In Search of New Scales: Prince Edmond de Polignac, Octatonic Explorer Book

List of Musical Examples ix

List of Illustrations xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Abbreviations xv

Introduction: Edmond de Polignac and the Discovery of Octatonicism 1

Part 1 Edmond de Polignac (1834-1901): Man, Prince, and Composer

1 Childhood and Education (1834-1859) 9

2 A Young Composer (1859-1877) 19

3 Scales A, B, C: Polignac's Invention of Octatonicism (1877-1879) 38

4 "Nothing of the Usual Tonality" (1880-1888) 52

5 The Unexpected Woman (1889-1894) 65

6 Alexandre de Bertha and the Guerre des gammes (1894-1896) 82

7 Years of Plenty (1894-1899) 89

8 Endings and Echoes (1900-) 100

9 Edmond de Polignac's Octatonic Music 113

Afterword 141

Part 2 Edmond de Polignac's Octatonic Treatise

Preface to Polignac's Octatonic Treatise 145

Polignac's Octatonic Treatise, A Study on the Sequences of Alternating Whole Steps and Half Steps, (and on the Scale Known as Major-Minor) [Translation of the French Text] 157

Edmond de Polignac, "Étude sur les successions alternantes de tons et demi-tons (Et sur la gamme dite majeure-mineure)" [Transcription of the Original French Text] 301

Notes 335

Bibliography 369

Index 379