Polytonality

The use of more than one key simultaneously is known in music as polytonality. Bitonality is the use of only two different keys at the same time. While initially polytonality referred simply to "contrapuntally juxtaposed tonalities" it quickly was applied to any "simultaneous tonalities...that cross, overlap, complement or even oppose each other." (Reti, 1958)

Related Topics:
Key - Simultaneously - Music

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A well known example is the fanfare at the beginning of Igor Stravinsky's ballet, Petrushka. The first clarinet plays a melody in C major, while the second clarinet plays nearly the same melody in F sharp major:

Related Topics:
Fanfare - Igor Stravinsky - Ballet - Petrushka - Clarinet - Melody

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Although this example consists of just two melodic lines, some examples of bitonality contrast fully harmonised sections of music in different keys. Examples of this rather more dissonant kind of bitonality can be found in the work of Charles Ives, whose use of the technique in later additions (1909-1910) to his Variations on "America" (1891) is one of the first in classical music. Earlier examples, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Ein musikalischer Spass(1787), tend to use the technique for comic effect.

Related Topics:
Harmonised - Charles Ives - Classical music - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Ein musikalischer Spass

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Debussy's works often employ nascent polytonality (Reti, 1958). Bitonality was used quite often by members of the French group, Les Six, and especially by Darius Milhaud, who perhaps used it more than any other composer. Many composers today who are interested in using tonality are also interested in bitonality, such as Philip Glass in his Symphony No. 2 which exploits polytonality for ambiguity of key. Aaron Copland is also known for his use of polychords and polytonality:

Related Topics:
Debussy's - French - Les Six - Darius Milhaud - Philip Glass - Polychord

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Although the word bitonality is most often used when talking about relatively modern classical music (written in the last one hundred years or so), it is quite a common technique in folk music, especially in eastern Europe.

Related Topics:
Classical music - Folk music

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Milton Babbitt, Paul Hindemith, and other theorists have "questioned and even dismissed as a viable auditory possibility," polytonality. Hindemith called polytonality a, "self-contradictory expression which, if it is to possess any meaning at all, can be used only to designated a certain degree of expansion of the individual elements of a well-defined harmonic or voice-leading unit." (Beach 1983) For example, the perception of polytonality and polychords is complicated by the fact that a complete ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords consist of separate chords:

Related Topics:
Milton Babbitt - Paul Hindemith - Voice-leading

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

However, examples such as the following taken from Beethoven's Sonata in Eb for Piano suggest that polytonality originated from extended chords:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bitonality is also suggested by the use of added tone chords with an added tone a perfect fourth below the root of the chord:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bimodality is the use of two pitch collections ("scales" with contextual pitch centers rather than hierarchical tonics), one example being the opening (mm. 1-14) of Béla Bartók's "Boating" from Mikrokosmos in which the right hand uses pitches of the pentatonic scale on Eb and the left hand uses those of either G mixolydian or dorian:

Related Topics:
Pitch center - Béla Bartók - Mikrokosmos - Pentatonic scale - Mixolydian - Dorian

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

See also: List of pieces which use polytonality, musical mode.

Related Topics:
List of pieces which use polytonality - Musical mode

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~