Among the various modes used in Chinese music, the pentatonic scale, which consists of five tones arranged in fifths – Gong, Shang, Horn, Zheng and Fe – is the most common. The pentatonic scale has a unique triad of major second and minor third, and the lack of Many Western musicians consider the use of the pentatonic scale to be a reflection of the Chinese style, due to its unique triadic grouping of major and minor seconds and the melodic flavour of the missing semitones. For example, in the unfinished Sonata in C major (D.480) by the 19th century Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828), the pentatonic scale appears in the thematic section of the first movement. The pentatonic scale in C (palace, quotient, horn, sign and plumage) uses a continuous triplet rhythmic pattern; in the unfolding section, Schubert shifts the piece to D plumage. The octave staccato in both hands, with several powerful chord tones in between, brings out the power and mood of the theme. Unfortunately, Schubert died of illness before the last two movements of the sonata were completed (there are some drafts of the third movement and the fourth movement has only reached the unfolding section).
Then there was the 20th century Russian-American pianist Alexander Zirpin (1899-1977). Zilpin not only organised a competition for piano works with a Chinese flavour, but also composed his own “Five Concert Etudes” (no. 52) with Chinese pentatonic scales and “Piano Exercises in Pentatonic Scale” (no.51). Zilpin uses the pentatonic scale as the basis for his melodies, incorporating Chinese folk songs, such as “Purple Bamboo Tune” and “The Pretty Lady”, in his compositions, so that Chinese folk music and Western music can be blended together, presenting a more complete picture than the traditional Western harmonic termination. The melodies in this piece are a blend of Chinese folk music and Western music, giving it a completely different acoustic colour than the traditional Western harmonic termination. In another of his works, Seven Songs – A Score of Chinese Poetry, he combines the rhythm of Chinese poetry with the pentatonic scale, using the technique of the rotary palette of Chinese folk music and the two-two-three structure of Chinese poetic chanting to create a work with a strong Chinese musical flavour. The mood of this work is like that of Chinese poetry, where the rhythm of silence is better than sound.