Grove Music Online

Whole-tone scale
H.K. Andrews

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.30242
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001

A scale that divides the octave into six equal-tempered whole tones:
C–D–E–F♯–G♯–A♯(=B♭)–C or its sole transposition, D♭–E♭–F–G–A–
B(=C♭)–D♭. Since all the intervals between adjacent degrees are the
same, the scale is tonally unstable, that is, a centre can be formed
only by emphasizing one of its notes to give it artificial prominence.
Moreover, it lacks the fundamental harmonic and melodic
relationships of major–minor tonality, namely those of the dominant
(perfect 5th) and the leading note (minor 2nd).

Whole-tone scale: Ex.1

Whole-tone melodic passages within the diatonic system were

explored fairly extensively by Russian composers in the 19th century.
A passage near the end of Glinka’s overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila
(1842), given in ex.1, shows how a whole-tone scale in the bass can
be harmonized by a series of transitions, all keeping within the
bounds of traditional tonality. Dargomïzhsky, in The Stone Guest
(c1866–9), came much nearer to using it as an autonomous system,
generating contoured melodic lines as well as harmonies (for
instance, in the passage from Act 3 quoted in ex.2). But it was in the
works of the French Impressionists, particularly Debussy, that it was
first used in opposition to the major–minor system, as a means of
suspending tonality. The pervasion of the whole-tone scale in
Debussy’s piano prelude Voiles (from book 1, 1910) is exceptional,
though it figures significantly in the harmony of many of his earlier
works, including Pelléas et Mélisande (1902; see ex.3, from Act 4
scene ii) and La mer (1905). It was also an important transitional
element in the development of an atonal idiom in Germany in the
decade before World War I. Messiaen classified it as the first Mode
of limited transposition.

Page 1 of 1
PRINTED FROM Oxford Music Online. © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an
individual user may print out a PDF of a single article in Oxford Music Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy).