In music, a whole tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its
neighbors by the interval of a whole step. There are only two complementary
whole tone scales, both six-note or hexatonic scales:
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". 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.
The composer Olivier Messiaen called the whole tone scale his first 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, it is either C20 or C21. For this reason, the whole
tone scale is also 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." Alexander Scriabin's mystic
chord is a primary example, being a whole tone scale with one note raised a
semitone, with this alteration allowing for a greater variety of resources
through transposition. Classical music
Use of the melodic whole tone scale can be traced at least as far back as Johann
Sebastian Bach. The concluding chorale movement of his cantata O Ewigkeit du
Donnerwort BWV60, opens with four notes from the whole tone scale:
Mozart also used the scale 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 Lyudmila and Borodin's Prince
Igor, and the Commander's theme in Dargomyzhsky's The Stone Guest. Further
examples can be found in the works of Rimsky-Korsakov: the sea king's music in
Sadko and also in Scheherezade: , Op. 38, from 1907.) H. C. Colles names
as the "childhood of the whole-tone scale" the music of Berlioz and Schubert
in France and then Russians Glinka and Dargomyzhsky. Claude Debussy, who had
been influenced by Russians, along with other Impressionist composers made
extensive use of whole tone scales: Debussy asks the pianist to play Voiles
"dans un rythme sans rigueur at caressant." The sense of mystery and
ambiguity here even extends to the title of the piece, which translates either as
‘Sails’ or ‘Veils.’ Janáček’s use of the scale in the bracing opening to the
second movement of his Sinfonietta is, to quote Austin "utterly different":
"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 chords.
The same motifs return from the whole-tone to the diatonic scale without
emphasizing the contrast." The first of Alban Berg's Seven Early
Songs opens with a whole-tone passage both in the orchestral accompaniment and
in the vocal line that enters a bar later. Berg also quotes the Bach chorale
setting referred to above in his Violin Concerto. The last four notes of the
12-tone row Berg used are B, C♯, E♭ and F, which, together with the first note,
G, comprise 5 of the 6 notes of the scale.) Béla Bartók also uses whole-tone
scales in his Fifth String Quartet. 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 applied the whole tone scale to parts of
the score of his Dante Symphony, but he had used the technique as early as 1831,
in the Grande Fantaisie sue La clochette.
Jazz harmony The scale is also used extensively in
modern jazz writing and jazz harmony. Wayne Shorter's composition " "Juju"
features heavy use of the whole tone scale, and John Coltrane's "One Down,
One Up" is built on two augmented chords arranged in the same simple structure as
his earlier tune "Impressions". 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 turnarounds or as a substitute for a
dominant seventh chord. For instance a G7 augmented 5th dominant chord in which
G altered scale tones would work before resolving to C major 7, a tritone
substitution chord such as D♭9 or D♭7 augmented 11th is often used in which
D♭/G whole tone scale tones will work, the sharpened 11th degree being a G and
the flattened 7th being a C♭, 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. Thelonious Monk's
"Trinkle-Tinkle" and "Four in One" are fine examples of this.
A prominent example of the whole tone scale that made its way into pop music
are bars 3 and 4 of the opening of Stevie Wonder's song "You are the
Sunshine of my Life". Non-western music
The rāga Sahera in Hindustani classical music uses the same intervals as the
whole tone scale. Ustad Mehdi Hassan has performed this rāga. Gopriya is the
corresponding Carnatic rāgam. See also
List of pieces which use the whole tone scale
Diminished-whole tone scale Sources
External links The whole tone scale for piano