# looking for music with no accidentals



## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

I am looking for examples of music containing no accidentals. The better the composer, the better the piece, and the longer the piece, the better. The only example I can think of is the Fugue in C Major from Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues - all white keys!

I would not be surprised if some pieces from Bartok's _Mikrokosmos_ qualified, or of his other shorter piano works, or some very short piano pieces by Shostakovich or Kabalevsky.

I am interested not only in classical music but in popular music. I would guess that a lot of rock/pop songs use only I+IV+V chords and may not have any accidentals. Of course, it is difficult to write a _good_ song and not use any accidentals. I am pretty sure that "Twist and Shout" as performed by the Beatles (I don't know if they actually wrote it) contains no accidentals. I like "Twist and Shout" (the Beatles version) despite what I just wrote. I am pretty sure the Beatles' "And I Love Her" contains no accidentals until the very last chord, so it almost qualifies.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Have you tried the celebrated _Chop Waltz_?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Ligeti's _White on White_ from his 3rd book of études for piano.


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

Is that the piece that was used in the film _Eyes Wide Shut_ that sounds like it only uses 3-4 different tones (in several octaves)? If not, is the piece from _Eyes Wide Shut_ another example of what I'm looking for?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

spradlig said:


> Is that the piece that was used in the film _Eyes Wide Shut_ that sounds like it only uses 3-4 different tones (in several octaves)? If not, is the piece from _Eyes Wide Shut_ another example of what I'm looking for?


Different tones? There's only one tone in Ligeti's _White on White_ as far as I can tell: the tone of the piano. What do you mean by "tone?" On a prepared piano a composer/pianist can create many different tones by putting different objects on or between the strings. Perhaps you have heard an arrangement of it for prepared piano? Or you could be thinking of a piece for prepared piano by John Cage?


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

spradlig said:


> Is that the piece that was used in the film _Eyes Wide Shut_ that sounds like it only uses 3-4 different tones (in several octaves)? If not, is the piece from _Eyes Wide Shut_ another example of what I'm looking for?


That piece from Eyes Wide Shut was the second movement of Ligeti's Musica ricercata (pitches: E sharp, F sharp and G).


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Nikolai Korndorff ~ Hymn I, for orchestra. a large work in three movements of near thirty minute's duration.

I find it very successful, and a compelling listen.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=143113

I can not check for reference, but if memory serves, the other work on that CD, Hymn III (an hommage to Gustav Mahler) is a similar exercise in pitch restraint, and it too is both beautiful and compelling.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Take a look at Rodion Shchedrin's Fourth Piano Concerto "Sharp Key's"

/ptr


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

Also Ligeti's Musica Ricercata - No. 1. It contains only A-s and D-s.

Best regards, Dr


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

Andreas: I "liked" your comment about the piece from "Eyes Wide Shut". (Apparently "E sharp" and "F sharp" are the accidentals. Along with G, that makes 3 adjacent pitches, which requires an accidental somewhere even if one renamed some of the notes)


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

spradlig said:


> Andreas: I "liked" your comment about the piece from "Eyes Wide Shut". (Apparently "E sharp" and "F sharp" are the accidentals. Along with G, that makes 3 adjacent pitches, which requires an accidental somewhere even if one renamed some of the notes)


Nope, Ligeti uses an ad hoc key signature (E# and F# only) that removes the need for any accidentals whatsoever, because it's easier to read that way.

Unless you mean that all you want is white keys, of course...

Anyway, Stravinsky wrote some pieces for ultra-easy piano called Les Cinq Doits, and several of them have no accidentals whatsoever.


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

@Mahlerian : Thanks for the info. Ligeti's use of an "ad hoc" key signature seems like cheating. I also doubt that his piece would be difficult to read using a "normal" key signature, if there really are only 3 different pitches (counting pitches separated by an integer multiple of an octave as equivalent). In fact, I find notes like "E#", "C-flat", etc. hard to read and I wonder if there is a good reason Ligeti called the Key Normally Known As F "E#" 

No, I wasn't really insisting on all-white keys (like in the Shostakovich prelude), but I really think that making up your own key signature is cheating for the purposes of this question.


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## hnchrist3 (Sep 13, 2020)

The famous "Canon in D" by Johann Pachelbel has no accidentals outside the key itself.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Mozart's aria _Non piu andrai_?


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

spradlig said:


> ...
> 
> No, I wasn't really insisting on all-white keys (like in the Shostakovich prelude), but I really think that making up your own key signature is cheating for the purposes of this question.


Actually, I'm thinking that accidentals (sharps, flats) are a requirement only of what we term scale "keys" (and possibly "modes") in a classical diatonic sense.

Does twelve-tone music (which is actually a building scale with 12 equally important fundamental tones) a music that utilizes accidentals? Maybe only if quarter-tones are introduced?

And what about a quarter-tone scale?

If one's music is based on a "scale" rather than a traditional "key", does the term accidental take on a new meaning? I mean, if one's musical building structure is a whole tone scale, does the term "accidental" mean something different?

Which brings me back to Schoenberg's 12-tone system. Isn't all 12-tone music a music without accidentals?

Below: Music without accidentals?


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## DaveMa (6 mo ago)

Anton Bruckner’s Os justi, a sacred motet, is written in the Lydian mode, tonal center of F with no key signature and not a single accidental. Otherworldly beautiful!


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Prokofiev planned to write a String Quartet called "White Quartet", only using the notes of the C major scale. But he abandoned it and used the thematic material for his 3rd Piano Concerto.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

DaveMa said:


> Anton Bruckner’s Os justi, a sacred motet, is written in the Lydian mode, tonal center of F with no key signature and not a single accidental. Otherworldly beautiful!



Very good answer, going to spin it later,.
Welcome to site by the way


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Are the black keys on your piano missing?


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

TwoFlutesOneTrumpet said:


> Are the black keys on your piano missing?


Music with no accidentals can be in, say, F sharp major, and make plenty of use of the black keys on the keyboard.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

hammeredklavier said:


> Music with no accidentals can be in, say, F sharp major, and make plenty of use of the black keys on the keyboard.


Of course. No black keys will come in handy if the piece is in C major. It's an interesting wish to know pieces without accidentals.


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## Marcos (May 3, 2021)

Hymn books tend to avoid accidentals, not least because the music should be easy to sing i.e. sight readable. Here is an example from "The Sacred Harp": Idumea
And here it is sung in the movie "Cold Mountain": Idumea
I chose this example because it shows that music can be interesting (and quite dissonant) without accidentals.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Fabulin said:


> Mozart's aria _Non piu andrai_?


there are accidentals, actually-


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