Enigmatic ladder
The enigmatic scale or enigmatic scale ( enigmatic = 'enigmatic', from Greek αἴνιγμα aínigma 'the riddle') is a non-diatonic (but heptatonic ) scale developed by the Bolognese music professor and composer Adolfo Crescentini (1854–1921).
The scale was published as a harmonization task in the Gazzetta musicale di Milano , the music journal of the Ricordi publishing house, on August 8, 1888 as "Curiosità ... armoniche".
In the upward-pointing form, it consists of the tones C, Db, E, F-sharp, G-sharp, A-sharp and H. In the downward-pointing form, the F-sharp is replaced by an F. It is characterized by the fact that three semitone steps are grouped together, creating one (upwards) or two (downwards) excessive seconds (hiatus) in the rest of the ladder and avoiding parallel formations in tetrachords .
Eight harmonizations (two by Vittorio Norsa and one each by Augusto Ferrari, Giuseppe Cerquetelli, Aldo Forlì, Ciriaco Celestino, Luigi Pucci and Crescentini himself) were published on August 26 of the same year. Giuseppe Verdi used the scale as the basis for his composition of an Ave Maria in 1889, which was (re) published in its second, strongly deviating version from 1897, at the top of the so-called cycle of the Quattro pezzi sacri .
Naming
The term “Scala enigmatica” was first used in Ricordi's printed score of the Quattro pezzi sacri from 1898. Detailed in the index as “Ave Maria. Scala enigmatica armonizzata a quattro voci. ”And in the score of the Ave Maria itself as“ Scala enigmatica ”in front of the vocal part in which it is performed. Verdi himself described his composition as “sciarada”, a “charade” in the sense of a solved riddle.
Web links
literature
- Norbert Bolin (Ed.): Aspetti musicali: Music-historical dimensions of Italy from 1600 to 2000. Festschrift for Dietrich Kämper on his 65th birthday . Verlag Dohr, Cologne, 2001, ISBN 978-3-925366-83-3