Rachel Singh

Professor Netzer
COM 313
Listening Journal 5

The Harmonic Language of Igor Stravinsky in Orphée

In the opening of Stravinsky’s ballet Orphée, his harmonic language resembles an E

Phrygian scale. He introduces his tonal system through the harp, which plays a melody spanning

the octave from E3 to E4 for the first page of the score. The only additional notes to this system

are a C#3 found in the celli immediately before rehearsal 2, and the viola and contrabass in the

final cadence; a G#3 and a G#4 are also found in octaves in the first and third bars after rehearsal

2. These flavorful notes are few and far between, but when they do appear, they feel very natural

and at ease with the melody. In fact, they feel as though they belong in the tonal system more

than some of the diatonic notes do, for Stravinsky often uses tritones and major sevenths to

create dissonance between diatonic pitches. However, these accidentals do change the color of

the atmosphere when they appear, and they lead the listener to expect a response to the subtle

shift.

The harp establishes E as the tonic, and it remains the tonic for the entire first page. There

is a sudden shift at rehearsal 2, and the tonic transitions from being an E to becoming C. This

transition is complete by the third measure after rehearsal 2. Although the harp continues with

the same scale, the bass gives an indication of wanting to resolve to a C. However, when the harp

begins to return to a C instead of an E in its scale and the bass finally reaches the C, the scale

instead continues down to an A, and the final cadence is in A major. A is not a tonic in the

opening; rather it is a preparation for the next section, where it is also not a tonic.
 The Harmonic Language in Claude Debussy’s Voiles

Debussy’s Voiles begins with a whole tone scale based on G#/Ab descending in thirds in

the right hand. The subsequent bass response to this motive remains within the pitch classes of

the established whole tone scale, but only the first three notes. Underlying both these motives is a

pedal tone of Bb. The motive beginning at the “a tempo” on page 4 is written in the whole tone

scale, but it recurs at the “En animant” where the principal scale is pentatonic.

This pedal tone remains constant through the key change at “En animant”, as Bb is also

diatonic to the new scale of Gb pentatonic. In fact, three of the five pitches in the pentatonic

scale were also included in the whole tone scale that he had used prior, so the motivic material

does overlap between sections. However, there is a notable change in the character that correlates

with the change in scale: in the sections with the pentatonic scale, the music is significantly more

embellished, whereas the whole tone scale is more direct. The exception to this rule comes at the

end of the piece, where the two styles are overlapped, just as there is an overlap between the two

scales.
 The Harmonic Language in Errollyn Wallen’s Concerto Grosso, I

In Wallen’s Concerto Grosso, I, the piano part in measures 10 and 11 illustrates her

concept of tonality. She bases her harmonic system off the whole tone scale, as indicated by the

pitches chosen for her octaves in the right hand. However, she includes many more pitches than

belong to the scale, preventing the tonal system from being classified as exclusively a whole tone

scale. The chords themselves are octaves with a perfect fourth/perfect fifth splitting them in the

right hand, and major seconds in the left.

In measures 105-111, Wallen’s harmonic language becomes bitonal. In the right hand,

her chords are predominantly in the second inversion of a triad, although there are a few

instances where there is no third of the triad and she instead uses the fourth. Conversely, most of

the chords in the left hand have the fourth scale degree of whatever the root bass note is, and

very few take the form of a triad. Instead of progressing horizontally in a whole tone scale like

measures 10-11, measures 105-110 instead progress chromatically, but without continuity. For

instance, a chromatic scale appears in the bass notes of the left hand between beat 3 of measure

105 and beat 3 of measure 106, and then the pattern is broken and not resumed until beat 4 of

measure 108. The other common idea between measures 10-11 and measures 105-110 is the

presence of a perfect fourth.