Editing Octatonic scale (section)

===19th century===
In 1800, Beethoven composed his [[Piano Sonata No. 11 (Beethoven)|Piano Sonata No. 11 in B]]{{music|flat}}[[Piano Sonata No. 11 (Beethoven)|, Op. 22]]. The slow movement of this work contains a passage of what was, for its time, highly dissonant harmony. In a lecture (2005),{{sfn|Schiff|2005}} pianist [[András Schiff]] describes the harmony of this passage as "really extraordinary". The chord progressions at the beginning of the second and third bars of this passage are octatonic:[[File:Beethoven Piano Sonata Op 22, 2nd movement, bars 30-32.wav|thumb|Adagio (2nd movement) from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 11, bars 31–33.]]
[[File:Adagio (2nd movement) from Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op.22, bars 31-33.png|thumb|center|500px|Adagio (2nd movement) from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 11, bars 31–33.]]

Octatonic scales can be found in Chopin's Mazurka, Op. 50, No. 3 and in several Liszt piano works: the closing measures of the third ''Étude de Concert'', "Un Sospiro," for example, where (mm. 66–70) the bass contains a complete falling octatonic scale from D-flat to D-flat, in the opening piano cadenzas of [[Totentanz]], in the lower notes between the alternating hands, and in the First Mephisto Waltz, in which a short cadenza (m. 525) makes use of it by harmonizing it with a B-flat Diminished Seventh chord. Later in the 19th century, the notes in the chords of the coronation bells from the opening scene of [[Modest Mussorgsky]]'s opera ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]'', which consist of "two dominant seventh chords with roots a tritone apart" according to Taruskin,{{sfn|Taruskin|1996|loc=283}} are entirely derived from an octatonic scale.
[[File:Coronation scene from Boris Godunov.wav|thumb|Coronation scene from ''Boris Godunov'']]
[[File:Coronation scene from Boris Godunov.png|thumb|center|500px|Coronation scene from ''Boris Godunov''. {{YouTube|1=UEBq-gsdI58|2=Link to passage}}]]
Taruskin continues: "Thanks to the reinforcement the lesson has received in some equally famous pieces like ''[[Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)|Scheherazade]]'', the progression is often thought of as being peculiarly Russian."{{sfn|Taruskin|1996|loc=283}}

[[Tchaikovsky]] was also influenced by the harmonic and coloristic potential of octatonicism. As Mark DeVoto{{sfn|DeVoto|2007|loc=144}} points out, the cascading arpeggios played on the celesta in the "Sugar Plum Fairy" from ''[[The Nutcracker]]'' ballet are made up of dominant seventh chords a minor third apart. [[File:Cascading arpeggios on celesta from Sugar Plum Fairy.wav|thumb|Cascading arpeggios on celesta from Sugar Plum Fairy]][[File:Cascading arpeggios on celesta from the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.png|thumb|center|500px|Cascading arpeggios on celesta from the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.]] "Hagens Watch", one of the darkest and most sinister scenes in [[Richard Wagner]]'s opera ''[[Götterdämmerung]]'' features chromatic harmonies using eleven of the twelve chromatic notes, within which the eight notes of the octatonic scale may be found in bars 9–10 below:
[[File:Wagner, "Hagen's Watch" from Gotterdamerung.png|thumb|center|500px|Wagner, "Hagen's Watch" from ''Götterdämmerung'', act 1<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNkJoZuGJe8 "Hagen's Watch"]</ref>]]