Musicians have long been aware of the use of symmetrical scales in the music of the nineteenth-century Russian Nationalist composers. Glinka used the whole-tone scale in Ruslan and Liudmila, and Dargomyzhsky, in his opera The Stone Guest, has a progression of whole-tone harmony (Example 9-1). Musorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov used the octatonic scale in descriptive or ornamental passages (Examples 9-2 and 9-3), and the latter, in his Textbook of Harmony, draws attention to the octatonic scale in his symphonic poem Sadko Op. 5 (Example 9-4). None of the Nationalist composers appears to have written a passage of unequivocally octatonic harmony. Rimsky-Korsakov made occasional use of whole-tone chords, like the one in the third bar of Example 9-5, from The Snow Maiden. He also employed other symmetrical formations, such as the scale of alternating semitones and minor 3rds, which is the basis of the harmony at the beginning of the Antar Symphony (Example 9-6).

These symmetrical scales, far from being artificial or contrived, as has sometimes been thought, appear to have their basis in sounds familiar in the Russian countryside from time immemorial. It was shown in chapter 8 that much of the folk music has elements of symmetry either in its scale or in its melodic construction.¹

This can be further demonstrated in the case of ancient work cries. Russian peasants distinguish these from folk song, referring to them as being spoken or declaimed and often showing reluctance to demonstrate them aside from the work with which they are associated.² The more common scales of these work cries are shown in Example 9-7a. Their range was sometimes expanded by adding notes above or below, and in the case of those having the interval of a 4th, by partly filling in the interval, especially at the cadence (Example 9-8a). This resulted in the symmetrical patterns shown in Example 9-7b and in the pentatonic variant in Example 9-7c.³

Many of these cries are anhemitonic in both their basic and pentatonic forms. This tendency toward whole-tone sound can also arise from the use of the variable 3rd of the scale. If the major 3rd (G-sharp) is heard in proximity to the minor 7th (D), as in Example 9-8a, a distinctive effect results. Taken as a melodic interval, it produces the tritone (Example 9-8b, F-sharp/C). In some parts of Russia a shepherd’s pipe, or zhaleika, thought to be of great antiquity, is still used. It has four notes tuned in whole tones.⁴

The scale of alternating whole tones and semitones also has a basis in folk song. The tune in Example 9-9 is built on the semitone B-flat/C-flat flanked by whole tones. In the South—Georgia, Moldavia, and Armenia—as well as in Russian Hebrew music in general, the interval of an augmented 2nd was common and was often associated with alternating whole tones and semitones above and below. Example 8-5, from Moldavia, is an instance, and from the other side of Georgia comes the Armenian “Song of the Homeless” (Example 9-10). The Hebrew scale could have an augmented 2nd between the second and third degrees and between the sixth and seventh, and these are associated with alternating whole tones and semitones, as in Example 9-11, from the collection of Lazare Saminsky.⁵

A further factor bearing on the possible origins of the octatonic scales employed by Russian composers is the fact that the most frequent inflections encountered in the more-developed songs are the minor 2nd, diminished 5th, minor 7th, and variable 3rd of the scale. As was pointed out in chapter 8, the variable 3rd was a particular feature of Russian folk music. These inflections tend markedly toward the octatonic, and together with the 5th and major 6th complete the scale (see chapter 8, notes 1 and 2, Examples xxx-xxxiii).

Another relevant consideration lies in the multimodal songs heard all over Russia, involving the scale formed from overlapping segments of 4ths (Examples 8-6a and b, 8-7a and b, and 8-4). These scales are typical of the most spontaneous outpourings of folk art from earliest times. The asymmetrical and more-complex scale types, based on octave equivalence and having a single modal center, are a later development. The principle of a multimodal scale of identical segments is the basis of the octatonic. One song which approaches the actual minor 3rd structure of the octatonic scale is the lament sung by an orphaned child to her deceased mother; it was collected by Komitas in the village of Kolb in Armenia (Example 9-12). It is a complex song which emphasizes the tritone B-flat/E and the triad A, C-sharp, E. Lines 1 and 2 also give prominence to B-flat, C-sharp, E, and G. By switching to B-natural at the end, the singer completes a six-note segment of the octatonic scale. The final C-sharp and the line endings on B-flat and E early in the song emphasize three of the possible modal centers of that scale.

It is apparent that Russian composers seeking an abstraction which embodies the spirit of native folk song found that the octatonic scale comes closest to that ideal. At the same time it accommodates the principle of multimodality within a single octave, and so makes it compatible with octave equivalence, which is essential to complex harmonic music but has only limited availability in folk song.⁶

The decorative or melodic use of symmetrical scales, which has been noted in connection with the nineteenth-century Russian composers, continued into the Modernist period. The last movement of the Prokofiev Sonata Op. 14, at bars 213-15, has a scale of alternating semitones and minor 3rds (Example 9-13). It divides the octave into major 3rds in a manner similar to the division into minor 3rds by the octatonic. The same composer has a decorative sequence in whole-tones in the treble at bars 2 and 3 of his Op. 17 No. 4 (Example 9-14). Aleksandr Tcherepnin, in Toccata Op. 1, approaches the “Allegro” section with a similar descending scale of alternating semitones and minor 3rds in the bass. In typical fashion he extends this into a continuous play on these intervals in the following bars. In the more-extended passages, these four-note patterns overlap and form a scale of two minor 3rds followed by a semitone (Example 9-15a). This eventually leads to symmetrical vertical patterns of a minor 3rd, whole tone, and minor 3rd in each beat (Example 9-15b). There are similar patterns at the end of Tcherepnin’s Pieces Without Title No. 5 (Example 8-38b). The basic formula of such passages is the triad with major and minor 3rd and is (as shown in chapter 8) a common feature of Russian folk music. This kind of linear pattern making is therefore related to the harmonic forms that we find in Vishnegradsky’s song Autumn (Example 9-16).

A scale in which augmented 2nds alternate with one or more semitones is a common occurrence and has been noted in Tcherepnin’s Pieces Without Title No. 5 (Example 8-38a), where the augmented 2nds create a focus on the central G as well as leading outward to the D and C. A similar formation, in which two augmented 2nds are joined by two semitones, underlies the melody of Shillinger’s “Eccentric Dance” Op. 12 (Example 6-37); here D is a focal point in the melody. Victor Belayev mentions a scale sometimes heard in Kirghizia and Kazakhstan in which there is an augmented 2nd between the flattened 4th and the perfect 5th.⁷ Miaskovsky has something similar near the beginning of his Sonata No. 3, though in a complex harmonic setting the flattened 4th tends to become indistinguishable from the major 3rd (Example 6-38). Here the flattened 4th allows the composer to write both a triad and a 7th chord with minor 3rd on the flattened supertonic and a 7th chord with diminished 5th on the flattened 7th of the scale (bars 2 and 6).

Another instance of a scale involving the augmented 2nd is found in the bass line of Skriabin’s Prelude Op. 74 No. 4, at bars 1-8 and 18-22. The scale here, including the B-flat and G in bars 8 and 22, is similar to the one in Saminsky’s Ten Hebrew Folk Songs and Folk Dances Op. 22 No. 4 (Examples 9-17 and 9-18); it also arises in the music of Armenia and southern Georgia. There are areas of common ground between these scale formations. Aleksandr Krein uses as the first subject of his Sonata Op. 34 a traditional Hebrew melody built around the augmented 2nd. He then develops the theme, giving it a wider range and converting it into the octatonic, accompanied by chords having a diatonic basis (Example 3-8).

Still other patterns can be devised combining elements from those already mentioned. Aleksandr Krein’s Sonata has a scale in which minor 3rds alternate in turn with a whole tone and a semitone. This four-note figure, if continued, divides the octave into minor 3rds but spreads the pattern over two octaves (Example 923, bars 59-62). In some brief notes written in 1962 on his compositional technique, Aleksandr Tcherepnin explained how he formed another scale from the one of alternating minor 3rds and semitones. By combining this pattern in its ascending and descending forms, a further scale composed of the repeating pattern of two semitones and a whole tone was developed. Tcherepnin composed Romantic Sonatina Op. 4 (1918) in this scale, and the twelve Preludes for cello and piano Op. 38 (1925-26) employ the complete cycle of twelve scales in this form.⁸ Other irregular scales are seen in Examples 9-2 and 9-13.

The final scale type which must be mentioned is distinguished from the major scale by having the augmented 4th and the minor 7th. It is used by Aleksandr Krein in his Sonata Op. 34 and by Anatoly Aleksandrov in his Sonata No. 3 (Examples 9-19 and 5-7).⁹ Like most of the scales discussed in this chapter, it is tonally ambiguous, having the same content as the ascending form of the minor scale on its 5th. It can be laid out, as in Example 9-19, to suggest the major scale on its perfect 4th while denying the tonic of that scale by emphasizing the augmented 4th (of its own scale) in the upper texture. It has a five-note whole-tone segment and a six-note segment of the octatonic. Its structure is also related to that of the 0,4,6,10 chord. Its particular attraction to composers seems to be that it can be held for long periods when a combination of harmonic stability and tonal ambiguity is required. As in the examples quoted it is often arranged in arpeggio or semiarpeggio form.¹⁰

An early example of a single chord complex having a partial reference to the octatonic scale occurs at the beginning of Syntheses No. 1 by Lourié (Example 10-1), composed in 1913, a year before Skriabin’s Op. 74. The appearance of the octatonic scale here seems to be incidental and a result of the harmonic compression mentioned in chapter 6. This would account for the addition of F and the omission of E-flat. The texture tends toward alternating whole tones and semitones as far as the end of bar 3, but after that it becomes mainly twelve-tone until a modified return of bar 1 toward the end of the piece.

The use of a symmetrical scale in the bass to support a harmonic progression seems in general to have been limited to whole tones. Skriabin’s bass progressions are usually broken up by tritones (Example 8-33). Harmonic progressions planned symmetrically, though not in every case by means of the bass line, occur in Obukhov’s Berceuse. Example 9-20 shows parallel movement by chromatic and whole steps in bars 30 and 34 and octatonic steps in bar 33—the octatonic movement is in the succession of perfect 5ths.

Skriabin was the first in Russia to use the octatonic scale systematically as the basis of chord structure and chord progression, and he arrived at this position by two distinct routes. His chords often include alterations similar to the scalar inflections of folk music—minor 7th, diminished 5th, minor 9th (2nd), and major/minor 3rd—and this, as has already been noted, tends toward the octatonic. In Op. 58 and Op. 59 No. 2 he was using the augmented 2nd as an appoggiatura to the major 3rd (see chapter 2), and later he began resolving it (in the form of the minor 3rd) to the minor 9th.¹¹ The procedure is clearly seen in Op. 74 No. 5, bar 8 (Example 2-19). The final stage was to allow the major and minor 3rd to coexist, as in bar 6 (Example 2-7). Skriabin’s second route to the octatonic was by progressive linear subdivision of the octave as an alternative to the whole-tone scale. This is seen in Op. 63 No. 2, where division of the bass line into tritones and then minor 3rds is accompanied by further subdivision into the octatonic in the treble in bars 14 and 15 (Example 9-21). The first and last sections of Op. 74 No. 1 are octatonic progressions, but that is more evident in the texture than in the linear aspect.

The approach to the octatonic used by Aleksandr Krein and Shillinger is less radical than Skriabin’s. They both place traditional tertiary structures firmly in the bass (Examples 3-7 and 7-19) and use the remaining notes of the octatonic collection as ornamental additions in the treble. Shillinger endows the octatonic with traditional functional values (see chapter 7). The effect of the octatonic scale is to weaken such relationships, and Deshevov uses it in Meditations No. 3, bars 16 and 17, in an attempt to maintain a neutral balance throughout the piece between G-flat and D-flat (Example 7-6). He follows in the next two bars with the scale D-flat, E-flat, G-flat, A-flat, B-flat, C-flat, which again maintains a nice balance between the two main pitches.

Shillinger’s “Heroic Poem” Op. 12 makes a progressive use of the octatonic coloring. Some of the chords on the opening page, such as those at the end of bar 1 and the beginning of bar 2, use segments of the scale (Example 3-5a). The whole scale appears in bars 5 and 6, and there are twelve bars of octatonic in the coda (Example 7-19). Aleksandr Krein makes a structural point with the chord in the first bar of his Sonata, by using it as a reference at strategic places throughout the work (see discussion in chapter 12). Krein’s Sonata also emphasizes areas of interaction between the various scale formations. The melody in bar 3 (Example 3-7) has an augmented 2nd (A-sharp/G) and is related to the Hebrew song which is the basis of the first subject. The accompanying chord is octatonic and yet has a dominant 7th basis; together with the A chord in bar 16 it forms a diatonic framework for the entire introduction. The first chords in bars 6-9 have a marked whole-tone quality, while the left-hand formations are symmetrical with diatonic associations.

There is a similar interaction between contrasted scales in the passage commencing at bar 47. The top line here consists of alternating whole tones and semitones in the same scale as the first subject (Example 3-9), and the main points of departure and arrival in the harmony can be interpreted as coming from this scale. The number of passing tones, however, produces a distinctly chromatic effect in the lower texture. In Example 9-22 the upper beam links the notes derived from the octatonic scale, the lower beam those taken from the whole-tone scale. These two scales are written out at the end of the example and have the pitches E, G-sharp, and A-sharp in common, which helps to produce a homogeneous texture. The overall effect of the four bars is of the emergence of whole-tone and octatonic segments from a texture which is initially chromatic.

At bar 56 Krein introduces new material, which at first is again chromatic (Example 9-23). The initial two beats of bar 57 are compatible with both the diatonic and the octatonic scales, and the beginning of bar 58 is mainly whole-tone. The F-sharp introduced toward the end of bar 57 is foreign to both the octatonic and the whole-tone collections but provides a link between them. Bars 60, 62, and 63 have distinct diatonic associations, but bars 64 and 65 and their variants as far as bar 70 are again octatonic, except for D-sharp, which occasionally occurs, either as an appoggiatura or as a passing tone. This note preserves another important element of symmetry, the parallel movement of the right-hand chords. This entire transition from bar 47 may be compared with the introduction in its interplay of different scale types against an often diatonic background.

Anatoly Aleksandrov’s Sonata No. 3 has some extended passages in flowing linear style, in which the coloring depends on varying scale patterns over extended pedal points, often related to dominant 9th formations. Bars 53-98 of the exposition consist very largely of alternations between the 0,6,10 scale and the whole-tone, chromatic, and octatonic scales, interspersed with an 0,3,6,10 chord, which in the present context is also related to the dominant 9th. Examples 9-24a, b, and cpresent samples of the various textures. Bars 207-34 of the middle section are similar with particular reference to the octatonic (Example 9-24d).

A number of symmetrical scales that arise in the course of Skriabin’s Preludes Op. 74 are summarized in Example 9-25. Prelude No. 1 makes use of two octatonic scales with a few additional passing tones. The significance of the two D-naturals in bars 8 and 15, which cannot be explained as nonharmonic, was discussed in chapter 8. Prelude No. 2 begins and ends with a modal melody in bars 1-2 and 15-17, which are based on an 0,3,7,10 chord (also dealt with in chapter 8). The main subject of the third piece (bars 1-8 and 13-20) is based on the octatonic scale but has the remaining four notes of the chromatic as occasional passing tones in the treble. Bars 9-12 are purely octatonic, and bars 21-26 form what Messiaen classified as the 7th mode of limited transposition. Bars 11 and 12 of Prelude No. 4 constitute the 3rd mode of limited transposition, and bar 14 and the first beat of bar 15 form a scale of alternating minor 3rds and semitones which can be derived from that mode. By inserting D-sharp and B into the scale of bar 14, a further symmetry is formed in bars 18 and 19. Bars 20 and 21 are related to the octatonic scale, and there are further symmetries in the last two bars. The opening of Prelude No. 5 uses the ascending form of the scale of B-flat minor, although the pitch center hovers between B-flat and A-flat (the latter suggested by the treble line). It then moves toward G-flat (F-sharp) and D before plunging into octatonic formations in bar 5 and reaching the fully octatonic in bar 8. The whole procedure is repeated, with tritone transpositions, in the second half.

A piece in which a traditional scale is used to new effect is Roslavets’s Poem (1916). The harmonies here are quite radical, although there are strong indications of a tonality of C in the central climax and at the end. An important structural and unifying factor is the bass line, which at bars 1-18 is drawn from the scale of G-flat major (Example 9-26). In a similar way the octatonic scale may be the means of coordinating the principal pitch centers of a work. Example 9-27 shows this in relation to Skriabin’s Op. 59 No. 2, and Example 9-28 illustrates the point in reference to his Op. 63 No. 2. In the latter case, the two roots as well as the bass of bar 1 and its transpositions all conform to the scale. The middle, or link, section, bars 12-16, is based on the four notes, forming a diminished 7th, that are omitted from the octatonic collection which forms the basis of the outer sections.

Another method of employing contrasting scales is demonstrated in Lopatnikov’s Sonatina Op. 7 (Example 9-29). It has already been noted that the tonality of this piece is E minor, with a cadence on B at the end of the first part. Tension is alternately heightened and relaxed throughout by the use of constantly changing scales. Tension is created in the first two-and-a-half bars by the whole-tone scale, but this is avoided in the vicinity of E on the first beat of bar 1 and the third beat of bar 2. Tension is then relaxed in the short rising chromatic formations leading to notes of the E major triad in the four beats starting from the last in bar 3. Again tension is avoided with the entry of the subject on B in the first beat of bar 5, but even greater tension results from the clash between a segment of the B major scale in the right hand (B/G-sharp) in this bar and part of the whole-tone scale in the left. The B-flat scale, with triads of E-flat and B-flat in bar 6, again has a calming effect. The opening of bar 7 is whole-tone, bar 8 is similar to bar 4 in its emphasis on tones of the E triad, and bar 9 is chromatic. Bar 10 is at first relaxing, with the C major scale; it goes on to the E scale, leading to a repeat of the beginning in thicker texture.

The music continues in similar manner until bar 18, where the D-flat scale in the left hand clashes in the last two beats with 4ths in the scale of C. This leads to an entry of the subject on G, as D-flat is reached in the left hand. The subject is then accompanied by discordant 4ths (moving in intervals of semitones and a whole tone) as though in protest. An attempt to introduce the subject on F-sharp is opposed by its own whole-tone part in the right hand. In the first part of the final bar, a whole-tone segment in the bass and a chromatic descent in the treble lead to octaves and a cadence on B.

As Examples 9-26 and 9-29 show, composers during the Modernist period were looking for new ways of exploiting the major and minor scales as well as experimenting with symmetrical formations. Saminsky speaks of having invented the names “minor-like” and “major-like” for what he saw as the two twelve-tone tonalities.¹² All this was part of the search for new means of tonal expansion. Chapter 10 will deal with a further aspect of this subject and one which again was influenced by the tradition of Russian folk music: multimodality.