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A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to heptatonic scales, which have seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale).
Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancient civilizations<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and are still used in various musical styles to this day. As Leonard Bernstein put it: "The universality of this scale is so well known that I'm sure you could give me examples of it, from all corners of the earth, as from Scotland, or from China, or from Africa, and from American Indian cultures, from East Indian cultures, from Central and South America, Australia, Finland ...now, that is a true musico-linguistic universal."<ref>Bernstein, L. (1976) The Unanswered Question, Cambridge Mass., Harvard University Press.</ref> There are two types of pentatonic scales: Those with semitones (hemitonic) and those without (anhemitonic).
TypesEdit
Hemitonic and anhemitonicEdit
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Musicology commonly classifies pentatonic scales as either hemitonic or anhemitonic. Hemitonic scales contain one or more semitones and anhemitonic scales do not contain semitones. (For example, in Japanese music the anhemitonic yo scale is contrasted with the hemitonic in scale.) Hemitonic pentatonic scales are also called "ditonic scales", because the largest interval in them is the ditone (e.g., in the scale C–E–F–G–B–C, the interval found between C–E and G–B).<ref>Anon., "Ditonus", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001); Bence Szabolcsi, "Five-Tone Scales and Civilization", Acta Musicologica 15, nos. 1–4 (January–December 1943): pp. 24–34, citation on p. 25.</ref> (This should not be confused with the identical term also used by musicologists to describe a scale including only two notes.)
Major pentatonic scaleEdit
Anhemitonic pentatonic scales can be constructed in many ways. The major pentatonic scale may be thought of as a gapped or incomplete major scale, using scale tones 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 of the major scale.<ref name="B&S" /> One construction takes five consecutive pitches from the circle of fifths;<ref>Paul Cooper, Perspectives in Music Theory: An Historical-Analytical Approach(New York: Dodd, Mead, 1973), p. 18. . Template:ISBN.</ref> starting on C, these are C, G, D, A, and E. Rearranging the pitches to fit into one octave creates the major pentatonic scale: C, D, E, G, A.
- <score sound="1"> {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \relative c' {
\time 5/4 c d e g a c
} } </score> Another construction works backward: It omits two pitches from a diatonic scale. If one were to begin with a C major scale, for example, one might omit the fourth and the seventh scale degrees, F and B. The remaining notes then make up the major pentatonic scale: C, D, E, G, and A.
Omitting the third and seventh degrees of the C major scale obtains the notes for another transpositionally equivalent anhemitonic pentatonic scale: F, G, A, C, D. Omitting the first and fourth degrees of the C major scale gives a third anhemitonic pentatonic scale: G, A, B, D, E.
The black keys on a piano keyboard comprise a G-flat (or equivalently, F-sharp) major pentatonic scale: G-flat, A-flat, B-flat, D-flat, and E-flat, which is exploited in Chopin's black key étude.
- <score sound="1"> {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \relative c {
\time 5/4 ges aes bes des ees ges
} }
</score>
Minor pentatonic scaleEdit
Although various hemitonic pentatonic scales might be called minor, the term is most commonly applied to the relative minor pentatonic derived from the major pentatonic, using scale tones 1, Template:Music3, 4, 5, and Template:Music7 of the natural minor scale.<ref name="B&S" /> (It may also be considered a gapped blues scale.)<ref>Template:Cite book p. 12.</ref> The C minor pentatonic scale, the relative minor of the E-flat pentatonic scale, is C, E-flat, F, G, B-flat. The A minor pentatonic, the relative minor of C pentatonic, comprises the same tones as the C major pentatonic, starting on A, giving A, C, D, E, G. This minor pentatonic contains all three tones of an A minor triad.
- <score sound="1"> {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \relative c {
\time 5/4 a4 c d e g | a
} }
</score>
The standard tuning of a guitar uses the notes of an E minor pentatonic scale: E–A–D–G–B–E, contributing to its frequency in popular music.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Stevie Wonder employed the minor pentatonic for the funky clavinet riff on the track "Superstition" (1972).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Japanese scaleEdit
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The Japanese mode is based on the Phrygian mode, but uses scale tones 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 instead of scale tones 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7.
- <score sound="1"> {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \relative c' {
\time 5/4 e f a b c | e
} }
</score>
Modes of the pentatonic scaleEdit
Template:See also The pentatonic scale (containing notes C, D, E, G, and A) has five modes, which are derived by treating a different note as the tonic:
| Tonic | Name(s) | Chinese pentatonic scale | Indian pentatonic scale | On C | White key transpositions | Black key transposition | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C major pentatonic | F major pentatonic | G major pentatonic | FTemplate:Music/GTemplate:Music major pentatonic | |||||
| 1 (C) | Major pentatonic | 宮 (gōng) mode | Hindustani – Bhoopali Carnatic – Mohanam Tamil - Mullaittīmpāṇi |
C–D–E–G–A–C | C–D–E–G–A–C | F–G–A–C–D–F | G–A–B–D–E–G | GTemplate:Music–ATemplate:Music–BTemplate:Music–DTemplate:Music–ETemplate:Music–GTemplate:Music |
| 2 (D) | Suspended, Egyptian | 商 (shāng) mode | Hindustani – Megh Carnatic – Madhyamavati Tamil - Centurutti |
C–D–F–G–BTemplate:Music–C | D–E–G–A–C–D | G–A–C–D–F–G | A–B–D–E–G–A | ATemplate:Music–BTemplate:Music–DTemplate:Music–ETemplate:Music–GTemplate:Music–ATemplate:Music |
| 3 (E) | Blues minor, Man Gong (Guqin tunings) | 角 (jué) mode | Hindustani – Malkauns Carnatic – Hindolam Tamil - Intaḷam |
C–ETemplate:Music–F–ATemplate:Music–BTemplate:Music–C | E–G–A–C–D–E | A–C–D–F–G–A | B–D–E–G–A–B | BTemplate:Music–DTemplate:Music–ETemplate:Music–GTemplate:Music–ATemplate:Music–BTemplate:Music |
| 5 (G) | Blues major, Template:Ill, yo scale | 徵 (zhǐ) mode | Hindustani – Durga Carnatic – Shuddha Saveri Tamil - Koṉṟai |
C–D–F–G–A–C | G–A–C–D–E–G | C–D–F–G–A–C | D–E–G–A–B–D | DTemplate:Music–ETemplate:Music–GTemplate:Music–ATemplate:Music–BTemplate:Music–DTemplate:Music |
| 6 (A) | Minor pentatonic | 羽 (yǔ) mode | Hindustani – Dhani Carnatic – Shuddha Dhanyasi Tamil - āmpal |
C–ETemplate:Music–F–G–BTemplate:Music–C | A–C–D–E–G–A | D–F–G–A–C–D | E–G–A–B–D–E | ETemplate:Music–GTemplate:Music–ATemplate:Music–BTemplate:Music–DTemplate:Music–ETemplate:Music |
Ricker assigned the major pentatonic scale mode I while Gilchrist assigned it mode III.<ref name="Ricker1999">Template:Cite book cites Template:Cite journal </ref>
Relationship to diatonic modesEdit
Each mode of the pentatonic scale (containing notes C, D, E, G, and A) can be thought of as the five scale degrees shared by three different diatonic modes with the two remaining scale degrees removed:
| Pentatonic scale |
Tonic note |
Based on modes (Diatonic scale) | Base scale degrees |
Modifications | Interval sequence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major | C |
|
I–II–III–V–VI | Omit 4 7 | W–W–3/2–W–3/2 |
| Blues major | G |
|
I–II–IV–V–VI | Omit 3 7 | W–3/2–W–W–3/2 |
| Suspended | D |
|
I–II–IV–V–VII | Omit 3 6 | W–3/2–W–3/2–W |
| Minor | A |
|
I–III–IV–V–VII | Omit 2 6 | 3/2–W–W–3/2–W |
| Blues minor | E |
|
I–III–IV–VI–VII | Omit 2 5 | 3/2–W–3/2–W–W |
Intervals from tonicEdit
Template:Further Each mode of the pentatonic scale (containing notes C, D, E, G, and A) features different intervals of notes from the tonic according to the table below. Note the omission of the semitones above (m2) and below (M7) the tonic as well as the tritone (TT).
| Pentatonic scale |
Tonic note |
Intervals with respect to the tonic | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unison | second note |
third note |
fourth note |
fifth note |
octave | ||
| Major | C | P1 | M2 | M3 | P5 | M6 | P8 |
| Blues major | G | P4 | |||||
| Suspended | D | m7 | |||||
| Minor | A | m3 | |||||
| Blues minor | E | m6 | |||||
TuningEdit
Pythagorean tuningEdit
Template:Further Ben Johnston gives the following Pythagorean tuning for the minor pentatonic scale:<ref>Ben Johnston, "Scalar Order as a Compositional Resource", Perspectives of New Music 2, no. 2 (Spring–Summer 1964): pp. 56–76. Citation on p. 64 Template:JSTOR.</ref> {{#invoke:Listen|main}}
| Note | Solfege | A | C | D | E | G | A | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ratio | [[unison|Template:Frac]] | [[semiditone|Template:Frac]] | [[perfect fourth|Template:Frac]] | [[perfect fifth|Template:Frac]] | [[Pythagorean minor seventh|Template:Frac]] | [[octave|Template:Frac]] | |||||||
| Natural | 54 | 64 | 72 | 81 | 96 | 108 | |||||||
| Audio | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 8 | |||||||
| Step | Name | m3 | T | T | m3 | T | |||||||
| Ratio | Template:Frac | Template:Frac | Template:Frac | Template:Frac | Template:Frac | ||||||||
Naturals in that table are not the alphabetic series A to G without sharps and flats: Naturals are reciprocals of terms in the Harmonic series (mathematics), which are in practice multiples of a fundamental frequency. This may be derived by proceeding with the principle that historically gives the Pythagorean diatonic and chromatic scales, stacking perfect fifths with 3:2 frequency proportions (C–G–D–A–E). Considering the anhemitonic scale as a subset of a just diatonic scale, it is tuned thus: 20:24:27:30:36 (A–C–D–E–G = Template:Frac–Template:Frac–Template:Frac–Template:Frac–Template:Frac).
Just intonationEdit
| Modes | Ratios (just) |
|---|---|
| Major | 24:27:30:36:40 |
| Blues major | 24:27:32:36:40 |
| Suspended | 24:27:32:36:42 |
| Minor | 30:36:40:45:54 |
| Blues minor | 15:18:20:24:27 |
(A minor seventh can be 7:4, 16:9, or 9:5; a major sixth can be 27:16 or 5:3. Both were chosen to minimize ratio parts.)
OtherEdit
Assigning precise frequency proportions to the pentatonic scales of most cultures is problematic as tuning may be variable.
For example, the slendro anhemitonic scale and its modes of Java and Bali are said to approach, very roughly, an equally-tempered five-note scale,<ref>Lindsay (1992), p. 38–39: "Slendro is made up of five equal, or relatively equal, intervals".</ref> but their tunings vary dramatically from gamelan to gamelan.<ref>"... in general, no two gamelan sets will have exactly the same tuning, either in pitch or in interval structure. There are no Javanese standard forms of these two tuning systems." Lindsay (1992), pp. 39–41.</ref>
Composer Lou Harrison has been one of the most recent proponents and developers of new pentatonic scales based on historical models. Harrison and William Colvig tuned the slendro scale of the gamelan Si Betty to overtones 16:19:21:24:28Template:Sfn (Template:Frac–Template:Frac–Template:Frac–Template:Frac–Template:Frac). They tuned the Mills gamelan so that the intervals between scale steps are 8:7–7:6–9:8–8:7–7:6Template:Sfn (Template:Frac–Template:Frac–Template:Frac–Template:Frac–[[septimal major sixth|Template:Frac]]–Template:Frac = 42:48:56:63:72)
Use of pentatonic scalesEdit
Pentatonic scales occur in many musical traditions: Template:Div col
- Indian classical music, both Hindustani and Carnatic traditions
- Ancient Tamil music, see the Section "Evolution of panns".
- Peruvian Chicha cumbia
- Indigenous ethnic folk music of Assam
- Sudanese Music
- Celtic folk music<ref name="Sawyers2001">Template:Cite bookTemplate:Dead link</ref>
- English folk music<ref>Ernst H. Meyer, Early English Chamber Music: From the Middle Ages to Purcell, second edition, edited by Diana Poulton (Boston: Marion Boyars Publishers, Incorporated, 1982): p. 48. Template:ISBN.</ref>
- German folk music<ref>Judit Frigyesi (2013). "Is there such a thing as Hungarian-Jewish music?" in Pál Hatos & Attila Novák (eds.) (2013). Between Minority and Majority: Hungarian and Jewish/Israeli ethnical and cultural experiences in recent centuries. Budapest: Balassi Institute. p. 129. Template:ISBN.</ref>
- Nordic folk music<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Hungarian folk music<ref name="Bartók1997">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Croatian folk music<ref name="Bartók1997" />
- Berber music<ref name="Berber Music of Morocco and the Middle Atlas">Template:Cite bookTemplate:Self-published source</ref>
- West African music<ref name="RichardHenry" />
- African-American spirituals<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Gospel music<ref name="DMA2012">Template:Cite bookTemplate:Self-published source</ref>
- Bluegrass music<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- American folk music<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Music of Ethiopia<ref name="RichardHenry" />
- Jazz<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Blues<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Rock music<ref name="Walker">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Sami joik singing<ref name="Burke">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Children's song<ref name="Day-O'Connell2007">Template:Cite book</ref>
- The music of ancient Greece<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Greek traditional music and polyphonic songs from Epirus in northwest Greece<ref>Meri-Sofia Lakopoulos (2015). The Traditional Iso-polyphonic song of Epirus Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore. The International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony. June 2015, issue 18. p. 10.</ref>
- Music of southern Albania<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Folk songs of peoples of the Middle Volga region (such as the Mari, the Chuvash and Tatars)<ref name="BroughtonEllingham1999">Template:Cite book</ref>
- The tuning of the Ethiopian krar<ref name="RichardHenry">Template:Cite book</ref> and the Indonesian gamelan<ref name="Phillips2002">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Philippine kulintang<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Native American music, especially in highland South America (the Quechua and Aymara),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> as well as among the North American Indians of the Pacific NorthwestTemplate:Citation needed
- Most Turkic,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Mongolic and Tungusic music of Siberia and the Asiatic steppe is written in the pentatonic scale<ref name="jstor.org">Van Khe, Tran. "Is the Pentatonic Universal? A Few Reflections on Pentatonism." The World of Music 19, no. 1/2 (1977): 76–84. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43560446.</ref>
- Melodies of Eastern Asia: China, Korea, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Japan, and Vietnam (including the folk music of these countries)<ref name="jstor.org"/>
- Traditional Japanese court music
- Shōmyō chanting
- Andean music<ref>Template:Cite book (Thomas Turino (2004) points out that the pentatonic scale, although widespread, cannot be considered to be predominant in the Andes: Local practices among the Aymara and Kechua in Conima and Canas, Southern Peru in Template:Cite book)</ref>
- Afro-Caribbean music<ref name="Peretti2009">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Polish highlanders from the Tatra Mountains<ref name="CzekanowskaBlacking2006">Template:Cite book</ref>
In classical musicEdit
Examples of its use include:
Beethoven, Quartet in F major, Op. 135, finale:
Chopin's Etude in G-flat major, Op. 10, No. 5, the "Black Key" etude,<ref name="B&S" /> in the major pentatonic.
Western Impressionistic composers such as French composer Claude Debussy<ref name="O'Connell">Template:Cite journal</ref> and Maurice Ravel used the pentatonic scale extensively in their works.
Giacomo Puccini used pentatonic scales in his operas Madama Butterfly and Turandot to imitate east Asian musical styles. Puccini also used whole-tone scales in the former to evoke similar ideas.
Indian ragasEdit
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Indian classical music has hundreds of ragas, of which many are pentatonic. Examples include Raag Abhogi Kanada (C, D, E-flat, F, A),<ref name="Chaudhuri 2021 p. 52">Template:Cite book</ref> Raag Bhupali (C, D, E, G, A),<ref name="Menon 1973 p. 50">Template:Cite book</ref> Raag Bairagi (C, D-flat, F, G, B-flat),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Raag Chandrakauns (C, E-flat, F, A-flat, B),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Raag Dhani (C, E-flat, F, G, B-flat),<ref name="Chaudhuri 2021 p. 52"/> Raag Durga (C, D, F, G, A),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Raag Gunakari (C, D-flat, F, G, A-flat),<ref name="The Historical Development of Indian Music: A Critical Study 1973 p. 175">Template:Cite book</ref> Raag Hamsadhwani (C, D, E, G, B),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Raag Hindol (C, E, F#, A, B),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Raag Kalavati (C, E, G, A, B-flat),<ref name="Chaudhuri 2021 p. 52" /> Raag Katyayani (C, D, E-flat, G, A-flat),<ref name="Krsna Kirtana Songs 2009">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Raag Malkauns (C, E-flat, F, A-flat, B-flat),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Raag Megh (C, D, F, G, B-flat),<ref name="Chaudhuri 2021 p. 52" /> Raag Shivaranjani (C, D, E-flat, G, A),<ref name="Chakraborty Mazzola Tewari Patra 2014 p. 3">Template:Cite book</ref> Raag Shuddha Sarang (C, D, F#, G, B),<ref name="Karnani 2005 p. 81">Template:Cite book</ref> Raag Tilang (C, E, F, G, B),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Raag Vibhas (C, D-flat, E, G, A-flat),Template:Sfn Raag Vrindavani Sarang (C, D, F, G, B), and others.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
(For Tamil Music System, See here - Ancient Tamil music#Evolution of panns )
Further pentatonic musical traditionsEdit
The major pentatonic scale is the basic scale of the music of China and the music of Mongolia as well as many Southeast Asian musical traditions such as that of the Karen people as well as the indigenous Assamese ethnic groups.Template:Citation needed The pentatonic scale predominates most Eastern countries as opposed to Western countries where the heptatonic scale is more commonly used.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The fundamental tones (without meri or kari techniques) rendered by the five holes of the Japanese shakuhachi flute play a minor pentatonic scale. The yo scale used in Japanese shomyo Buddhist chants and gagaku imperial court music is an anhemitonic pentatonic scale<ref>Japanese Music, Cross-Cultural Communication: World Music, University of Wisconsin – Green Bay.</ref> shown below, which is the fourth mode of the major pentatonic scale.
JavaneseEdit
In Javanese gamelan music, the slendro scale has five tones, of which four are emphasized in classical music. Another scale, pelog, has seven tones, and is generally played using one of three five-tone subsets known as pathet, in which certain notes are avoided while others are emphasized.<ref>Sumarsam (1988) Introduction to Javanese Gamelan.</ref>
SomaliEdit
Somali music uses a distinct modal system that is pentatonic, with characteristically long intervals between some notes. As with many other aspects of Somali culture and tradition, tastes in music and lyrics are strongly linked with those in nearby Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan.<ref name="Abdullahi">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Tekle">Template:Cite book</ref>
ScottishEdit
In Scottish music, the pentatonic scale is very common. Seumas MacNeill suggests that the Great Highland bagpipe scale with its augmented fourth and diminished seventh is "a device to produce as many pentatonic scales as possible from its nine notes" (although these two features are not in the same scale)Template:Clarify.<ref>Seumas MacNeil and Frank Richardson Piobaireachd and its Interpretation (Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers, 1996): p. 36. Template:ISBN</ref>Template:Failed verification Roderick Cannon explains these pentatonic scales and their use in more detail, both in Piobaireachd and light music.<ref>Roderick D. Cannon The Highland Bagpipe and its Music (Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers, 1995): pp. 36–45. Template:ISBN</ref> It also features in Irish traditional music, either purely or almost so. The minor pentatonic is used in Appalachian folk music. Blackfoot music most often uses anhemitonic tetratonic or pentatonic scales.<ref>Bruno Nettl, Blackfoot Musical Thought: Comparative Perspectives (Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1989): p. 43. Template:ISBN.</ref>
AndeanEdit
In Andean music, the pentatonic scale is used substantially minor, sometimes major, and seldom in scale. In the most ancient genres of Andean music being performed without string instruments (only with winds and percussion), pentatonic melody is often led with parallel fifths and fourths, so formally this music is hexatonic.Template:Citation needed
JazzEdit
Jazz music commonly uses both the major and the minor pentatonic scales. Pentatonic scales are useful for improvisers in modern jazz, pop, and rock contexts because they work well over several chords diatonic to the same key, often better than the parent scale. For example, the blues scale is predominantly derived from the minor pentatonic scale, a very popular scale for improvisation in the realms of blues and rock alike.<ref name="The Pentatonic and Blues Scale">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> For instance, over a C major triad (C, E, G) in the key of C major, the note F can be perceived as dissonant as it is a half step above the major third (E) of the chord. It is for this reason commonly avoided. Using the major pentatonic scale is an easy way out of this problem. The scale tones 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 (from the major pentatonic) are either major triad tones (1, 3, 5) or common consonant extensions (2, 6) of major triads. For the corresponding relative minor pentatonic, scale tones 1, Template:Music3, 4, 5, Template:Music7 work the same way, either as minor triad tones (1, Template:Music3, 5) or as common extensions (4, Template:Music7), as they all avoid being a half step from a chord tone.Template:Citation needed
OtherEdit
U.S. military cadences, or jodies, which keep soldiers in step while marching or running, also typically use pentatonic scales.<ref name="NROTC Cadences">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Hymns and other religious music sometimes use the pentatonic scale; for example, the melody of the hymn "Amazing Grace."<ref>Steve Turner, Amazing Grace: The Story of America's Most Beloved Song (New York: HarperCollins, 2002): p. 122. Template:ISBN1</ref>
The common pentatonic major and minor scales (C-D-E-G-A and C-ETemplate:Music-F-G-BTemplate:Music, respectively) are useful in modal composing, as both scales allow a melody to be modally ambiguous between their respective major (Ionian, Lydian, Mixolydian) and minor (Aeolian, Phrygian, Dorian) modes (Locrian excluded). With either modal or non-modal writing, however, the harmonization of a pentatonic melody does not necessarily have to be derived from only the pentatonic pitches.Template:Citation needed
Most Tuareg songs are pentatonic, as is most other music from the Sahel and Sudan regions.
Role in educationEdit
The pentatonic scale plays a significant role in music education, particularly in Orff-based, Kodály-based, and Waldorf methodologies at the primary or elementary level.
The Orff system places a heavy emphasis on developing creativity through improvisation in children, largely through use of the pentatonic scale. Orff instruments, such as xylophones, bells and other metallophones, use wooden bars, metal bars or bells, which can be removed by the teacher, leaving only those corresponding to the pentatonic scale, which Carl Orff himself believed to be children's native tonality.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Children begin improvising using only these bars, and over time, more bars are added at the teacher's discretion until the complete diatonic scale is being used. Orff believed that the use of the pentatonic scale at such a young age was appropriate to the development of each child, since the nature of the scale meant that it was impossible for the child to make any real harmonic mistakes.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In Waldorf education, pentatonic music is considered to be appropriate for young children due to its simplicity and unselfconscious openness of expression. Pentatonic music centered on intervals of the fifth is often sung and played in early childhood; progressively smaller intervals are emphasized within primarily pentatonic as children progress through the early school years. At around nine years of age the music begins to center on first folk music using a six-tone scale, and then the modern diatonic scales, with the goal of reflecting the children's developmental progress in their musical experience. Pentatonic instruments used include lyres, pentatonic flutes, and tone bars; special instruments have been designed and built for the Waldorf curriculum.<ref>Andrea Intveen, Musical Instruments in Anthroposophical Music Therapy with Reference to Rudolf Steiner's Model of the Threefold Human Being Template:Webarchive</ref>
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Jeff Burns, Pentatonic Scales for the Jazz-Rock Keyboardist (Lebanon, Indiana: Houston Publishing, 1997). Template:ISBN.
- Jeremy Day-O'Connell, Pentatonicism from the Eighteenth Century to Debussy (Rochester: University of Rochester Press 2007) – the first comprehensive account of the increasing use of the pentatonic scale in 19th-century Western art music, including a catalogue of over 400 musical examples.
- Trần Văn Khê, "Le pentatonique est-il universel? Quelques reflexions sur le pentatonisme", The World of Music 19, nos. 1–2:85–91 (1977). English translation: "Is the pentatonic universal? A few reflections on pentatonism" pp. 76–84.
- Yamaguchi Masaya (New York: Charles Colin, 2002; New York: Masaya Music, Revised 2006). Pentatonicism in Jazz: Creative Aspects and Practice. Template:ISBN
- Kurt Reinhard, "On the problem of pre-pentatonic scales: particularly the third-second nucleus", Journal of the International Folk Music Council 10 (1958). Template:JSTOR