diesis has been tempered out.

A minimum of three pitches are needed to represent an interval cycle.

[2] Cyclic tonal progressions in the works of Romantic composers such as Gustav Mahler and Richard Wagner form a link with the cyclic pitch successions in the atonal music of Modernists such as Béla Bartók, Alexander Scriabin, Edgard Varèse, and the Second Viennese School (Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern).