MHL 602 Topic Unit 5
MHL 602 Topic Unit 5
MHL 602 Topic Unit 5
MHL602
Topic-unit 5
May 11, 2021
The Background and the Elements of Music: Pentatonic Scales and Czardas
Pentatonic scale and czardas are two important and famous elements which are used
commonly in many repertoire, and it is very interesting to discover their definition, background and
Pentatonic scale, also called the "Chinese scale" or the "Scotch scale", has five different
pitches in each scale. The reason why only five notes in the scale is because some notes are taken
out to avoid the appearance of minor second intervals in the scale, so the scale is combined by
major second and minor third intervals. Besides, pentatonic scales have different name for each
scale in Chinese, such as Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi and Yu, which is named depending on the order and
the arrangement of the intervals. For instance, C-D-E-G-A is the Gong pentatonic scale because the
order of Gong's intervals is major 2nd - major 2nd - minor 3rd - Major 2nd. Besides, pentatonic
scales also be freaquently used in western music in the 20th century. For example, Debussy's
Nocturnes (ex. 1) have included the pentatonic scale in the key of F sharp, so the pentatonic scale he
uses is like F-sharp - G-sharp - A-sharp - C-sharp and D-sharp, and this scale also provides an
1 Jeremy Day-O’ Connell, “Pentatonic,” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press,
accessed May 10, 2021, https://www-oxfordmusiconline-com.sfcm.idm.oclc.org/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/
9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000021263.
Jun-Ting Wei
MHL602
Topic-unit 5
May 11, 2021
Czardas, a Hungarian dance, was came from Venbunkos, but it became the Hungarian
national dance eventually. czardas was performed in salon, ballet and other social places, which
makes this dance become more social and ceremonial than Venbunkos. Talking about
characteristics, czardas has slow and fast section. The slow section is in heavy 4/4 metre, which also
includes the atmosphere of dignity, pride and sad. The other section could reach to extremely fast
tempo and danced with wildness, excitement and passion. Thus, lots of composers used this
elements to write music because it's emotions has some kind of inspiration and motivation to them.2
There are two famous examples. One is Vittorio Monti's Czardas for Violin and Piano was one of
famous representations for this dance. This piece starts with slow, pride and sexy atmosphere, and
then gradually turns into extreme fast and excited music in next section, which is a typical czardas
style. The other example is Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, which was composed for violin solo, but the
music was originally derived from Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13, which was also in czardas
style. Thus, the slow section is extremely slow, upset, heavy and also pride, but the next section is
Different genres have different usage and characteristics. Pentatonic scales could provide
different a tonal sound, atmosphere and style in a western composer's music, and czardas have
different tempos, various emotions and contrasting between two sections, which brings up a huge
2 Jonathan Bellman, “Csárdás (from Hung. csárda: ‘country inn’),” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online.
Oxford University Press, accessed May 10, 2021,
https://www-oxfordmusiconline-com.sfcm.idm.oclc.org/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/
omo-9781561592630-e-0000006918.