List of pieces which use the whole tone scale

This is a list of notable musical works which use the whole tone scale.

• Béla Bartók
  • Cantata Profana, b. 186–87 (Antokoletz 1984, 245)
  • Concerto for Orchestra, fifth movement, b. 484 (Antokoletz 1984, 263)
  • String Quartet No. 1, end of movement 3 (Antokoletz 1984, 88)
  • String Quartet No. 4, first movement, b. 157–60 (Antokoletz 1984, 280)
  • String Quartet No. 5 "The sequence of tonalities of the single sections [of the sonata form] produce the whole-tone scale" (Bartók 1935), 414); "In the first movement of the Fifth String Quartet...the tonalities of the individual sections form a complete whole-tone scale (B♭-C-D-E-F♯-G♯-B♭)." (Cooper 1996, 70)

• Alban Berg
  • Violin Concerto (Pople 1991, 74–75)
  • "Nacht" from Seven Early Songs (Gorrell 2002, 119)

• Hector Berlioz
  • Francs-Juges Overture (Antokoletz 2004, 312)

• Ferruccio Busoni
  • An die Jugend for piano, the right hand part of the "Preludietto, Fughetta ed Esercizio" is based on the whole tone scale (Stuckenschmidt 1970, 109).

• Frederic Chopin
  • Prelude No. 19, mm. 43–44, in the bass, "while the melody moves down chromatically" (Leikin 2015, 128)

• Alexander Dargomyzhsky
  • The Stone Guest, passage from Act 3 (Andrews 2001)

• Peter Maxwell Davies
  • Symphony No. 3, first movement, horns, between rehearsals P and Q (Davies 1985, 58–60)

A whole tone scale in Debussy's Voiles, mm.1-4.

• Claude Debussy
  • Chansons de Bilitis (Hull 1915, 62)
  • Children's Corner (Hull 1915, 61)
  • Images for piano, No. 1 (Hull 1915, 56)
  • Jeux (Salzman 1974, 203)
  • La mer (Andrews 2001; Antokoletz 2004, 20)
  • Pelléas et Mélisande, act 4 scene 2 (Andrews 2001)
  • Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, b. 32–33, 35–36 (Schoenberg 1978, 393n1)
  • Voiles from Préludes, Book 1 (Andrews 2001)

• Edward Elgar
  • The Dream of Gerontius (Hull 1915, 58)

• Blair Fairchild
  • A Baghdad Lover, nine songs for bass and piano, op. 25 (1911) (Aldrich and Meckna 2001)

• Mikhail Glinka
  • Ruslan and Lyudmila, near the end of the Overture, in the finale to act 1, and in the act-4 chorus "Pogibnet! Pogibnet!" (Andrews 2001; Woodside 1990, 68)

• The Human Abstract
  • "Holographic Sight" (Karan 2011)

• Leos Janáček
  • Sinfonietta (1926)

• Sigfrid Karg-Elert
  • "Allegro burlesco" from the Sonatina exotique for piano (Hull 1915, 58)

• King Crimson
  • "Fracture" (Macan 1997, 55)
  • One More Red Nightmare

• Horeja
  • "La Sangre del Toro"
  • "Bienvenidos a Robar"

• Kraftwerk
  • "Spacelab" (from The Man-Machine) (Sigman 2011, 15)

• Franz Liszt
  • Fantasy and Fugue on "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam", for organ (Todd 1981, passim)
  • Réminiscences de Don Juan (Schoenberg 1978, 390)

• Olivier Messiaen
  • Quartet for the End of Time (movement 6, "Danse of Fury, for the seven trumpets", cello part) (Taruskin 2009, 237)

• Lee Morgan
  • "Our Man Higgins" (McMillan 2008, 153)

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • A Musical Joke (Rosen 1998, 556)

• Maurice Ravel
  • Jeux d'Eau, page 1 (DeVoto 2004, 193)

• Vladimir Rebikov
  • Une fête, No. 6 (Hull 1915, 57)
  • Les rêves (Hull 1915, 57)

• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
  • Piano Concerto, 1882, Allegro (Rimsky-Korsakoff 1886, 25–26) 25–26

• Arnold Schoenberg
  • "Am Wegrend", op. 6, no. 6 (Frisch 1997, 218)
  • Chamber Symphony No. 1 (Frisch 1997, 233–34, 245; Salzman 1974, 32)
  • "Jesus bettelt", op. 2, no. 2 (Frisch 1997, 103–104)
  • Pelleas und Melisande (Schoenberg 1978, 393)
  • String Quartet No. 1 (Frisch 1997, 197–201)

• Franz Schubert
  • "Sanctus" from the Mass No. 6 in E♭ major, D. 950 (Salzer and Schachter 1989, 215, 217–18)

• Sparks
  • "In the Future" from the album Indiscreet

• Karlheinz Stockhausen
  • Montag aus Licht, act 1, scene 6, "Das große Geweine", b. 879–81 (Kohl 2004, 131–32)

• Igor Stravinsky
  • L'histoire du soldat (Zur 1982, 517–18)

• Heitor Villa-Lobos
  • Chôros No. 2 (Moreira 2014, 53)
  • String Quartet No. 3, second movement (Molto Vivo) (Tarasti 2009, 231–32)

• Stevie Wonder
  • "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" (introduction) (Perone 2006, 40)

• El Pony Pisador
  • Lime Scurvy

• Joe Hisaishi
  • "Les Aventuriers" from Piano Stories II-The Wind of Life, 1996.

• Kutran
  • "Chile Despertó"

See also

• Whole tone scale
• Impressionist music

References

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• Antokoletz, Elliott. 2004. Musical Symbolism in the Operas of Debussy and Bartók: Trauma, Gender, and the Unfolding of the Unconscious. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195103830.
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