whole-tone scale

[ hohl-tohn ]

noun

, Music.

1. a scale progressing entirely by whole tones, as C, D, E, F♯, G♯, A♯, C.

whole-tone scale

noun

1. either of two scales produced by commencing on one of any two notes a chromatic semitone apart and proceeding upwards or downwards in whole tones for an octave. Such a scale, consisting of six degrees to the octave, is used by Debussy and subsequent composers

Example Sentences

Or the whole-tone scale, which divided the octave into equal intervals?

From The New Yorker

Careful analysis seems to show that it relies on combinations of evolved modes, like Debussy's whole-tone scale.

From The Guardian

Curiously enough, it was written by a music critic who, in his reviews of music, is constantly insisting on the primal importance of melody and harmony, who is an arch foe of the modern programme school and the whole-tone scale of Debussy.

From Project Gutenberg

Ms. Carroll’s astral cascades in the whole-tone scale made you imagine the heavens running through the fingers of God “like grains of sand,” as the lyrics put it, while Mr. Leonhart’s bowed bass gave her playing a symphonic platform.

From New York Times

Sometimes a buzzing low note on a tuba, or swelling sustained trombone tones, or some fragment of an ascending whole-tone scale, would break through the texture of murmuring sounds.

From New York Times