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
 * Concerto for Orchestra, fifth movement, b. 484
 * String Quartet No. 1, end of movement 3
 * String Quartet No. 4, first movement, b. 157–160
 * String Quartet No. 5 "The sequence of tonalities of the single sections [of the sonata form] produce the whole-tone scale". "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♭)."
 * Mikrokosmos, Volume V, No.136 "Whole-Tone Scales"
 * Alban Berg
 * Violin Concerto
 * "Nacht" from Seven Early Songs
 * Hector Berlioz
 * Francs-Juges Overture
 * Ferruccio Busoni
 * An die Jugend for piano, the right hand part of the "Preludietto, Fughetta ed Esercizio" is based on the whole tone scale.
 * Frédéric Chopin
 * Prelude No. 19, mm. 43–44, in the bass, "while the melody moves down chromatically"
 * Alexander Dargomyzhsky
 * The Stone Guest, passage from act 3
 * Peter Maxwell Davies
 * Symphony No. 3, first movement, horns, between rehearsals P and Q


 * Claude Debussy
 * Chansons de Bilitis
 * Children's Corner
 * Images for piano, No. 1
 * Jeux
 * La mer
 * Pelléas et Mélisande, act 4 scene 2
 * Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, b. 32–33, 35–36
 * Voiles from Préludes, Book 1
 * Edward Elgar
 * The Dream of Gerontius
 * Blair Fairchild
 * A Baghdad Lover, nine songs for bass and piano, Op. 25 (1911)
 * 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!"
 * The Human Abstract
 * "Holographic Sight"
 * Leoš Janáček
 * Sinfonietta (1926)
 * Sigfrid Karg-Elert
 * "Allegro burlesco" from the Sonatina exotique for piano
 * King Crimson
 * "Fracture"
 * One More Red Nightmare
 * Kraftwerk
 * "Spacelab" (from The Man-Machine)
 * Franz Liszt
 * Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam", for organ
 * Réminiscences de Don Juan
 * 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)
 * Lee Morgan
 * "Our Man Higgins"
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 * A Musical Joke
 * Giacomo Puccini
 * Madama Butterfly
 * Maurice Ravel
 * Jeux d'Eau, page 1
 * Vladimir Rebikov
 * Une fête, No. 6
 * Les rêves
 * Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
 * Piano Concerto, 1882, Allegro
 * Arnold Schoenberg
 * "Am Wegrand", Op. 6, no. 6
 * Chamber Symphony No. 1
 * "Jesus bettelt", Op. 2, no. 2
 * Pelleas und Melisande
 * String Quartet No. 1
 * Franz Schubert
 * "Sanctus" from the Mass No. 6 in E♭ major, D. 950
 * Sparks
 * "In the Future" from the album Indiscreet
 * Karlheinz Stockhausen
 * Montag aus Licht, act 1, scene 6, "Das große Geweine", b. 879–881
 * Igor Stravinsky
 * L'Histoire du soldat
 * Heitor Villa-Lobos
 * Chôros No. 2
 * String Quartet No. 3, second movement (Molto Vivo)
 * Stevie Wonder
 * "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" (introduction)
 * Joe Hisaishi
 * "Les Aventuriers" from Piano Stories II – The Wind of Life, 1996