List of polytonal pieces

List of pieces using polytonality and/or bitonality.

• Samuel Barber
  • Symphony No. 2 (1944)
• Béla Bartók
  • Mikrokosmos Volume 5 number 125: The opening (mm. 1-76) of "Boating", (actually bimodality) in which the right hand uses pitches of E♭ dorian and the left hand uses those of either G mixolydian or dorian[1]
  • Mikrokosmos No. 105, "Playsong"[2]
  • 44 Violin Duets, "Song of the Harvest" (1933)[3]
  • Bagatelles (1908)[4] 1st Bagatelle, RH: C♯ minor, LH: C Phrygian.[5]

• Jeff Beal
  • Theme from House of Cards[6]
• Benjamin Britten
  • Sea Interludes (1945)[7]
  • Fanfare for St Edmundsbury (1959)
  • Folk Songs of the British Isles, Vol. 1, No. 6[4]
• Vicente García
  • San Bá
• Alberto Ginastera
  • Danzas Argentinas - 1. "Danza del viejo boyero" (1937), RH: white keys, LH: black keys[8]
• Philip Glass
  • Symphony No. 2, used for ambiguity[9]
• Jerry Goldsmith
  • Planet of the Apes (1968)
  • Patton (1970)
  • The Omen (1976)[10]
• Percy Grainger
  • Lincolnshire Posy
• Gustav Holst
  • The Planets (Neptune)
  • Terzetto for Flute, Oboe and Viola
• Arthur Honegger
  • Symphony for Strings, III[3]
• Bruce Hornsby
  • "What The Hell Happened" (from Halcyon Days, 2004)[11]
• Charles Ives
  • Variations on "America" (1891-1892), polytonal interludes added 1909-1910[12]
  • Adeste fidelis for organ (1897)[13]
  • Sixty-seventh Psalm (1898–99)[4]
  • Piano Sonata No. 2 (Ives) III. The Alcotts, presence of bitonality (right hand in B♭ major and left hand in A♭ major)[14]
• John Kander
  • Cabaret (1966), in the Finale Ultimo
• Colin McPhee
  • Concerto for Piano, with Wind Octette Acc. (1928)[15]
• Darius Milhaud[16]
  • Scaramouche, in the first movement "Vif"
  • Sorocaba, from Saudades Do Brasil
  • Le Boeuf sur le toit
  • String Quartet No.5 (1920)[17]
• Ennio Morricone
  • The Untouchables (1987)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Ein musikalischer Spass[16]

Ein musikalischer Spass Play 

• Sergei Prokofiev
  • Lieutenant Kijé Suite (mov. V, "The Burial of Kijé")
  • Sarcasms, Op. 17. The third movement uses two different key signatures for each hand.[18]
• Alfred Reed
  • A Festival Prelude
• Julius Röntgen
  • Symphony No. 9 "The Bitonal" (Sept 8, 1930)[19]
• Arnold Schoenberg
  • "Gavotte", Suite for Piano Op. 25 (1923)[20]
• William Schuman
  • George Washington Bridge[21]
• Igor Stravinsky[16]
  • Petrushka, opening fanfare
  • Symphony of Psalms - 3rd Movement
  • Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1947), rehearsal No. 11[22]
  • "Rite of Spring"
• Karol Szymanowski
  • String Quartet No. 1 in C major Movement 3 (1917). Each part has its own key: Cello, C; Viola, 3 flats; Violin 2, 6 sharps; Violin 1, 3 sharps. See score.
• Jeff Wayne
  • The War of the Worlds - "The Red Weed (Parts 1 & 2)" (B and G major)[23]

[24]

• John Williams
  • Star Wars (1977)[10]
• John Zdechlik
  • Chorale and Shaker Dance

This list of songs or music-related items is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Sources

1. Stein, Deborah (2005). "Introduction to Musical Ambiguity" in Engaging Music: Essays in Music Analysis, p.82-3. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517010-5.
2. Kostka, Stefan and Payne, Dorothy (1995). Tonal Harmony, p.495. ISBN 0-07-300056-6.
3. DeLone, et al. (1975). Aspects of 20th Century Music, p.339. ISBN 0-13-049346-5.
4. Richardson, John (1999). Singing Archaeology: Philip Glass's Akhnaten, p.73. ISBN 9780819563422.
5. Ross, Alex (2007). The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, p.83. ISBN 9780374249397.
7. Wilkins, Margaret Lucy (2006). Creative Music Composition, p.78. ISBN 9780415974677.
8. Hinson, Maurice (2000). Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire, p.334. ISBN 9780253336460.
9. "Philip Glass : Symphony No. 2", ChesterNovello.com.
10. Karlin, Fred and Wright, Rayburn (2004). On the Track: A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring, p.359. ISBN 9780415941365.
11. Diton, Robert (September 23, 2011). "Bruce Hornsby to bring the noise to Englewood", Examiner.com.
12. Latham, Alison (2004). The Oxford Dictionary of Musical Works, p.173. ISBN 9780198610205.
13. One of "2 Organ Pieces" (@IMSLP), published 1949
14. Ives, Charles. "Piano Sonata No.2 'Concord, Mass., 1840–60'" (PDF). II. The Alcotts. imslp.org.
15. Gagné, Nicole V. (2012). Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music, p.171. ISBN 9780810879621.
16. Reti, Rudolph (1958). Tonality, Atonality, Pantonality: A study of some trends in twentieth century music, . Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-20478-0.
17. See . Opens with themes in A, B♭ modal (or F?) and C simultaneously, for example.
18. Encyclopædia Britannica, "Polytonality (music)".
19. Gaudeamus. The life of Julius Röntgen (1855-1932). Composer and musician. Dr Jurjen Vis, Waanders Uitgevers Zwolle, 2007, Appendix 4, p.449
20. Maconie, Robin (2005). Other Planets, p.71. ISBN 0-8108-5356-6. "Has distinctly polytonal tendencies."
21. Swayne, Steve (2011). Orpheus in Manhattan: William Schuman and the Shaping of America's Musical Life, p.244. ISBN 9780195388527.
22. Berry, Wallace (1976). Structural Functions in Music, p.183n1. ISBN 0-486-25384-8.
23. Anatomy of a Musical: An Analysis of the Structure of Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
24. Country Life, Volume 154, p.2015.