WHOLE-TONE SCALE

in music, scalar arrangement of pitches, each separated from the other by a whole-tone step, in contradistinction to the chromatic scale (half steps only) and the diatonic scale (intermixing whole and half-tone steps). In Western art music, the whole-tone scale is closely associated with the decline of functional harmony in the late 19th century. Free of the sort of compelling harmonic implications traditionally associated with half-tone steps, especially in a diatonic context, whole-tone patterning greatly appealed to composers such as Claude Debussy who sought to represent relatively static impressions or moods, rather than dynamic processes or events, in their music. Early examples of the whole-tone scale in an as yet traditional harmonic context are found in certain compositions of Franz Liszt as well as in works by the Russian group of composers known as the Mighty Five.