Triads

As mentioned above in the context of Stravinsky's Petrushka chord, both the C


major and F# major triads are obtainable from a single permutation of the diminished


scale. In fact eight major and minor triads can be obtained from each permutation of


the scale. If one takes the Db diminished scale as outlined above, one can produce


the following triads:


C major (C E G)
C minor (C Eb G)
Eb major (Eb G Bb)
Eb minor (Eb Gb Bb)
F# major (F# A# C#)
F# minor (F# A C#)
A major (A C# E)
A minor (A C E)

Petrushka chord

Igor Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka is characterized by the so-called Petrushka


chord',' which combines major triads transpositionally related by a tritone. Taruskin's


ascription of explanatory power to the chord's status as an octatonic subset has


been challenged by Tymoczko

SCALES

In music, a scale is a group of musical notes collected in ascending and descending order, that provides material for or is used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical work including melody and/or harmony. Scales are ordered in pitch or pitch class, with their ordering providing a measure of musical distance.


Scales are typically listed from low to high. Most scales are octave-repeating, meaning their pattern of notes is the same in every octave. An octave-repeating scale can be represented as a circular arrangement of pitch classes, ordered by increasing (or decreasing) pitch class. For instance, the increasing C major scale is, C-D-E-F-G-A-B-[C], with the bracket indicating that the last note is an octave higher than the first note. Or C-B-A-G-F-E-D-[C], with the bracket indicating an octave lower than the first note in the scale.