Whole tone scale
From Free net encyclopedia
In music, a whole tone scale (set form 6-35, 02468t) is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole step. There are only two whole tone scales, both hexachords, each using half of the pitches in the chromatic scale:
- {C, D, E, F#, G#, A#}
- {B, Db, Eb, F, G, A}.
When one of these scales is played on a piano, starting from a low octave and moving up to a high octave, while at the same time pressing the sustain pedal, the result is a "dreamy" sound, such as are used in movies to signal the change from "reality" to a dream, or back from the dream to reality. This effect is especially emphasized by the fact that triads built on such scale tones are augmented. Indeed, one can play all six tones of a whole-tone scale simply with two augmented triads whose roots are a major second apart. Since they are symmetrical, whole tone scales do not give a strong impression of the tonic or tonality.
Use of the melodic whole tone scale can be traced at least as far back as Mozart, in his Musical Joke, for strings and horns. In the 19th century Russian composers went further with melodic and harmonic possibilities of the scale, often to depict the ominous; consider the endings of the overtures to Glinka's opera Ruslan and Ludmila and Borodin's Prince Igor, the Commander's theme in Dargomyzhsky's The Stone Guest, and the opening theme of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade.
Claude Debussy, who had been influenced by Russians, along with other Impressionist composers made extensive use of whole tone scales. The whole tone scale was also used by Alban Berg in his Violin Concerto, and by Bela Bartók in his String Quartet No. 5. Ferruccio Busoni used the whole tone scale in the right hand part of the "Preludietto, Fughetta ed Esercizio" of his An die Jugend.
The whole tone scale is interval cycle 2, or C2. Since there are only two transpositions of the whole tone scale it is either C20 or C21. The whole tone scale is also maximally even and may be considered a generated collection.
Most interesting, the raga Sahera in Hindustani music uses the same intervals as the whole-tone scale. Ustad Mehdi Hassan has performed this raga.
Template:Scale
he:סולם טונים שלמים
it:Scala esatonale
ja:全音音階