Pentatonic scale
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Types of pentatonic scales
One of the most common pentatonic scales, sometimes called a major pentatonic scale, can be constructed in many ways. A simple construction takes five consecutive pitches from the circle of fifths; starting on C, these are C, G, D, A, and E. Transposing the pitches to fit into one octave rearranges the pitches into the major pentatonic scale: C, D, E, G, A: Image:C major pentatonic scale.PNG
Another construction, derived from Western European classical music, begins with a major scale and omits the fourth and the seventh scale degrees: a C major scale is {C, D, E, F, G, A, B}, so omitting the F and B again results in the sequence {C, D, E, G, A}. The major pentatonic scale can also be seen as all the pitches that are not present in the major scale: in C major, the remaining pitches are G flat, A flat, B flat, D flat, and E flat, the notes in the G flat major pentatonic scale. These notes are also the black keys on the piano keyboard.
Image:Gb major pentatonic scale.PNG
Another variation of the pentatonic scale is to take the major scale and remove the third and seventh, to obtain the notes {C,D,F,G,A,C}. This scale is used for many popular pentatonic songs such as "Amazing Grace" and "Auld Lang Syne".
A minor version of the pentatonic scale is obtained by using the same notes as in the major pentatonic scale, but starting one step lower to obtain the tonic note; an A minor pentatonic scale is A, C, D, E, G: Image:A minor pentatonic scale.PNG
Songs on the minor pentatonic scale include the popular children's song "Land of the Silver Birch" often sung in day care centers. Because of their simplicity, pentatonic scales are often used to introduce children to music. Other popular children's songs are almost pentatonic. For example, the almost-pentatonic nature of the Gershwin lullaby "Summertime", is evident when it is played in the key of E-flat. In that key, the melody can be played almost entirely on the black keys of a piano, except just once per verse, where a white key is needed.
Only certain divisions of the octave, 12 and 20 included, allow uniqueness, coherence, and transpositional simplicity, and that only the diatonic and pentatonic subsets of the 12 tone chromatic set follow these constraints (Balzano, 1980, 1982). The major and minor pentatonic scales possess Myhill's property.
The pentatonic blues scale is the minor pentatonic with an additional lowered fifth, which is referred to as the "blue note": Image:Pentatonic blues scale on A.PNG
Tuning
Deriving the pitches in a pentatonic scale from stacked fifths leads to a Pythagorean scale of {1/1, 9/8, 81/64, 3/2, 27/16}. Deriving the pitches from the major scale leads to a just scale of either {1/1, 9/8, 5/4, 3/2, 5/3} (a 5-limit pentatonic) or {1/1, 9/8, 21/16, 3/2, 7/4} with blue notes of the flatted fourth and flatted seventh.
Further pentatonic musical traditions
The pentatonic scale is very common in Scottish music. Some scholars believe that English folk music was likewise at one time a pentatonic tradition; for the reasoning behind this claim, see Folk music.
The major pentatonic scale is the basic scale of the music of China; the minor pentatonic is used in Appalachian folk music.
Both the major and the minor pentatonic scales are commonly used in Jazz (notably by jazz pianists Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock), Blues, and Rock (music).
The pentatonic scales used in Indonesian gamelan music are called slendro and pelog.
Composers of Western classical music have occasionally used the pentatonic scale for special effects. Maurice Ravel used it as a pastiche of Chinese music in "Laideronette, Emperatrice des Pagodes", a movement from his "Ma Mère l'Oye" (Mother Goose) suite for orchestra. Frédéric Chopin wrote the right hand piano part of his Etude Op. 10 no. 5 in the major G flat pentatonic scale--hence, using only the black keys.
Blackfoot music is most often pentatonic or hexatonic.
Hemitonic or anhemitonic
Pentatonic scales may be characterized as hemitonic or anhemitonic. Hemitonic scales contain one or more semitones and anhemitonic scales do not contain semitones.
Further reading
- Tran van Khe (1977). "Le pentatonique est-il universel? Quelques rEflexions sur le pentatonisme", The World of Music 19, nos. 1-2:85-91. English translation p.76-84
- Kurt Reinhard, On the problem of pre-pentatonic scales: particularly the third-second nucleus, Journal of the International Folk Music Council 10, 1958.
- See: Wiktionary:pentatonic.
