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Whole-Tone Scale
(redirected from whole-tone scales)

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Whole-Tone Scale 

a scale composed entirely of whole tones, six to the octave. The scale was used as a comic device by W. A. Mozart in the sextet A Musical Joke (1787), and it is encountered from time to time in romantic music. M. I. Glinka used the whole-tone scale in Ruslan and Liudmila as the motif identifying Chernomor (the “Chernomor scale”); the scale has also been used by other Russian composers, such as A. S. Dargomyzhskii and A. P. Borodin, and by French impressionist composers. As the expression of a unique “augmented chord harmony,” the whole-tone scale came to be used as the harmonic foundation of individual sections of a work or occasionally of entire compositions, for example, the prelude Voiles by C. Debussy. By the mid-20th century, the expressive possibilities of the whole-tone scale had essentially been exhausted, and it is now used very rarely.
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With its use of whole-tone scales and densely chromatic harmonies to depict Kashchey's magic kingdom, the score (completed in 1901 and revised five years later) is reckoned to be one of the composer's most adventurous.
LPO/Jurowski by guardian.co.uk / guardian.co.uk
Characteristics include changing meters, modality, open fifths, pentatonicism, clusters, quartal chords and whole-tone scales.
Rejoice! Engaging Hymn Settings for Piano by Luther, Sigrid / American Music Teacher
Open fifths, fourths and tritones, modality and whole-tone scales abound.
Romantiques: Trois poemes pour voix et piano. (Voice) by Peeler, Karen / American Music Teacher
 
 
 
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