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The Modal World of Walton’s Bagatelles: Part V

In this final instalment in this series I am looking at the first movement, the allegro. There are many points of interest including wild modulations and a very unusual selection of modes in this movement, so let’s get to it.

Walton starts off the movement with an interesting idea: avoid the notes that confirm the key for a while. F# appears in bar 3 but there are no C’s in the piece yet so we are unsure if it is in G Major or D Major until bar 5 confirms it is D Major with a C# and the bass note of A means that it is in A Mixolydian. It stays in D Major for three more bars until we see the F natural signifying the change to the parallel minor and confirming with the Bb in bar 9 which has us moving into D Harmonic minor.

This leads into a prolonged Major scale section with the C and D natural in the first bar moving through the following keys:

(C Major – F Major) x2 – Bb Major – Eb Major – Ab Major

This idea of moving back through the circle of fifths 5 times is very reminiscent of the final sequence of the last movement which had the whole of the last page using Major scales. (See my analysis of movement V here:

As is often the case with WW, after a prolonged section using Major scales, the following section uses more unusual scales culminating in the use of altered scales, meaning those with b5 and or b4 notes in their formulae:

C Neapolitan minor – F Hungarian minor – A Hungarian minor – B Persian nat 6 – B Ionian b5 – C# Melodic b4

We can see the gradual tendency towards more unstable scales and the first use of a scale with a b4 (not to be confused with a mode containing a b4 such as mode VII of the Melodic scale). This is followed by a series of sequences that are increasing in complexity:

1) B Persian nat 6 – B Persian – B Harmonic Major b5 – B Persian – E Hungarian minor – B Neapolitan minor – (F# Persian nat 6 – F# Persian) x8

Notice the changes of scale over a mostly static root of B and then up a fifth into F# with a little dance between the two Persian scales.

2) B Locrian nat 7 – C Major – E Neapolitan minor – A Hungarian minor – A Harmonic Major #4 – A Hungarian minor – C Major – B Locrian nat 7

This sequence is almost symmetrical, the peak is at A Harmonic Major #4 and then back using the wave type of sequence.

3) B Harmonic minor b5 – B Harmonic minor – B Neapolitan minor – B Locrian nat 7

Can you see the alterations? From the B locrian nat 7 that is: raise the 2nd, then the 5th, drop the 2nd, drop the 5th. When the second and fifth degrees are altered in this way the changes sound quite unusual when compared to Major or Melodic scales. Three more to go:

4) A Harmonic minor – A Neapolitan minor – A Neapolitan minor b4 – A Alt nat 7 – Bb Melodic – Ab Major – Ab Melodic

Again a sequence built around a static root of A dropping a semitone to Ab.

5) The penultimate sequence gradually becoming more stable once more with the Major scale appearing on different roots:

C Neapolitan minor – C# Harmonic minor b4 – A Harmonic Major #4 – E Major – B Melodic – B Harmonic Major – B Harmonic minor – D Major – D Melodic – E Melodic

Now this is the point where WW must have though ‘I can now resolve back to the home key of D Major by just dropping the 7th of the E Melodic scale or I could throw in an unexpected cacophony of alterations’. Guess what he went for. (Also, notice the two Melodic scales separated by a tone, this is via the use of the Neapolitan Major, as mentioned in my previous post.)

6) It starts with an enharmonic equivalent scale substitution, quite common in WW’s music:

E Harmonic minor (E F# G A B C D#) – G Harmonic Major (G A B C D Eb F#)

Notice how this technique works: the D# of the E Harmonic minor scale is now labelled Eb and voila, the G Harmonic Major appears leading us to new places that the Harmonic minor couldn’t.

G Harmonic minor – Bb Major – D Neapolitan minor – Bb Melodic – C Melodic – Bb Major – Bb Melodic – Ab Major – (F Harmonic minor – C Harmonic Major – F Melodic – F Harmonic Major – C Major – F Major – F Harmonic Major *) x2 – Bb Major – Bb Melodic – Bb Harmonic minor

* The bracketed sequence in the middle is repeated up to the C Major scale and then the sequence carries on from the Bb Major after the brackets. Now we have a respite, as is usual, with 5 bars of nothing but Bb Harmonic minor taking us into the third page of music.

Now a brief note on working with 20th century music. Bar 61 is a good example of writing that is idiosyncratic to the time. There are both D and Db at once in the score, both notes sounding at the same time. In this situation the Db is classed as a C#. There is no confusion and the mechanics of the music can be understood, while the note of C in the bar is absent. It is actually extremely rare that a genuine 8 note scale appears, so far I have seen it less than a handful of times. So with the altered C# we now enter into D Neapolitan minor b4 for the next 4 bars.

Bar 66 introduces a sequence of note:

C Major – F Harmonic Major – F Harmonic minor – F Harmonic Major

This is followed the first time by:

Bb Hungarian minor – Bb Harmonic minor – Bb Harmonic Major #4 – C Ionian b5

It is then repeated and the ending altered with a really nice change taking the place of the four scales listed above:

F Harmonic Major – F# Harmonic minor

Notice this change when I spell out the notes of each scale:

F Harmonic Major = F G A Bb C Db E

F# Harmonic minor = F# G# A B C# D E#

It is the note A that is the only one that exists in both scales and the pivot that both scales move around while the enharmonic equivalents provide more stability to the change as F = E# and Db = C#. This brings us to the last page of the music and you would expect a return to the Major scale based music, which is exactly what we see.

Db Major – D Major – D Melodic – D Harmonic minor – (C Major – F Major) x2 - Bb Major- Eb Major – Ab Major

Again we can see the use of the sequence of moving back through the keys five times from C Major to Ab Major. This has also been used in movement V and is a nice link from the first to the last movements. One final sequence of changes brings the movement to a close:

F Hungarian minor – C Neapolitan minor – (C Major – C Harmonic Major – C Harmonic minor) x3 – C Harmonic Major – C Major

Notice the final sequence repeats the scales in brackets before reversing the sequence back to C Harmonic Major and ending on C Major. Lots of innovative ideas and a great many sequences used make this movement and indeed the whole piece worthy of its standing in the classical guitar repertoire, I’m sure you’ll agree.

I hope you enjoyed this series on Walton’s Bagatelles, next is All in Twilight by Toru Takemitsu. Thanks for reading. My book is available here: https://www.bedwellmusic.co.uk/general-7


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