Hexatonic scale
Encyclopedia
In music
and music theory
, a hexatonic scale is a scale with six pitches
or notes per octave
. Famous examples include the whole tone scale
, C D E F G A C; the augmented
scale, C D E G A B C; the Prometheus scale, C D E F A B C; and what some jazz
theorists call the "blues scale
", C E F F G B C.
, who used it in such pieces of his as Voiles
and Le vent dans la plaine, both from his first book of piano Préludes
.
This whole-tone scale has appeared occasionally and sporadically in jazz at least since Bix Beiderbecke
's impressionistic piano piece In a Mist. Bop
pianist Thelonious Monk
often interpolated whole-tone scale flourishes into his improvisations and compositions.
s an augmented second or minor third apart: C E G and E G B. It may also be called the "minor-third half-step scale" due to the series of intervals produced.
It made one of its most celebrated early appearances in Franz Liszt
's Faust Symphony
(Eine Faust Symphonie). Another famous use of the augmented scale (in jazz) is in Oliver Nelson's solo on "Stolen Moments
". It is also prevalent in 20th century compositions by Béla Bartók
, Milton Babbitt
, and Arnold Schoenberg
, by saxophonists John Coltrane
and Oliver Nelson
in the late 50s and early 60s, and bandleader Michael Brecker
. Alternating E major and C minor triads form the augmented scale in the opening bars of the Finale in Shostakovich's Second Piano Trio.
's symphonic poem
Prometheus: The Poem of Fire. Scriabin himself called this set of pitches, voiced as the simultaneity (in ascending order) C F B E A D the "mystic chord". Others have referred to it as the "Promethean chord".
s are alternate inflections, strictly speaking there can be no one blues scale, but the scale most commonly called "the blues scale" comprises a flatted seventh blue note, a flatted third blue note, and a flatted fifth blue note along with other pitches derived from the minor pentatonic scale: C E F F G B C.
ally equivalent to the Petrushka chord
, C C E F G A.
The two-semitone tritone scale, C D D F G A, is a symmetric scale
consisting of a repeated pattern of two semitones followed by a major third now used for improvisation and may substitute for any mode of the jazz minor scale. The scale originated in Nicolas Slonimsky
's book Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns through the, "equal division of one octave
into two parts," creating a tritone, and the, "interpolation of two notes," adding two consequent semitones after the two resulting notes.
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and music theory
Music theory
Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
, a hexatonic scale is a scale with six pitches
Pitch (music)
Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
or notes per octave
Octave
In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
. Famous examples include the whole tone scale
Whole tone scale
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:...
, C D E F G A C; the augmented
Augmentation (music)
In Western music and music theory, the word augmentation has three distinct meanings. Augmentation is a compositional device where a melody, theme or motif is presented in longer note-values than were previously used...
scale, C D E G A B C; the Prometheus scale, C D E F A B C; and what some jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
theorists call the "blues scale
Blues scale
The term blues scale is used to describe a few scales with differing numbers of pitches and related characteristics. See: blues.The hexatonic, or six note, blues scale consists of the minor pentatonic scale plus the 4th or 5th degree...
", C E F F G B C.
Whole tone scale
The whole tone scale is a series of whole tones. It has two non-enharmonically equivalent positions: C D E F G A C and D E F G A B D. It is primarily associated with the French impressionist composer Claude DebussyClaude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, who used it in such pieces of his as Voiles
Voiles
Voiles, a composition for solo piano, is the 2nd piece of Claude Debussy's first book of preludes. The title of the piece may mean either veils or sails; both connotations were intended by Debussy. Except for some mild localized chromaticism and a short pentatonic passage, the entire piece uses...
and Le vent dans la plaine, both from his first book of piano Préludes
Preludes (Debussy)
Claude Debussy's Préludes are two sets of pieces for solo piano. They are divided into two separate livres, or books, of twelve preludes each. Unlike previous collections of preludes, like those of JS Bach and Chopin, Debussy's do not follow a strict pattern of key signatures.Each book was written...
.
This whole-tone scale has appeared occasionally and sporadically in jazz at least since Bix Beiderbecke
Bix Beiderbecke
Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.With Louis Armstrong, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s...
's impressionistic piano piece In a Mist. Bop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
pianist Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
often interpolated whole-tone scale flourishes into his improvisations and compositions.
Augmented scale
The augmented scale, also known in jazz theory as the symmetrical augmented scale, is so called because it can be thought of as an interlocking combination of two augmented triadAugmented triad
In music, an augmented triad is a triad, or chord, consisting of two major thirds . The term augmented triad arises from an augmented triad being a three note chord, or triad, whose top note is raised, or augmented...
s an augmented second or minor third apart: C E G and E G B. It may also be called the "minor-third half-step scale" due to the series of intervals produced.
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
's Faust Symphony
Faust Symphony
A Faust Symphony in three character pictures , S.108, or simply the "Faust Symphony", was written by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt and was inspired by Johann von Goethe's drama, Faust...
(Eine Faust Symphonie). Another famous use of the augmented scale (in jazz) is in Oliver Nelson's solo on "Stolen Moments
Stolen Moments (song)
"Stolen Moments" is a jazz standard composed by Oliver Nelson. It is a sixteen-bar piece , though the solos are on a conventional minor key 12 bar blues structure....
". It is also prevalent in 20th century compositions by Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, Milton Babbitt
Milton Babbitt
Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.-Biography:...
, and Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
, by saxophonists John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
and Oliver Nelson
Oliver Nelson
Oliver Edward Nelson was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger and composer.-Early life and career:...
in the late 50s and early 60s, and bandleader Michael Brecker
Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz...
. Alternating E major and C minor triads form the augmented scale in the opening bars of the Finale in Shostakovich's Second Piano Trio.
Prometheus scale
The Prometheus scale is so called because of its prominent use in Alexander ScriabinAlexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed an increasingly atonal musical system,...
's symphonic poem
Symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...
Prometheus: The Poem of Fire. Scriabin himself called this set of pitches, voiced as the simultaneity (in ascending order) C F B E A D the "mystic chord". Others have referred to it as the "Promethean chord".
Blues scale
Since blue noteBlue note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...
s are alternate inflections, strictly speaking there can be no one blues scale, but the scale most commonly called "the blues scale" comprises a flatted seventh blue note, a flatted third blue note, and a flatted fifth blue note along with other pitches derived from the minor pentatonic scale: C E F F G B C.
Tritone scale
The tritone scale, C D E G G B, is enharmonicEnharmonic
In modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note , interval , or key signature which is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature, but "spelled", or named, differently...
ally equivalent to the Petrushka chord
Petrushka chord
The Petrushka chord is a recurring polytonic device used in Igor Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka and in later music. These two major triads, C major and F# major - a tritone apart - clash, "horribly with each other," when sounded together and create a dissonant chord.-Structure:The Petrushka chord is...
, C C E F G A.
Symmetric scale
In music, a symmetric scale is a music scale which equally divides the octave. The concept and term appears to have been introduced by Joseph Schillinger and further developed by Nicolas Slonimsky as part of his famous "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns"...
consisting of a repeated pattern of two semitones followed by a major third now used for improvisation and may substitute for any mode of the jazz minor scale. The scale originated in Nicolas Slonimsky
Nicolas Slonimsky
Nicolas Slonimsky was a Russian born American composer, conductor, musician, music critic, lexicographer and author. He described himself as a "diaskeuast" ; "a reviser or interpolator."- Life :...
's book Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns through the, "equal division of one octave
Octave
In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
into two parts," creating a tritone, and the, "interpolation of two notes," adding two consequent semitones after the two resulting notes.
External links
- A model for hexatonic scales in 96-EDO, 96edo.com.