[Bevo]

Hello everyone. I really enjoy hearing music making use of exotic scales, such as the Phrygian Dominant scale, and other gypsy scales. But I'm having a difficult time finding instrumental music that makes use of these types of scales. I suppose it's music you'd hear in like Aladdin, because it's roots are from the middle-east, but does anyone have any suggestions from classical music? I personally prefer orchastral, but any instrumentation will work fine. The closest things I've been able to find, other than film scores, is Saint-Saens' s fifth Piano Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Dim7]

Liszt's Faust Symphony uses the Augmented scale.

 

[isorhythm]

Bartok is your guy.

 

[Guest]

Hello everyone. I really enjoy hearing music making use of exotic scales, such as the Phrygian Dominant scale, and other gypsy scales. But I'm having a difficult time finding instrumental music that makes use of these types of scales. I suppose it's music you'd hear in like Aladdin, because it's roots are from the middle-east, but does anyone have any suggestions from classical music? I personally prefer orchastral, but any instrumentation will work fine. The closest things I've been able to find, other than film scores, is Saint-Saens' s fifth Piano Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

Try the huge amount of music for the chromatic scale! Schoenberg did cool things with it, but it goes further than that!

 

[EdwardBast]

There is Rimsky-Korsakoff's Antar, which is exotic in much the same way as Sheherazade.

Then there are the many works of Shostakovich influenced by Jewish music, the Trio in E minor, the Fourth, Ninth and Tenth String Quartets, and many others, the finales of these works especially.

 

[Woodduck]

A lot of Grieg's piano music, based on or inspired by Norwegian hardanger fiddle music, uses the "Lydian" sharped fourth note of the major scale.

 

[isorhythm]

Try the huge amount of music for the chromatic scale! Schoenberg did cool things with it, but it goes further than that!

With respect - this is more or less the opposite of what OP is asking for.

 

[GreenMamba]

Harry Partch didn't limit himself to standard scales.

 

[Guest]

With respect - this is more or less the opposite of what OP is asking for.

Can't get a whole lot more exotic than a scale that contains essentially every scale in the Western system

 

[Dim7]

A lot of Grieg's piano music, based on or inspired by Norwegian hardanger fiddle music, uses the "Lydian" sharped fourth note of the major scale.

Specific examples?

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Debussy, "Voiles" uses the whole-tone scale.

 

[tdc]

I think the majority of early 20th century composers would qualify here. For example most of the works of Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky and Bartok.

 

[Dim7]

Debussy, "Voiles" uses the whole-tone scale.

That piece is particularly whole-toney, yes. Debussy uses that scale a LOT in general though.

 

[Guest]

Harry Partch didn't limit himself to standard scales.

Note: My like for your post is based on the fact that your post exceeds my standard "exoticness threshhold" and has thus merited a like.

 

[tdc]

A lot of Spanish music features the Phrygian mode with the raised third, check out some of the famous works by Albeniz and Falla. Ravel's Alborada del Gracioso also uses Phrygian and Phrygian w/ raised third. Sad Birds a piece from the same piano suite (Miroirs) uses Japanese scales.

 

[Bevo]

Well thank you all for the responses, but just to clarify, I'm looking specifically for more middle-eastern sounding music, such as Jewish music, and not just "whole tone" or "chromatic" scales. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

 

[Woodduck]

Specific examples?

Grieg: Slatter, op. 72

Some of these are distinctly "exotic." There are many other examples of Lydian modal feeling, as well as some alternative minor modes, scattered throughout his works, especially those with "Norwegian" or "folk song" in their titles.

 

[Manxfeeder]

Satie's Gnoisiennes use both whole-tone and quasi-Oriental scales, using augmented seconds and fourths. In the first one, the weird scale is pretty noticeable. I think they have a middle-eastern sound, but I think they're really more like Romanian music.

 

[20centrfuge]

This piece by the Turkish composer Fazil Say, the Mesopotamia Symphony seems to be exactly what you are looking for:

 

[Gaspard de la Nuit]

A lot of Spanish music features the Phrygian mode with the raised third, check out some of the famous works by Albeniz and Falla. Ravel's Alborada del Gracioso also uses Phrygian and Phrygian w/ raised third. Sad Birds a piece from the same piano suite (Miroirs) uses Japanese scales.

Yeah, the major Phrygian sounds like what the OP is talking about.

Hello everyone. I really enjoy hearing music making use of exotic scales, such as the Phrygian Dominant scale, and other gypsy scales. But I'm having a difficult time finding instrumental music that makes use of these types of scales. I suppose it's music you'd hear in like Aladdin, because it's roots are from the middle-east, but does anyone have any suggestions from classical music? I personally prefer orchastral, but any instrumentation will work fine. The closest things I've been able to find, other than film scores, is Saint-Saens' s fifth Piano Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

Like tdc said, ravel would be a good composer for you to check out, scales derived from the Spanish-Arabic influence are featured fairly frequently in his music. Rachmaninov also has a tendency to use similar-sounding scales but in a very different way. Shockingly, bruckner's 6th symphony is a pretty noteworthy example, the first movement.

The Spanish composers probably use what you're looking for (predictably), maybe try Granados as well as the ones that have already been mentioned. For Jewish-sounding scales or musical gestures.....Bloch comes to mind, esp. Suite hebraique.

You might also be interested in/ looking for the octatonic scale.......early 20th century music by the likes of ravel, Stravinsky, and bartok are pretty big on it.