rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (06/14/84)
> This discussion of modern music has centered on the aesthetics > (or lack thereof) of Schoenberg's 12-tone school. > No one has mentioned one of the most brilliant composers of the > Twentieth Century: Aleksandr Scriabin. > > Like Schoenberg, Scriabin developed his own mathematical > system of composition. Personally, I find Scriabin's music > much more "listenable" than 12-tone, even though it is > just as far removed from tonality. If memory serves, Scriabin's methodology was called the octatonic scale, because it was based on a uniformly distributed scale of eight notes, the pattern of which would be wholestep--halfstep--wholestep--halfstep-- wholestep--halfstep--wholestep--halfstep. C-D-Eb-F-Gb-Ab-A-B is one example of an octatonic scale. The other examples would be C-Db-Eb-E-F#-G-A-Bb and D-E-F-G-Ab-Bb-B-C#. Note how the symmetry of the division of the octave results in only three scales; the more symmetrical the division, the fewer the scales (Debussy's whole tone scale has only two instances: C-D-E-F#-Ab-Bb and B-C#-D#-F-G-A). Note also that in any symmetric division of the octave, several notes could perform a "tonic" or tonal center function (in a whole tone scale EVERY note could do this). This does not eliminate tonality (in the sense that many people feel that dodecaphony does) but rather offers an ALTERNATE tonality to "standard" Western tonality, albeit a more vague (more "mysterious"?) one. (In effect, dodecaphony is a symmetric division of the octave as well, but with a conscious effort implied to make NONE of the notes in the scale seem to appear as a tonal center for any duration.) I also posted this article to net.music, since I thought, just maybe, people interested in other musical genres might like to get in on the discussion of different scales and tonalities. -- If it doesn't change your life, it's not worth doing. Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr