Rimsky Talk

I know that some of you, perhaps all of you, have come to this pre-concert talk hoping to hear about the Octatonic Scale. The demand for this has been quite overwhelming. I’ll try not to disappoint you. But I’m going to have to provide some context. And, in doing so, I may say a few things you already know.

The most beloved scale is the major scale. It is a 7-note structure made up of whole steps and half steps, with more of the former than the latter. (Piano: Show pattern. explaining the octave.) The chromatic scale is a 12-note formation made up of only half steps. One consisting of only whole steps becomes a 6-note affair. If we alternate whole-steps with half-steps, we get an 8-note or Octatonic scale.

Who invented the Octatonic Scale? I don’t know. Examples have been cited in Scarlatti or Bach. My favorite early one comes from Beethoven’s piano sonata in A, op. 2/2. (Piano: Play) Here is a bit from Rimsky’s opera Sadko where it also forms the bass line, descending in this case. (Piano: play) The influence of this scale is more widespread than you might imagine. May we have Example 1? That was the voice of Jack Benny introducing—on a radio program from April 18, 1948--a skit called Murder at the Racquet Club. The chords you heard were formed on the Octatonic Scale.

Some early and influential occurences of the whole-tone scale are to be found in Glinka and Dargomizhsky (Piano: play). Debussy famously gets hold of it--to good effect (Play Voiles).

The Octatonic and the Whole-tone scales are important for the harmonies they generate. In both scales, the tritone (the diabolus in musica) is made a stable sonority. (Piano: show harmonization of octatonic scale—emphasize chords a tritone apart--as well as agumented chords in parallel on whole-tone scale). The disorientation I’ve been speaking of appealed to Rimsky and his fellow composers, and they relied on these scales to suggest supernatural—even evil connotations, whether in opera or, as in Firebird, ballet. (Later Hollywood film composers—Bernard Herrmann, for one example, did much the same.) In another usage, Musorgsky draws on the tritone relationship to suggest the Kremlin bells in the Coronation Scene of Boris G. (Play).

Now there are more scales possible. The pentatonic scale is correspond to the black keys of the piano and has two gaps in it. (Piano: play) The Hungarian, or Gypsy scale also incorporates gaps (Piano: play) and immediately recalls the ‘Fate Motif’ from Carmen (Play). In Lazare Saminsky’s Hebrew Rhapsody it imparts a Semitic flavor (Play on piano then: Example 2) By the way: Just before that moment in Hebrew Rhapsody comes a passage that caught my ear. Rimsky was famously a teacher of orchestration and Saminsky was his pupil. Orchestration does not necessarily involve an orchestra. Hear how the violin is sandwiched between highly-placed piano lines, one anchoring below and the other twinkling above. All the notes sounding come from the whole-tone scale. (Example 3). A beautiful, if fleeting, sound image.

Another instance of the Hungarian scale was heard by all of us who attended Anton Rubinstein’s Demon--during the lavishly colorful wedding preparation of the Second Act. (Piano: Play)

Stravinsky became fond of a scale that alternates whole-steps with gaps as from the Hungarian Scale. (Piano: illustrate) See how he combines a descending chromatic scale with a rising ladder (Piano: play bare framework, then repeat with chords leading to melody.) (Piano: Show folk melody from Rimsky’s collection.) (Discuss placement of melody and harmonization.)

Despite a prevailing interest in chromaticism, many works on our program stay firmly within the major scale. Many valuable harmonic progressions may be made with no alteration of the scale. (Piano) The opening of Respighi’s Berceuse stays strictly within the scale for quite a few measures. (Example 4)

Even Prokofiev’s Prelude from Ten Pieces adheres at the first to C major with only a couple of chords outside that scale. (Example 5)

Alexander Tcherepnin gained a measure of fame by inventing a 9-note scale (Piano: illustrate), but on today’s program he is loyal to the major scale as at the end of Bagatelle 8. (Example 6)

Or the chromatic scale as at the beginning of Bagatelle 10. (Example 7)

Perhaps you are tiring of scales. Let us consider Mikhail Gnesin and his Requiem for Piano and String Quartet. The piece starts with a piano solo that goes like this. (Piano: play and compare with Tristan—both phrasing and melodic detail.) Later in the piece the piano sits out and the strings engage in what is almost a textbook example of a fugue, the subject of which may cause you to recall Scheherazade. (Example 8)

I may be yielding to frivolity, but listen for a moment the beginning of the third movement of Myaskovsky’s Second Cello Sonata. (Example 9) Now, hear this. (Example 10)) Sometimes influences are of a very obvious kind.

A most unusual item on this program is the work that Debussy wrote at age 18 during a period when he was visiting Madame von Meck (of Tchaikovsky fame), giving piano lessons, and helping take care of her many children. He and the madame would play 4-hand piano duets, which is probably why this one movement Symphony in B minor exists in that format. Toward the end of the movement comes a passage suggesting trumpet fanfares. (Example 11) Twenty years later Debussy produces one of the most memorable of all passages of orchestration. It’s my thought that this procession of muted trumpets is foreshadowed in this early and nearly forgotten work. (Example 12)

To go back to my starting subject: it is the integration of the octatonic, whole-tone and chromatic scales that provide the figurative and harmonic color of so much of the Russian music we’ve been hearing these weekends. Finally, I must apologize to the minor scale (with its different manifestations) and to the diminished seventh chord for irresponsibly ignoring both of them. I will make amends with Korngold.

Works discussed:

Beethoven Sonata in A, op. 2/2

Rimsky Sadko

Debussy Voiles

Musorgsky Boris

Bizet Carmen

Saminsky Hebrew Rhapsody

Rubinstein Demon

Respighi Berceuse

Prokofiev Prelude from Ten Pieces

Tcherpnin Bagatelles 8 and 10

Gnesin Requiem

Myaskovsky Cello Sonata no. 2

Debussy Symphony in B minor

Debussy Nocturnes: Fétés