List of pieces that use the whole-tone scale

This is a list of notable musical works which use the whole tone scale.

• Béla Bartók
  • Cantata Profana, b. 186–187^[1]
  • Concerto for Orchestra, fifth movement, b. 484^[2]
  • String Quartet No. 1, end of movement 3^[3]
  • String Quartet No. 4, first movement, b. 157–160^[4]
  • String Quartet No. 5 "The sequence of tonalities of the single sections [of the sonata form] produce the whole-tone scale".^[5] "In the first movement of the Fifth String Quartet...the tonalities of the individual sections form a complete whole-tone scale (B♭–C–D–E–F♯–G♯–B♭)."^[6]
  • Mikrokosmos, Volume V, No.136 "Whole-Tone Scales"
• Alban Berg
  • Violin Concerto^[7]
  • "Nacht" from Seven Early Songs^[8]
• Hector Berlioz
  • Francs-Juges Overture^[9]
• Ferruccio Busoni
  • An die Jugend for piano, the right hand part of the "Preludietto, Fughetta ed Esercizio" is based on the whole tone scale.^[10]
• Frédéric Chopin
  • Prelude No. 19, mm. 43–44, in the bass, "while the melody moves down chromatically"^[11]
• Alexander Dargomyzhsky
  • The Stone Guest, passage from act 3^[12]
• Peter Maxwell Davies
  • Symphony No. 3, first movement, horns, between rehearsals P and Q^[13]

Whole tone scale in Debussy's Voiles, mm. 1–4

• Claude Debussy
  • Chansons de Bilitis^[14]
  • Children's Corner^[15]
  • Images for piano, No. 1^[16]
  • Jeux^[17]
  • La mer^[12][18]
  • Pelléas et Mélisande, act 4 scene 2^[12]
  • Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, b. 32–33, 35–36^[19]
  • Voiles from Préludes, Book 1^[12]
• Edward Elgar
  • The Dream of Gerontius^[20]
• Blair Fairchild
  • A Baghdad Lover, nine songs for bass and piano, Op. 25 (1911)^[21]
• Mikhail Glinka
  • Ruslan and Lyudmila, near the end of the overture, in the finale to act 1, and in the act 4 chorus "Pogibnet! Pogibnet!"^[12][22]
• The Human Abstract
  • "Holographic Sight"^[23]
• Leoš Janáček
  • Sinfonietta (1926)
• Sigfrid Karg-Elert
  • "Allegro burlesco" from the Sonatina exotique for piano^[20]
• King Crimson
  • "Fracture"^[24]
  • One More Red Nightmare
• Kraftwerk
  • "Spacelab" (from The Man-Machine)^[25]
• Franz Liszt
  • Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam", for organ^[26]
  • Réminiscences de Don Juan^[27]
• Gustav Mahler
  • Symphony No. 5, end of fifth movement, b. 784-787
  • Das Lied von der Erde, sixth movement, b. 454-459
• Olivier Messiaen
  • Quartet for the End of Time (movement 6, "Danse of Fury, for the seven trumpets", cello part)^[28]
• Lee Morgan
  • "Our Man Higgins"^[29]
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • A Musical Joke^[30]
• Giacomo Puccini
  • Madama Butterfly
• Maurice Ravel
  • Jeux d'Eau, page 1^[31]
• Vladimir Rebikov
  • Une fête, No. 6^[32]
  • Les rêves^[32]
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
  • Piano Concerto, 1882, Allegro^[33]
• Arnold Schoenberg
  • "Am Wegrand", Op. 6, no. 6^[34]
  • Chamber Symphony No. 1^[35][36]
  • "Jesus bettelt", Op. 2, no. 2^[37]
  • Pelleas und Melisande^[38]
  • String Quartet No. 1^[39]
• Franz Schubert
  • "Sanctus" from the Mass No. 6 in E♭ major, D. 950^[40]
• Sparks
  • "In the Future" from the album Indiscreet
• Karlheinz Stockhausen
  • Montag aus Licht, act 1, scene 6, "Das große Geweine", b. 879–881^[41]
• Igor Stravinsky
  • L'Histoire du soldat^[42]
• Heitor Villa-Lobos
  • Chôros No. 2^[43]
  • String Quartet No. 3, second movement (Molto Vivo)^[44]
• Stevie Wonder
  • "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" (introduction)^[45]
• Joe Hisaishi
  • "Les Aventuriers" from Piano Stories II – The Wind of Life, 1996