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9781580463058

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(Polignac's) life and octa-tonic explorations might serve as exemplars for an examination of music in Second-Empire France and the place that interest in new and 'alternative' scales occupied in that particular cultural moment... Kahan's book will become a permanent point of reference for future studies of post-Romantic and twentieth-century composition.-SIR READALOT.ORG (See the complete review at http://sirreadalot.org/#kahan) Kahan has discovered a remarkable missing link between the intervallic and scalar experiments of late-nineteenth-century composers and the full-blown octatonicism of twentieth-century modernists, including Ravel and Stravinsky. In a work that is a compelling amalgam of biography, history, music theory, and cultural studies, Kahan introduces us to the fascinating world of Edmond de Polignac, and provides a valuable translation of his eccentric and subtly influential treatise on the octatonic scale. --Joseph N. Straus, author of Stravinsky's Late Music and Remaking the Past: Musical Modernism and the Influence of the Tonal Tradition A charming tale of a gentleman composer and his invention of the 'chromatico-diatonic' scale. Kahan's elegant transcription and translation of Polignac's octatonic treatise brings to light a new document that will prove important not only for the history of music theory but also for a richer understanding of the story of musical modernism in fin-de-siecle Paris. --Jonathan Cross, professor of musicology, University of Oxford

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