Editing Whole-tone scale

{{Short description|Scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by a whole tone}}
{{Infobox musical scale
| name=Whole-tone scale
| pitch_classes =6
| qualities={{unbulleted list|[[Maximal evenness]]|[[Generated collection|Degenerate well-formed collection]]}}
| Forte number=6-35
| complement=6-35
}}
[[File:Whole tone scales diagram.png|thumb|The two whole-tone scales as a symmetrical partitioning of the [[chromatic scale]];<ref>Piston, Walter (1987/1941). ''Harmony'', p. 490. 5th edition revised by Devoto, Mark. W. W. Norton, New York/London. {{ISBN|0-393-95480-3}}.</ref> if C=0 then the top stave has even (02468t) and the bottom has odd (13579e) pitches]]

In [[music]], a '''whole-tone scale''' is a [[scale (music)|scale]] in which each [[Musical note|note]] is separated from its neighbors by the [[interval (music)|interval]] of a [[whole tone]]. In twelve-tone [[equal temperament]], there are only two [[Complement (music)#Aggregate complementation|complementary]] whole-tone scales, both six-note or ''[[Hexatonic scale|hexatonic]]'' scales. A single whole-tone scale can also be thought of as a "six-tone equal temperament".

:<score sound="1"> {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\relative c' {
  \clef treble \time 6/4
  c4 d e fis gis ais c
} }
</score>

:<score sound="1"> {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\relative c' {
  \clef treble \time 6/4
  b4 des es f g a b
} }
</score>

The whole-tone scale has no [[leading tone]] and because all tones are the same distance apart, "no single tone stands out, [and] the scale creates a blurred, indistinct effect".<ref>[[Roger Kamien|Kamien, Roger]] (2008). ''Music: An Appreciation'', Sixth Brief Edition, p.308. {{ISBN|978-0-07-340134-8}}.</ref> This effect is especially emphasised by the fact that [[triad (music)|triads]] built on such scale tones are all [[augmented triad]]s. Indeed, all six tones of a whole-tone scale can be played simply with two augmented triads whose roots are a major second apart. Since they are [[symmetric scale|symmetrical]], whole-tone scales do not give a strong impression of the [[tonic (music)|tonic]] or [[tonality]].

{{Blockquote|Only two triads are possible, both of them augmented, and...all inversions sound alike. All 'progressions' tend to have the same tonal character. What one hears are [[tone center]]s rather than tonics, and only when they are stressed [emphasized], as by repetition or duration. <!--new paragraph-->It cannot be denied that the small number of possible different intervals [only even semitone intervals: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10] and nonequivalent chords available in the whole-tone scale results in a soft-edged, neutral kind of sound lacking in tonal contrast.... Since the 1930s...whole-tone harmony...has become one of the platitudes of the "[[film score|Hollywood Style]]."|[[Walter Piston]]<ref>Piston (1987/1941), p. 492.</ref>}}

The composer [[Olivier Messiaen]] called the whole-tone scale his first [[modes of limited transposition|mode of limited transposition]]. The composer and music theorist [[George Perle]] calls the whole-tone scale [[interval cycle]] 2, or C2. Since there are only two possible whole-tone-scale positions (that is, the whole-tone scale can be transposed only once), it is either C2<sup>0</sup> or C2<sup>1</sup>. For this reason, the whole-tone scale is also [[Maximal evenness|maximally even]] and may be considered a [[generated collection]].

Due to this symmetry, the [[hexachord]] consisting of the whole-tone scale is not distinct under inversion or more than one transposition. Thus many composers have used one of the "almost whole-tone" hexachords, whose "individual structural differences can be seen to result only from a difference in the 'location', or placement, of a semitone within the otherwise whole-tone series."<ref>Schmalfeldt, Janet (1983). ''Berg's Wozzeck: Harmonic Language and Dramatic Design'', p.48. {{ISBN|0-300-02710-9}}.</ref> [[Alexander Scriabin]]'s [[mystic chord]] is a primary example, being a whole-tone scale with one note raised a [[semitone]]; this alteration allows for a greater variety of resources through transposition.<ref>"The Evolution of Twelve-Note Music", p. 56. Oliver Neighbor. ''[[Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association]]'', 81st session (1954–1955), pp. 49–61.</ref>

==Classical music==
{{See also|List of pieces that use the whole-tone scale}}

In 1662, [[Johann Rudolf Ahle]] wrote a melody to the lyrics of [[Franz Joachim Burmeister]]'s "[[Es ist genug]]" (It is enough), beginning it with four notes of the whole-tone scale on the four syllables.{{Clarify|date=August 2019|reason=Why is this a whole-tone scale and not the first four notes of the Lydian mode? After all, there is a semitone next.}} [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] chose the [[chorale]] to end his cantata [[O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60|''O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort'', BWV 60]], set for four parts. The first four measures are shown below.

:<score sound="1">
   \new PianoStaff <<
      \new Staff <<
         \new Voice \relative c' {
             \stemUp \clef treble \key f \major \time 4/4
             \[ f2 g4 a
             b2 \] r4 b
             c4 g g bes!
             a2.
             }
         \new Voice \relative c' {
             \stemDown
              c2 c4 bes8 a
              e'2 s4 e
              e4. f8 e d e c
              f2.
              }
            >>
     \new Staff <<
         \new Voice \relative c' {
             \stemUp \clef bass \key f \major \time 4/4
             a2 g4 d'
             d2 r4 gis,
             a8 b c4 c c
             c2.
             }
         \new Voice \relative c {
             \stemDown
             f2 e4 fis
             gis2 s4 e
             a8 g!16 f e8 d c bes! a g!
             f2.
             }
         >>
    >>
</score>
[[File:Sheherazade opening, trombone bass.wav|thumb|Sheherazade opening, trombone bass]]

[[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] also used the scale in his ''[[A Musical Joke|Musical Joke]]'', for strings and horns.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/romanticgenerati0000rose/page/556|title=The Romantic Generation|last=Rosen|first=Charles|author-link=Charles Rosen|isbn=0674779339|location=Cambridge, Mass.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/romanticgenerati0000rose/page/556 556]|oclc=31710528|date=January 1995}}</ref>

[[File:Chopin Prelude Op 28 No 19 consecutive diminished seventh chords as whole tone scale harmony.png|thumb|550px|center|Whole-tone scales created by consecutive [[secondary chord|secondary]] [[diminished seventh chord]]s in Chopin's [[Preludes (Chopin)|Op. 28, No. 19: Prelude]] (1832)<ref>Piston (1987/1941), p. 491. Piston analyses {{nowrap|vii{{music|dim}}7}} as {{nowrap|V{{sup sub|{{music|dim}}|9}}}} (with a missing/implied root) and doesn't include macro analysis.</ref> The notes of one whole-tone scale are colored red (E{{music|b}}) and the notes of the other are blue (E); chromaticism is accompanied by whole-tone scale melodic progression, as in the bass.
[[File:Chopin Prelude Op 28 No 19 consecutive diminished seventh chords as whole tone scale harmony.mid|thumb|center]]]]

In the 19th century, Russian composers went further with melodic and harmonic possibilities of the scale, often to depict the ominous; examples include the endings of the [[overture]]s to [[Mikhail Glinka|Glinka]]'s opera ''[[Ruslan and Lyudmila (opera)|Ruslan and Lyudmila]]'' and [[Alexander Borodin|Borodin]]'s ''[[Prince Igor]]'', and the Commander's theme in [[Alexander Dargomyzhsky|Dargomyzhsky]]'s ''[[The Stone Guest (Dargomyzhsky)|The Stone Guest]]''. Further examples can be found in the works of [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]]: the sea king's music in ''[[Sadko (opera)|Sadko]]'' and also in ''[[Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)|Scheherazade]]''. Shown below is the opening theme to ''Scheherazade'', which is "simply a descending whole-tone scale with [[diatonic]] trimmings."<ref>Abraham, Gerald. "The Whole-Tone Scale in Russian Music", p. 602, ''[[The Musical Times]]'', vol. 74, no. 1085. (July 1933), pp. 602–604.</ref> Notes in the whole-tone scale are highlighted.

:<score sound="1">
  \relative c{
    \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"tuba"
    \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t
    \tempo 4 = 130
    \clef bass
    \key g \major
    \time 2/2
      \once \override NoteHead.color = #red e2 \ff b \override NoteHead.color = #red d~ \times 2/3 { d4 c \override NoteHead.color = #black b } \override NoteHead.color = #red c2.~\startTrillSpan c8. \override NoteHead.color = #black g16\stopTrillSpan \override NoteHead.color = #red ais2\accent\staccato fis\accent\staccato
  }
</score>

(For some short piano pieces written completely in whole-tone scale, see Nos. 1, 6, and 7 from [[Vladimir Rebikov|V.A. Rebikov's]] [http://imslp.org/wiki/Une_f%C3%AAte%2C_Op.38_(Rebikov%2C_Vladimir_Ivanovich) ''Празднество'' (''Une fête''), Op. 38], from 1907.)

[[H. C. Colles]] names as the "childhood of the whole-tone scale" the music of [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]] and [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]] in France and Austria and then Russians Glinka and Dargomyzhsky.<ref>"The Childhood of the Whole-Tone Scale", pp. 17-19. H. C. Colles. ''[[The Musical Times]]'', vol. 55, no. 851. (January 1, 1914), pp. 16–20.</ref> [[Claude Debussy]], who had been influenced by Russians, along with other [[Impressionist music|impressionist]] composes made extensive use of whole-tone scales. ''[[Voiles]]'', the second piece in Debussy's first book of ''[[Préludes (Debussy)|Préludes]]'', is almost entirely within one whole-tone scale.<ref>Benward & Saker (2009). ''Music in Theory and Practice: Volume II'', p. 246. Eighth edition. {{ISBN|978-0-07-310188-0}}.</ref><ref>Benward & Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I'', p. 39. Seventh edition. {{ISBN|978-0-07-294262-0}}.</ref> The opening measures are shown below.

:<score sound="1">
    {
      \new PianoStaff <<
        \new Staff <<
            \relative c'' {
                \tempo Modéré 8 = 88
                \clef treble \key c \major \time 2/4
                r4^\markup { "(Dans un rythme sans rigueur et caressant.)" } <e gis>8--~(_\markup { \dynamic p \italic "très doux" } <e gis>32 <d fis> <c e> <bes d>
                <aes c>8..\< <gis' c>32 <fis bes>4)\>
                r4\! <e gis>8--~(_\markup { \dynamic p } <e gis>32\> <d fis> <c e> <bes d>\!
                <aes c>4~_\markup { \italic "più" \dynamic p } <aes c>16\> <fis bes> <e aes> <d fis>)\!
                }
            >>
        \new Staff <<
            \relative c' {
                \clef bass \key c \major \time 2/4
                R2 R R R
                }
            >>
    >> }
</score>

[[Janáček]]'s use of the scale in the bracing opening to the second movement of his ''[[Sinfonietta (Janáček)|Sinfonietta]]'' is, to quote William W. Austin, "utterly different". Austin writes, "Janáček’s free [[chromaticism]] never loses touch with a diatonic scale for long. Though the whole-tone scale is prominent in much of his music after 1905 when he encountered Debussy, it serves simply to fit the motifs over [[augmented chord]]s. The same motifs return from the whole-tone to the diatonic scale without emphasizing the contrast."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/musicin20thcentu0000aust/page/81|title=Music in the 20th Century: From Debussy through Stravinsky|last=Austin|first=William W.|date=1966|publisher=W. W. Norton|isbn=0393097048|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/musicin20thcentu0000aust/page/81 81]|oclc=504195}}</ref> The first measures of the second movement of ''Sinfonietta'' are shown below.

[[File:Janacek Sinfonietta 2nd movement opening two measures.png|thumb|center|650x650px|[[File:Janacek Sinfonietta 2nd movement opening two measures.mid]]]]

[[Giacomo Puccini]] used whole-tone scales as well as [[pentatonic scale]]s in his 1904 opera ''[[Madama Butterfly]]'' to imitate east Asian music styles.

The first of [[Alban Berg]]'s [[Seven Early Songs (Berg)|Seven Early Songs]] opens with a whole-tone passage both in the orchestral accompaniment and in the vocal line that enters a bar later.<ref>Berg (1928), Sieben Fruhe Lieder, Wien, Universal Edition</ref> Berg also quotes the Bach chorale setting referred to above in his [[Violin Concerto (Berg)|Violin Concerto]]. The last four notes of the [[tone row|12-tone row]] Berg used are B, C{{music|#}}, E{{music|b}} and F, which, together with the first note, G, comprise five of the six notes of the scale.)

[[Béla Bartók]] also uses whole-tone scales in his [[String Quartet No. 5 (Bartók)|fifth string quartet]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra|url=https://archive.org/details/bartkconcertofor00coop|url-access=limited|last=Cooper|first=David|date=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0521480043|location=Cambridge|page=[https://archive.org/details/bartkconcertofor00coop/page/n77 70]|oclc=32626039}}</ref> [[Ferruccio Busoni]] used the whole-tone scale in the right hand part of the "Preludietto, Fughetta ed Esercizio" of his ''[[An die Jugend]]'', and [[Franz Liszt]] had used the technique as early as 1831, in the ''Grande Fantaisie sur La clochette''.<ref>Jeremy Nicholas, "Loving Liszt", ''[[Limelight (magazine)|Limelight]]'', April 2011, p. 50</ref>

==Jazz==
Some early instances of the use of the scale in [[jazz]] writing can be found in [[Bix Beiderbecke]]'s "In a Mist" (1928) and [[Don Redman]]’s "Chant of the Weed" (1931). In 1958, [[Gil Evans]] recorded an arrangement that gives striking coloration to the "abrupt whole-tone lines"<ref>Harrison, Max (1960) "Gil Evans: the Arranger as re-composer", article in ''Jazz Monthly'', February.</ref> of Redman's original. [[Wayne Shorter]]'s composition "[[JuJu (album)|JuJu]]" (1965),<ref>Wayne Shorter Jazz Play Along, Milwaukee, Hal Leonard</ref> features heavy use of the whole-tone scale, and [[John Coltrane]]'s "One Down, One Up" (1965), is built on two augmented chords arranged in the same simple structure as his earlier tune "[[Impressions (instrumental composition)|Impressions]]".<ref>''Impressions'' (sheet music, 1991) from ''The Music of John Coltrane'', Milwaukee, Hal Leonard</ref>

However, these are only the most overt examples of the use of this scale in jazz. A vast number of jazz tunes, including many standards, use augmented chords and their corresponding scales as well, usually to create tension in [[turnaround (music)|turnaround]]s or as a substitute for a [[dominant seventh chord]]. For instance a G<sup>7</sup> [[Augmented seventh chord|augmented 5th dominant chord]] in which G [[altered scale]] tones would work before resolving to C<sup>7</sup>, a [[tritone substitution]] chord such as D{{music|b}}<sup>9</sup> or D{{music|b}}<sup>7{{music|#}}11</sup> is often used in which D{{music|b}}/G whole-tone scale tones will work, the sharpened 11th degree being a G and the flattened 7th being a C{{music|b}}, the enharmonic equivalent of B, the major third in the G dominant chord.

[[Art Tatum]] and [[Thelonious Monk]] are two pianists who used the whole-tone scale extensively and creatively. Monk's "[[Four in One (composition)|Four in One]]" (1948)<ref>''Four in One'' from Cardenas, S. and Sickler, D. (eds.) ''Thelonious Monk Fakebook'', Milwaukee, Hal Leonard.</ref> and "Trinkle-Tinkle" (1952)<ref>"Trinkle-Tinkle" from Cardenas, S. and Sickler, D. (eds.) ''Thelonious Monk Fakebook'', Milwaukee, Hal Leonard.</ref> are fine examples of this.

A prominent example of the whole-tone scale that made its way into pop music are bars two and four of the opening of [[Stevie Wonder]]'s 1972 song "[[You Are the Sunshine of My Life]]".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Foundations of Rock : From "Blue Suede Shoes" to "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" |author-link=Walter Everett (musicologist) |last=Everett |first=Walter |page=174 |year=2008 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780199718702 }}</ref>

==Non-Western music==
The [[raga]] ''Sahera'' in [[Hindustani classical music]] uses the same intervals as the whole-tone scale. [[Ustad]] [[Mehdi Hassan]] has performed this rāga.{{citation needed|date=February 2012}} ''Gopriya'' is the corresponding [[Carnatic music|Carnatic]] rāgam.

If the name ''whole tone'' used in a broader sense to allow intervals somewhat larger or smaller than 200 cents, then equal divisions of the octave into 5 or 7 steps (240 cents or 171 cents each, respectively) may also be referred to as whole-tone scales. Both are quite common in non-Western music.

==See also==

*[[Altered scale]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070627102245/http://www.learn-piano.org/whole-tone-scale.html The whole tone scale for piano]
* [https://ianring.com/scales/1365 Whole Tone Scale – Analysis]
* [https://www.jazzguitar.be/blog/whole-tone-scale/ The Whole Tone Scale and Applications for Jazz Guitar]

{{Atonality}}
{{Scales}}
{{Musical tuning}}

[[Category:Post-tonal music theory]]
[[Category:Hexatonic scales]]
[[Category:Musical symmetry]]
[[Category:Anhemitonic scales]]
[[Category:Tritonic scales]]