A New Scale' From The Beyond

DOI: 10.1111/musa.
12217
ÉRICO BOMFIM AND CARLOS ALMADA
A ‘New Scale’ from the Beyond: VERBUNKOS and Triadic

Transformations in a Piece Attributed to the Spirit of Liszt
by Rosemary Brown
The closest look at the history of Western music would not find any case
like that of Rosemary Brown (1916–2001). From the 1960s onwards, Brown
attributed hundreds of musical pieces to the spirits of great composers of concert
music, with whom she claimed to be in touch as a spirit medium. Presenting
herself as a simple housewife with a humble background, Brown wrote pieces
allegedly by the spirits of Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms,
Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy and Sergei Rachmaninov, among
many other celebrated figures in the history of music. At least some of her
pieces have impressed music critics. This was especially the case of Grübelei
(1969), attributed to the spirit of Liszt and partially written in front of the
cameras of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on the occasion of a
documentary about Brown. Grübelei attracted the attention of Humphrey Searle,
at that time one of the leading authorities on Liszt. Searle highlighted the fact
that Grübelei did not conform to the virtuosic Lisztian style best known to the
public; instead, because of its ‘meditative’ character, high chromatic saturation
and unconventional metre, it resembled Liszt’s late style.1 Brown became well-
known for the musical works she attributed to spirits. She published three books
(Brown 1971, 1974 and 1986) and participated in several television shows, in
addition to having several of her pieces published and recorded.
Brown’s music contains many flaws, including limited textures, pedestrian
accompaniment patterns and basic voice-leading mistakes. Whereas sceptics
would take those shortcomings as evidence that the music was not by the spirits
of the deceased composers to whom she attributed them, spiritualists might
rationalise them as ‘communication problems’ or difficulties of the ‘mediumistic’
process. Regardless of the alleged flaws in the music and irrespective of the
sceptical or spiritualist point of view one adopts, Brown’s case is unique in several
aspects. There is no other occurrence of a composer who has reproduced, at least
with some success, so many styles that are so different from one another through
hundreds of original compositions, while at the same time claiming to have no
relevant compositional background – not to mention the spiritual allegations.
Given the virtues recognised in Brown’s music (despite its unquestionable
limitations and deficiencies) and its unique, intriguing and enigmatic character,
188 Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

© 2023 The Authors.
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A ‘NEW SCALE’ FROM THE BEYOND 189
it is surprising that the fields of musicology and music analysis have neglected
her production for more than half a century, with the exception of our research
(Bomfim 2015, 2019 and 2022; and Bomfim and Almada 2022).
This article analyses ‘New Scale Modulations (under Liszt’s Tuition)’, an
unpublished piece attributed to the spirit of Liszt by Brown.2 We start by
proposing a new approach towards Brown’s music, centred on her alleged goals
as a composer (and/or medium). We also address the current stage of research
on her music. Then we move on to a review of the verbunkos idiom and its
relation with triadic transformations and Weitzmann regions – elements essential
to Liszt’s modernist harmonic language, with which ‘New Scale Modulations’
establishes clear and sophisticated connections. Finally, we turn to the analysis
of Brown’s piece, which is informed by the discussion of Liszt’s transcultural
modernism. It is our belief that ‘New Scale Modulations’ provides an original
and substantial dialogue with Liszt’s neo-verbunkos experimental language,
contradicting the prevailing dismissal of Brown’s music as a superficial imitation
of styles. We also believe that the musical data analysed can be understood in
light of the possible goals behind Brown’s music.
Rosemary Brown’s Compositional Goals

Leonard Meyer’s approach in Style and Music provides a fruitful framework
within which to understand Brown’s music better. For Meyer, ‘the choices of
composers […] can be understood and explained only in light of the intentions
generated by goals – goals that are implicit in the constraints of the style and are
largely set by the ideology of the culture’ (Meyer 1996, p. 36). By having goals,
art can be seen as a game, and a piece of music could be described as a set of
compositional choices that aim to win this game. But what would be the goal of
Brown’s music? What game would that be?
One may think that Brown’s goal would have been simply to recreate styles
of the past. This is true, but it is not the whole truth. In her first book, Brown
(1971) wrote a brief text attributed to the spirit of Donald Tovey, which intends
to present a transcendent reason behind all that music:
In communicating through music and conversation, an organised group of

musicians who have departed from your world are attempting to establish a
precept for humanity, i.e., that physical death is a transition from one state of
consciousness to another wherein one retains one’s individuality. […] We are not
transmitting music to Rosemary Brown simply for the sake of offering possible
pleasure in listening thereto; it is the implications relevant to this phenomenon
which we hope will stimulate sensible and sensitive interest and stir many who are
intelligent and impartial to consider and explore the unknown regions of man’s
mind and psyche. (Brown 1971, pp. 17–18)
For Brown, then, the music should be understood as part of a transcendental

project conceived in the spiritual realm. Simply put, the goal of the project
Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023) © 2023 The Authors.

Music Analysis © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
190 ÉRICO BOMFIM AND CARLOS ALMADA
was to provide humanity with evidence of the survival of the soul after death.
There were two ways by which this ambitious project could work, one musical
and one extramusical. The musical way was through her pieces, which aimed to
recreate those composers’ styles and intended to show a deep understanding of
their compositional thinking. The extramusical was the construction of Brown’s
persona as a simple housewife, incapable of knowing those styles in any depth.
The musical and the extramusical elements worked together as two sides of the
same coin: the music needed to be convincing in itself, but it was also necessary
to persuade the public that Brown would not be capable of composing that music
by herself (that is, without the aid of the spirits).
Brown gathered much support from spiritualists and enthusiasts of her music,
among them composers such as Searle and Richard Rodney Bennett (see
Brown 1974, pp. 20–1).3 But Brown’s greatest apologist was Ian Parrott, also a
composer, who defended the spiritual origin of music with analytical arguments
(Parrott 1978). Although enthusiasts of Brown’s music certainly did not have
to be spiritualists themselves, their opinions appear more frequently amid the
spiritualist discourse as a means of underpinning the spiritual origin of the
music. Thus, both spiritualists and enthusiasts emphasised the positive aspects
of Brown’s works and the correlations with the styles of great composers. Often,
they also accepted (perhaps uncritically) the depiction of Brown as a simple
housewife with no deep musical training, and therefore unable to have the
musical knowledge necessary to reproduce those styles.
Sceptics, on the other hand, tended to view more suspiciously both Brown’s
musical results and her claims of a lack of compositional training. They generally
saw her music as unconvincing, sometimes even as nothing more than a
superficial pastiche. Among those who adopt this point of view we can mention
several professional musicians and scholars whose opinions on Brown’s music
were collected by Melvyn Willin (2005, pp. 66–95). John Sloboda (1985, p. 121)
accurately illustrates this sceptical dismissal of Brown’s music as a superficial
and lesser imitation of styles. Although he considers Brown’s music to be a
very rare example of ‘unconscious composition on an extended scale’ (owing
to the medium’s seemingly unusual compositional processes), his final verdict is
extremely unfavourable:
We may see that she has grasped some of the rules of construction used in
the music of classical and romantic masters. The composition she produces
are, however, mainly of simple episodic form, and lack the organic mastery
sometimes achieved by the composers she claims to transmit. She is a good,
albeit, unconscious imitator of surface styles. But for the total insulation of her
compositional processes from her awareness she would be as little worthy of note
as the countless unmemorable imitators in every sphere of creative endeavour.
(Sloboda 1985, p. 121)
Sceptics are also suspicious of the characterisation of Brown as a simple

housewife with no relevant musical skills. This kind of depiction of a spirit
© 2023 The Authors. Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

medium – which in this case can easily be seen as endorsing unfortunate gender
stereotypes – is a historical strategy within the spiritualist discourse to make its
claims more convincing; it certainly does not need to be uncritically accepted
as plain fact. In discussing different and contradictory reports on Brown’s
musical background, Benjamin Radford raises the possibility that she could have
accumulated much more compositional knowledge than she claimed: ‘Brown
told several different stories about just how much musical training she had, and
of course she had strong incentive to downplay her abilities’ (Radford 2008,
p. 34).
It is not our goal, however, to discuss Brown’s persona here, as it has been
treated in depth elsewhere.4 The musical data discussed here do not need to be
seen as indicative of the survival of the soul or confirmation of Brown’s claims.
The evidential aspirations of her music can be translated as the replication of
styles and, more important, the recreation of a particular compositional logic
and thinking. It is this intersection – the connections between Brown’s music and
Liszt’s compositional mind – that interests us. Whether this intersection would
indeed prove something or not is not our concern. This article concentrates on
Brown’s musical results in ‘New Scale Modulations’, and it is our understanding
that Brown’s peculiar goals led to a unique musical result, one that relates
to Liszt’s compositional thinking in a deeply sophisticated and rational way –
regardless of her spiritual allegations.
This understanding of ‘New Scale Modulations’ is corroborated by earlier
research. An early effort to investigate Brown’s music in greater depth can be
found in Bomfim’s investigation of the Sonata in F minor (1982), attributed
by Brown to the spirit of Schubert (Bomfim 2015). The sonata could hardly
have been composed by Schubert; it presents all the aforementioned deficiencies
common to most pieces written by Brown (e.g. predictable accompaniment
patterns and phrase structures). Even so, the work is remarkable in other aspects,
as its first movement presents nearly all the main elements of Schubertian sonata
form: a three-key exposition, a transition and central caesura that do not prepare
the key of the subordinate theme, a development structured in great transposed
blocks and an off-tonic recapitulation.5
The combination of all these Schubertian structural elements in a single
movement – extremely rare even in Schubert – demonstrates that Brown was
able to elaborate much more than a superficial imitation of style. Regardless
of how she did it (and despite all the unquestionable limitations of the music),
her Sonata in F minor attributed to Schubert establishes an in-depth dialogue
with Schubert’s treatment of sonata form, challenging sceptical understanding
of Brown’s music as a superficial and intuitive imitation of style. Moreover, the
high concentration of Schubertian features in the sonata suggests that the very
peculiar goals of her music led to a unique musical result, regardless of whether
we are to believe her claims or not. In that game of music attributed to spirits,
it was necessary to show as many style features as possible, and this Brown did

by writing a first movement that incorporated virtually all the characteristics of

Schubert’s sonata forms.
We believe that the same rationale applies to ‘New Scale Modulations’.
Although the piece may exhibit some of the flaws that are ubiquitous in Brown’s
output (its phrase structures may seem too regular, for example), it completely
contradicts the idea of Brown as a ‘surface imitator of styles’, for it establishes
a rich, sophisticated and original dialogue with Liszt’s compositional mind. The
‘new scale’, together with its musical use, mediates between two independent
worlds, both of which were deeply embedded in Liszt’s musical imagination and
interacted with each other. The first world is that of verbunkos asymmetrical
scales; the second is that of symmetrical musical thinking – especially hexatonic
scales and Weitzmann regions. By this means, ‘New Scale Modulations’ shows
a deep understanding of Liszt’s compositional thinking, something that seems
to respond to Brown’s compositional goals. To analyse and discuss ‘New Scale
Modulations’, we begin by reviewing the verbunkos idiom and some aspects of
Liszt’s harmonic language.
The Verbunkos as Structural Principle

There is no question that Hungarian and Romani features had a significant
impact on Liszt’s musical output. Several authors have studied this issue,
beginning with Hungarian scholars such as Zoltán Gárdonyi (1931), Bence
Szabolcsi (1959), István Szelényi (1963) and Lájos Bárdos (1978). The subject
was also addressed by Serge Gut ([1975] 2012), who studied the elements of
Lisztian musical language in general, and later by Jonathan Bellman (1991),
who sought to form a Hungarian-style lexicon.
More recently, Shay Loya (2006, 2008 and 2011) took the discussion of
this subject to a higher level, analysing in detail the structural influences
of the ‘Hungarian-Gypsy’ language on Liszt’s music in an authentic case of
transculturation. In place of expressions such as ‘Gypsy’ or ‘Hungarian-Gypsy’,
Loya adopts the term verbunkos. This is because, among other reasons, ‘Style
hongrois describes exotic “Gypsy” musical topics as understood by primarily
Austro-German and then generally European composers’ (Loya 2008, p. 257).
Verbunkos, on the other hand, ‘is a more neutral generic term that simply stands
for the musical materials and practices derived from verbunkos, materials and
practices which may or may not participate in representation, but are always
part of a transcultural exchange’ (ibid., p. 258).
The verbunkos idiom clearly had an important influence on at least some
of Liszt’s music, as in the Hungarian Rhapsodies. But did verbunkos have
an impact on pieces not explicitly associated with anything Hungarian or
Romani? The answer is yes: there is clear evidence that verbunkos elements had
an influence far beyond pieces that have any explicit Hungarian or Romani
connotations, even on religious works (Hamburger 1997). More important,

Fig. 1 Verbunkos scales (adapted from Loya 2008, p. 276)
there is a strong connection between verbunkos and Liszt’s advanced harmony

within the Zukunftsmusik.
The core of Loya’s work is the search for a cross-cultural music analysis,
connecting the theoretical and cultural-historical branches of musicology, and
understanding verbunkos as a structural and authentically transcultural element
in Liszt’s music. In Loya’s words, Liszt’s music ‘demonstrates, almost by
default, a clear connection between verbunkos material and structural/harmonic
innovation’ (2008, p. 257). That is to say, Liszt extracts structural and original
consequences from verbunkos for his musical language. A thorough review of the
verbunkos elements is beyond the scope of this article; instead, we prioritise here
those features of verbunkos which seem to be more closely related to ‘New Scale
Modulations’, as we shall see.
The terms ‘Hungarian minor’ and ‘Gypsy’ scale usually correspond to the
harmonic minor with its fourth degree raised. However, in Loya’s words,
‘The concept of a “Gypsy minor scale” does not even begin to do justice to
the richness of verbunkos-related modality’ (2008, p. 275). More importantly,
the idea of a plurality of scales, initially raised by Bárdos, ‘is palpably supported
by Liszt’s music’ (Loya 2006, p. 47). Indeed, ‘Liszt demonstrably uses several
scales in his music, and […] he himself referred later in life (in a letter from
July 1879) to these scales in the plural – “Certains modes magyars, tristes et
nobles, me sont innées …”’ (ibid., p. 47 n. 71). Amid such diversity, however,
it is possible to identify six modes which are especially prominent in the music
of Liszt. Those six modes are shown in Fig. 1.6 It could be said that the most

essential feature of the verbunkos scales is the augmented second, which appears
in all of them at least once.7
Verbunkos manifests itself not only as scale patterns, but also as harmonic
features. Verbunkos pieces frequently show an ambivalence between dominant
and tonic (or tonic and subdominant) in such a way that ‘it is not always
possible to decide clearly on the function of a given chord, and therefore to
decide which chord functions as tonic’ (Loya 2011, p. 46). This functional
ambiguity frequently takes place above a bass pedal. Indeed, the ‘pedal-point
principle’ is another aspect of the verbunkos harmonic language. Although
pedal points are extremely common in the general repertoire, some elements
are more characteristically related to verbunkos, ‘particularly (1) ninth-chord
dissonances resulting from the juxtaposition of tonic and dominant (or tonic
and subdominant) and (2) a prolonged second inversion of the tonic chord
that, against Western harmonic practice of that era, treats the 64 chord as a
consonance’ (ibid., p. 47).
Another way verbunkos diverges from traditional tonal thinking is the notion of
‘progressive tonality’, reflected in the tendency to ‘end phrases – and sometimes
even a complete movement or piece – in a different key’ (Loya 2011, p. 41).
In such instances, it is not clear whether the tonic is at the beginning or the
end of the phrase, movement or piece. Contrary to tonal convention, this is
usually related to a ‘subdominant directionality’ and was considered ‘bizarre’ by
eighteenth-century scholars (see ibid., pp. 41–2).
Interestingly, this subdominant tendency can be related to a characteristic
kind of ‘tonal cycle’ in the music of Liszt. The topic was addressed in detail
by Paul Merrick (2000), who discusses its implications in the Transcendental
Études (S. 139), the Technical Exercises (S. 146) and Christus (S. 3). Regarding the
Transcendental Études, Merrick notes that Liszt’s ‘chosen key sequence moves in
an increasing number of flats, starting from C major and A minor with none, and
stopping at 5 flats, D flat major and B flat minor’ (2000, p. 189). Merrick also
emphasises the special character of this subdominant tendency: ‘This scheme of
rising 4ths can also be viewed as moving in 5ths downwards, and as such is the
inversion of the common view of the cycle of 5ths given in musical textbooks,
where the ascending sequence of sharps appears first’ (ibid, p. 189).
Another property of verbunkos is the potential for exploration of modal
fluctuations and/or inflections. Loya classifies them into two types: simultaneous
and successive polymodality (2011, pp. 48–50).8 The simultaneous type ‘is the
kind of bimodal juxtaposition that arises from the melodic independence of the
different parts in a given texture. Often this involves a melodic minor third
clashing with a harmonic major third, not unlike “blue” notes in jazz’ (Loya
2011, p. 48). This is particularly related to the independence of the prímás
(usually equivalent to a first violin) in a ‘Gypsy’ band. Another possibility is the
clash between minor and major sevenths (or, depending on the context, leading
note and subtonic).

Successive polymodality, on the other hand, consists of an oscillation between

different modes. This element, additionally studied by Lajos Zeke (1986), can
also manifest as inflected repetitions, as defined by Ramon Satyendra (1997).
According to Loya, ‘The most common modal variability of the verbunkos idiom
is a kind of persistent major-minor flux, or even more idiomatically, a minor-
major flux’ (2011, pp. 48–9). Therefore, verbunkos successive polymodality
typically corresponds to intensive modal mixture.9
For the purposes of this article, perhaps the most relevant characteristic of
the verbunkos harmonic language is the unprepared moves to distant chords
or tones, as described by Loya (2011, pp. 50–1). This aspect of the verbunkos
was recognised and even exalted by Liszt himself, who pointed that ‘[c]hords
of transition, with very few exceptions, are completely left out […] in the true
(genuine) Bohemian music’ (ibid., p. 50). Liszt’s opinion was also noted by
Bellman, according to whom ‘[t]he Liszt book [Des Bohémiens et de leur musique
en Hongrie (1859)] stresses the Gypsies’ “habit of passing suddenly to a remote
key”, and that their “system of modulation seems to be based on a total negation
of all predetermined plan for the purpose in question”’ (Bellman 1991, p. 232).
Those harmonic shifts typical of the verbunkos challenged traditional laws of
tonality, and they could easily fit the experimental harmonic language of the
New German School. Liszt would see in them an open door to Zukunftsmusik.
All Roads Lead to the Future

Liszt’s progressive harmonic language was closely connected to specific music-
theoretical approaches of his time. He was certainly influenced by François-
Joseph Fétis’s seemingly Hegelian ideas of musical progress through four
ordres: unitonique, transitonique, pluritonique and omnitonique.10 Liszt attended the
lectures given by Fétis in 1832, at which Fétis presented his theory on the
historical development of music. That Fétis’s theories had an impact on Liszt
is corroborated by both historical and musical evidence (Móricz 1993–4 and
Arlin 2000), including a letter by Liszt himself, written in 1867, in which the
composer writes: ‘Of all the theorists whom I know, Mr. Fétis is the one who has
best ascertained and defined the progress of harmony and rhythm in music; on
such chief points as these I flatter myself that I am in perfect accord with him’
(La Mara 1894, pp. 138–9). Recently David Carson Berry (2004) has advanced
a fresh understanding of the Bagatelle sans tonalité, borrowing interpretative
keys from nineteenth-century theoretical thinking. From this perspective, Fétis’s
theories about musical development could help to explain why Liszt would have
been drawn to compose a piece ‘without a key’ – that is, what his motivations
would have been for that particular musical enterprise.
But Liszt’s motivations do not explain how he would circumvent tonality in his
actual musical pieces to materialise in practice the ordre omnitonique associated
with his Zukunftsmusik project. One of the keys to that attainment – as Berry

Fig. 2 Transformations of an augmented triad
(2004, pp. 249–53) also noted – resided in the theory of another influential
personality from the nineteenth century, Carl Friedrich Weitzmann. Liszt seems
to have been particularly drawn to Weitzmann’s pioneering understanding of the
augmented triad, published in Der übermässige Dreiklang (Weitzmann and Saslaw
2004), such that Liszt’s musical practice and Weitzmann’s theories influenced
each other. Liszt received from Weitzmann a copy of Der übermässige Dreiklang,
and Weitzmann dedicated to Liszt his following book, on the diminished seventh
chord (Der verminderte Septimenakkord) (Walker 1987, p. 329 n. 52). Weitzmann
was the first musical theorist to note that the augmented triad, because of its
enharmonic properties, could resolve to six perfect triads by the displacement of
a single semitone (Weitzmann and Saslaw 2004, pp. 203–17).
Fig. 2 shows twelve possible semitonal displacements of the augmented triad,
resulting in twelve different major or minor triads. Three major triads result from
the displacement of each of the augmented triad’s pitch classes one semitone
down; three minor triads result from the displacement of each of the augmented
triad’s components one semitone up. Weitzmann also noted that by displacing
two semitones instead of one, the same augmented triad could give rise to
six more consonant triads. Three different minor triads would result from the
displacement of two of the augmented triad’s notes a semitone down, and three
different major triads result from the displacement of two of the augmented
triad’s notes a semitone up. Finally, Weitzmann also acknowledged that an
augmented triad could be followed by any chord, regardless of common tones.
This flexibility is perhaps one of the reasons that, according to Dennis Hennig,
the pianist and Liszt pupil Karl Tausig believed that ‘Weitzmann was determined
to explain and justify all that Liszt might compose’ (1990, p. 34). More recently,
Richard Cohn (2000 and 2012) termed the clusters that connect the four
augmented triads to the 24 perfect triads through a single semitone displacement
(always considering enharmonicism) ‘Weitzmann regions’.
Because it favours easy connections between distant consonant chords
through augmented triads, Weitzmann’s harmonic rationale seems to fit quite
well the ‘habit of passing suddenly to a remote key’ from the Gypsies’ ‘system
of modulation’. More importantly, verbunkos scales have been associated with

Fig. 3 Invented key signature for G verbunkos minor (Loya 2011, p. 166)
symmetrical pitch configurations related to the weakening of the sense of

tonality. As Loya points out, Bárdos had already noted similarities between
verbunkos and symmetrical scales, such as the octatonic 2-1 and the hexatonic
3-1 (Loya 2011, p. 135). Although Loya discusses fragilities and possible
biases in Bárdos’s perspective, there is little doubt that Liszt took advantage
of this possible connection between verbunkos and symmetrical pitch relations
(including Weitzmann’s harmonic thinking), both of which fed into his
Zukunftsmusik project.
To hypothesise how verbunkos scales could relate to each other, Loya has
‘given G-ver[bunkos] (G–A–Bb–C#–D–Eb–F#) an invented key signature. We need
to imagine it as the primary mode, whose main diatonic tones determine the
tonal space’ (2011, p. 165). Fig. 3 presents Loya’s ‘invented key signature’
(Loya 2011, p. 165) for G verbunkos minor. Taking the pitches from G verbunkos
minor as the ‘main diatonic tones’, Loya measures the distances between tonal
centres in a new light, basing the measurement on common tones shared by
distinct transpositions of verbunkos scales (ibid.).11 This approach suggests the
structural role that the verbunkos can inhabit in Liszt’s music – something not
too far from an alternative tonal system, one that approximates remote keys by
bringing unorthodox scales into play.
After addressing many possible relations among verbunkos scales, Loya
concentrates on the properties of the kalindra scale (2011, pp. 168–70). Since
kalindra corresponds to the scale built on the fifth degree of a verbunkos minor
scale, Loya suggests that kalindra can function somewhat as a ‘relative key’ to
the verbunkos minor, although it can also be simply absorbed by the dominant
harmony in a verbunkos minor context (2011, p. 168). More important,
Loya uses kalindra to illustrate how verbunkos scales can diatonicise chromatic
relations. One way kalindra does that is by approximating tonal centres a major
third apart, because kalindra transpositions that are a major third distant from
each other share five common tones. Another way is by diatonicising chromatic
harmonic transformations. Because kalindra is a rotation of the verbunkos minor,
those two properties apply to the latter.
Fig. 4 illustrates a triadic space for the verbunkos minor scale on C
(<023678e>). It is organised according to the mod-12 sum of the pitch-class
numbers corresponding to each note of each triad. The triads are distributed in
five columns corresponding to (from left to right) sum classes 11, 10, 9, 8 and
7.12 Some explanations about the conventions adopted are necessary:

Fig. 4 Triadic space of C verbunkos minor
1. enharmonic equivalence is preferentially assumed;

2. upper-case letters indicate major-third chords (major and augmented
triads), while lower-case ones indicate minor-third (minor and diminished)
chords;
3. different geometric representations for the four triadic qualities are also
provided, emphasising their distinction; and
4. straight lines connecting the figures and chords represent semitonal voice
leading. Numbers inform the pitch classes that are involved in these
motions.
Liszt’s Aux cyprès de la Villa d’Este (S. 163, No. 2), from the third volume of
the Années de pèlerinage, offers a good opportunity to draw on insights gained
from this model in analysis. The piece is in G minor but ends in G major. Fig. 5
shows that the beginning of Aux cyprès conforms perfectly to the verbunkos minor
scale on G (though, interestingly, the tonic pitch, G, is omitted).13 All pitches are
written according to the scale, without any enharmonisation, even when this has
the consequence of spelling the Eb minor triad as Eb–F#–Bb and the F# major triad
as F#–Bb–C#. Indeed, this peculiar spelling is also used by Liszt at the beginning
of Nuages gris (S. 199) – also in G verbunkos minor. Regarding that passage, Loya
says that ‘[t]he spelling of these chords asks us to change our tonally conditioned
perceptions of the diatonic and the chromatic’ (2011, p. 244).

Fig. 5 Reduction of Liszt, Aux cyprès de la Villa d’Este, S. 163/2, bars 4–9
Fig. 6 Mapping of Fig. 5 onto the triadic space of G verbunkos minor
Equally important as the conformity to G verbunkos minor is the fact that

the passage is clearly orientated according to the triadic transformational logic
closely related to Weitzmann’s harmonic thinking. Fig. 6 maps those harmonic
transformations onto the triadic space of G verbunkos minor, showing the two
neo-Riemannian motions of two semitones that occur in the passage, R and PL.
In the end, verbunkos and triadic transformations interact and reinforce each
other, integrating into a cohesive harmonic language.
This relation between Liszt’s advanced harmonic language and verbunkos also
manifests itself on a deeper structural level. Satyendra has suggested that ‘“Aux
Cypres” features pervasive semitonal voice leading at both surface and deeper
levels in conjunction with a plan featuring sonority variation’ (1997, p. 224).
It is particularly noteworthy that Satyendra’s harmonic reduction of the piece
shows only triads that belong to the verbunkos minor scale on G (except for the
ending in G major). Fig. 7 maps Satyendra’s (1997, p. 225) reduction onto the
triadic space of G verbunkos minor (and considering enharmonicism).

Fig. 7 Reduction of Aux cyprès mapped onto G verbunkos minor triadic space (after
Satyendra 1997, p. 225)
As we will see, the same logic – which involves the rigorous and rational use of
a peculiar scale to diatonicise chromatic transformations between enharmonised
chords – guides ‘New Scale Modulations’ in a fundamental way.
A ‘New Scale’ from the Beyond

Many of the pieces written by Brown were never recorded or even published,
existing only in manuscript. This is the case with ‘New Scale Modulations,’
which, unlike most of Brown’s manuscripts, does not record its date of
composition. The piece indeed presents a scale that, if not ‘new’, is definitely
rare.14 In addition, it does not simply consist of the ‘new scale’, but also draws
important musical consequences from that scale. More important, the ‘new
scale’ and its implications establish a sophisticated dialogue with some essential
aspects of Liszt’s compositional thinking.
Fig. 8 shows that the beginning of ‘New Scale Modulations’ presents four
labels together with the musical score. Those labels are ‘Scale 1’, ‘Scale 4’, ‘Scale
12’ and ‘Scale 8’, and they refer to four distinct, invented key signatures. After
‘Scale 8’, there is a ‘New Scale Example Music’, which employs the same key
signature as ‘Scale 8’. Thus, there are in total four different key signatures in the
piece. Although all the titles and subtitles (such as ‘New Scale Modulations’,
Scale 4 and ‘New Scale Example Music’) seem to suggest more of a theoretical
essay than a musical work, ‘New Scale Modulations’ is in fact a musical piece
that can perfectly be performed from the beginning of ‘Scale 1’ to the end of
the ‘New Scale Example Music’. This is because the whole score has the same

Fig. 8 Manuscript of Brown, ‘New Scale Modulations’ (bars 1–8) [Colour figure can
be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
time signature ( 68 ), the textures and rhythms are very similar and there are points
of articulation of tonal syntax (dominant–tonic) that also guarantee a sense of
continuity throughout the musical material.
The four invented key signatures in ‘New Scale Modulations’ result in the
same transposed mode, which consists of the semitone sequence <3131211>.
This specific mode – instead of any other mode built with the same collection of
pitches – is determined by musical use, as the following analysis will clarify. This
mode will be henceforth called NS (for ‘New Scale’). It is possible to see the
NS as strongly related to two specific collections here considered as referential
– namely, the sixth mode of the verbunkos minor scale (henceforth V6 ) and the
hexatonic scale, mode 3-1 (H3-1 ). As we shall see, this close relation between
NS, V6 and H3-1 is of great value for understanding the connection between the
NS and Liszt’s musical imagination.15
Fig. 9a demonstrates that the NS can be derived from H3-1 by the subdivision
of the third and last ‘augmented second’ (three semitones) in a pair of ‘regular’
seconds (2+1 semitones). This simple operation can transform a symmetrical,
hexatonic structure into an asymmetrical, heptatonic one; moreover, it preserves
the original collection (and includes another pitch class), which makes NS a
superset of H3-1 .16 In the case of NS and V6 (similar in terms of the number
of elements and structural asymmetry) the correlation has a different nature.
Fig. 9b shows that by mirroring the block formed by the third, fourth and fifth
intervals (3-1-2 or 2-1-3 semitones), it is possible to transform one scale into the
other.
Such a prominent affinity between NS, V6 and H3-1 is noteworthy for two
main reasons. First, according to Loya, a ‘major development in Liszt’s scalar
manipulation was the use of the sixth degree of the verbunkos-minor as an

Fig. 9 Derivation of the NS from the transformation of (a) H3-1 and (b) V6
alternative tonic’ (2011, p. 244). Therefore, this close relation between NS

and V6 may suggest a link with Liszt’s tendency to alternatively place the tonic
on the sixth degree of the verbunkos minor. Second, as previously mentioned,
verbunkos modes have long been associated with Liszt’s modernism, including
the use of symmetrical scales. However, none of the verbunkos modes contains
a symmetrical scale. On the contrary, NS does, for it contains H3-1 . In sum,
NS can result from taking the verbunkos minor, placing its tonic on the sixth
degree and altering it in such a way as to make it a superset of H3-1 . The very
genesis of the NS can be therefore successfully explained as a hybridisation of
the transcultural and the modernist aspects of Liszt’s music.
The three scales can also be compared by their harmonic potentialities.
Fig. 10 shows the triadic space of H3-1 . As discussed previously, the structure
of the hexatonic cycles is closely related to Weitzmann regions. By having three
major and three minor triads (with roots related by ic4) and two augmented
triads (related by ic1), the H3-1 triadic space contains a complete hexatonic cycle
and parts of two Weitzmann regions. Despite the structural similarities between
H3-1 and V6 , the triadic space of V6 (which is of course equivalent to that of the
verbunkos minor already shown in Fig. 4 above) is distinct from that of H3-1 .
Finally, the NS triadic space is presented in Fig. 11. It is larger than the spaces
of H3-1 and V6 (consequently also the verbunkos minor and kalindra). While NS
triadic space has ten chords, H3-1 has eight and V6 has nine.
There are important implications of the NS that make it a convenient vehicle
for a ‘neo-verbunkos’ experimental harmonic language.17 Fig. 12 shows that,
considering enharmonic possibilities, there are four main harmonies that can
be built on the first degree: the major and minor triads, a dominant seventh
chord and an augmented triad. This means that the scale bears within itself
the potential for some of the main harmonic features of verbunkos. While the
minor and major triads on the first degree allow modal interchangeability, the

Fig. 10 Triadic space of collection H3-1
dominant seventh, also on the first degree, causes tonal ambivalence between
tonic and subdominant connected with subdominant directionality. All those
verbunkos possibilities are diatonicised by the NS.
Another interesting topological property of NS concerns the possibility of
creating ‘maximally smooth’ (Cohn 1996 and 2012) sequences of chords in
such a way that all triads of the space are visited just one time – something that
encourages post-tonal compositional endeavours. Fig. 13 illustrates this property
by depicting two possible ten-station paths departing from a hypothetical ‘tonic’
major triad of C.18
Thanks to its close affinity with both V6 and H3-1 , its inherent
transformational possibilities and its potential for neo-verbunkos harmonic
experiments, the NS is therefore an ideal tool for the recreation of Liszt’s
harmonic language. And that potential is indeed explored in ‘New Scale
Modulations’.

Fig. 11 Triadic space of the NS collection
Fig. 12 Main harmonic possibilities on the first degree of the NS (the centre or finalis
C)
‘Modulations’: the Diatonic Becomes Chromatic, and the Chromatic

Becomes Diatonic
Let us now examine the ‘modulations’ in Brown’s manuscript. Put in more
formal terms, the idiosyncratic designations ‘Scales 1, 4, 12 and 8’ could be
identified as NS transpositions, considering their referential centres as pitch
classes. Thus, they can be translated as, respectively, T0 (the centre or finalis
C), T5 , T10 and T1 . Except for ‘Scale 1’, which corresponds to the centre C, it
is difficult to understand Brown’s other designations.

Fig. 13 Two maximally smooth paths in the NS triadic space

Fig. 14 Representation in the circle of fifths of pitch-class invariance in four

heptatonic scales [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Disregarding the oddity of the original nomenclature, one may speculate

about the reasons this specific sequence of transpositions was chosen. A possible
clue lies in the notion of content invariance and variance. Fig. 14 compares
the NS with three other heptatonic scales: the diatonic major, the acoustic and
the verbunkos minor. The numbers on the lines indicate the number of pitch
classes that change between the respective transpositions (circled). A broken
line highlights maximal invariance. While the diatonic major scale presents a
gradual increase of variance as the circle of fifths is covered (both clockwise and
anticlockwise), rising from one distinct pitch class (in T5 and T7 ) to five (T1 ,
T6 and T11 ), the remaining collections depict other patterns. Transpositions
of both the verbunkos minor and the acoustic scale promote variances of two,
three and five pitch classes (at different levels). This pattern is slightly modified
concerning the NS, under which minimal variance (one distinct pitch class), a
property shared with the diatonic major scale, is possible at T4 and T8 .

Fig. 15 Representation of the almost-complete mapping of the NS onto itself under

T4
Fig. 16 Representation of the three ‘modulations’ in Brown’s manuscript (ma , mb ,

mc )
In this way the NS boosts a property already present in the verbunkos minor
(and therefore also V6 and kalindra): the transpositions that share the most
common tones are those that are a major third apart. But whereas in the
verbunkos minor those transpositions share five pitch classes, in the NS they
share six, because they share the same transposition of H3-1 . Fig. 15 shows
this almost-complete mapping of NS onto itself under T4 . The diagonal line in
Fig. 15 connects the unique, distinct pitch classes. The framed squares indicate
members of H3-1 .
With this data it is possible to evaluate the ‘modulations’ in Brown’s
manuscript considering the content variance or, conversely, the retention of
pitch classes, as shown in Fig. 16. Shaded cells in the figure inform components
of a given transposition. Darker cells indicate pitch classes shared by contiguous
transpositions. Two abstract transposition levels connecting contiguous forms
were chosen: T5 (applied in ma : T0 →T5 and mb : T5 →T10 ) and T3 (mc :
T10 →T1 ). According to Fig. 16, both transpositions promote the variance of
three pitch classes (consequently, retention of four). Only one pitch class (8) is
kept throughout the passage. The first ‘modulation’ (ma ) makes the set {0, 3, 4,
8} invariant. In ‘modulation’ mb , the tetrachord retained is {1, 5, 8, 9}. The last
one (mc ) produces a remarkable replication of the previous set {1, 5, 8, 9}.

Fig. 17 Expanded triadic space ETS0-5-10
Fig. 18 Expanded triadic space ETS0-1-5-10 (see online version for colour image)
[Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Another dimension to be considered is harmony. Fig. 17 connects the

individual triadic spaces of the three initial transpositions (i.e. considering
transpositions T0 , T5 and T10 ; for the sake of clarity, T1 will be added later). Let
us call this structure an expanded triadic space related to the three transpositions
(or a ETS0-5-10 , for short). The shaded geometrical figures in Fig. 17 represent
shared triads. Owing to the transposition levels used in both ‘modulations’ (i.e.
T5 ), two contiguous spaces are plugged in the same manner by two shared triads.
This large space congregates 26 triads (19 consonant out of the 24 possible) and
all of the four possible augmented triads.
Let us now consider mc . Instead of simply plugging T1 ’s space at the far
left of ETS0-5-10 , a new architecture is proposed in Fig. 18, owing to the
increase of triadic redundancy that the new ‘modulation’ promotes. In fact,
transposition T1 adds only one triad (F diminished) to the previous expanded
space. This is because T1 shares with T5 the same transposition of H3-1 , making
their triadic spaces almost identical. Colours inform the several overlaps in
the four-transposition expanded space. The conjunction of the four individual
spaces contains 27 triads, subdivided into four augmented, four diminished,

ten major and nine minor triads. This leads us to see the sequence of Brown’s
‘modulations’, taken together, as a sort of narrative that begins with an expansion
of the pitch/chordal ambit and returns (or contracts) them back to the original
material.
Fig. 19 maps Brown’s ‘modulations’ onto ETS0-1-5-10 . The eight bars
of the manuscript are shown in (a), though appropriately normalised (i.e.
disregarding the invented key signatures and enharmonising pitches according
to conventional triadic spelling). A reduction (in b) prepares an idealised voice-
leading analysis that identifies (c) fifteen chords in the phrase. Finally, the related
paths are projected in the expanded space (d). Observe that there are eight
transitions involving just one semitone displacement (2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11 and
14), four with two (1, 5, 10 and 12), one with three (13) and one with four (9).
Despite the NS’s seemingly post-tonal character, Fig. 20 shows that the
precise points of the ‘modulations’ feature tonal syntax. The two ascending-
fourth ‘modulations’ are a direct consequence of the enharmonised dominant
seventh chord built on the first degree and therefore can be interpreted as
instances of verbunkos subdominant directionality diatonicised by the NS.
Because the points of apparent tonal syntax coincide with ‘modulations’,
the piece seems to invert traditional logic: whereas the chromatic harmonic
transformations, being native to the scale, are diatonicised, all points of tonal
syntax become chromatic, because dominant–tonic syntax is never possible
under the NS – after all, ‘modulations’ or chromatic alterations are always
necessary for the resolution of the enharmonic dominant-seventh chord built
on the first degree.
Besides subdominant directionality, Fig. 21 shows that the music in T1
sounds like an instance of ‘pendular inflected repetition’ (Loya 2011, pp. 241–
3) related to modal mixture. With respect to harmony, that particular passage
is strikingly similar to an excerpt of La lugubre gondola, mentioned by Loya as
an example of this kind of constant modal fluctuation (ibid., pp. 242–3). The
crucial difference is that in Brown’s piece this harmonic and scalar device is
diatonicised by an invented scale. Indeed, in Brown, unlike in Liszt, there is no
real modal mixture – only the sound of it.
A Myriad of Verbunkos Features

This theoretical framework provides us with the necessary tools for analysing
the short piece (24 bars in 68 ) in Brown’s manuscript, labelled ‘New Scale
Example Music’ (hereafter abbreviated as NS-ex). The piece presents a basic
binary structure, including a varied repetition of section a1 (labelled a2 in
the following analysis). Internally, a1 and a2 can be seen as loose eight-bar
sentences subdivided into symmetrical phrases (presentation and continuation).
Section b (bars 17–24) has a freer structure, presenting a simple model-sequence
organisation.

Fig. 19 Brown’s ‘modulations’. (a) normalised; (b) first reduction; (c) second reduction with idealised voice leading and triadic
identification; (d) paths projected on the ETS0-1-5-10
210
© 2023 The Authors.

ÉRICO BOMFIM AND CARLOS ALMADA
Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

Fig. 20 Brown’s ‘modulations’ (MS = manuscript version; Enh. = enharmonised)

Fig. 21 Comparison of (a) Brown, ‘New Scale Modulations’ (bars 7–8) and (b)
Liszt, La lugubre gondola (S. 200/2, bars 69–76)
Aiming at a more direct and simpler visualisation of harmonic relations, as

well as a closer connection with the theoretical model presented in the previous
sections, we transposed NS-ex to C (the original is written a semitone higher,
with the finalis on Db) and normalised its pitches (as was done in the analysis of
the ‘modulations’). But it should be stressed that there are very few accidentals
in Brown’s manuscript, and all pitches are spelled according to the invented key
signatures (except of course for those few pitches that do not belong to the NS
transpositions employed).
One of the most remarkable features of the NS-ex is the conflicting
relationship between the harmonies suggested by the musical events in the right
and left hands. This sort of harmonic divergence fluctuates throughout the piece
in distinct degrees of intensity, which seems to be associated with the form as
well as expression. Interestingly, this characteristic can be related to the verbunkos
idiom, where the prímás can be fully independent of – and sometimes can even
conflict with – the rest of the band. Considering this independence between the
musical materials in both hands, and with the desire to avoid visual confusion,
we decided to use two copies of the expanded space’s chart (at the bottom of
the analytical figures) to plot the paths related to the particular harmonies of the
right and left hands.
Fig. 22 analyses the presentation (bars 1–4) of the initial sentence. Even if to
a lesser extent (comparing with further passages), it is possible to observe both
in the reduction and the maps the harmonic independence of the two streams.
The right-hand line suggests overlapping triadic arpeggios (indicated by opposed
slurs in the reduction), while the left hand is much more unambiguous and
straightforward, allowing an immediate verticalisation of its events as chords.
Initially, the materials in both hands are joined by the dominant seventh chord
on C, but in the response of the sentence’s presentation, harmonic divergence
starts to build up. A noteworthy fact to mention in this segment is the internal

Fig. 22 Harmonic analysis of NS-ex, bars 1–4
border-crossing motion in both hands that connects C dominant seventh and F

minor, which pertain to distinct triadic spaces (T0 and T5 ), following the model
established by ‘modulation’ mb (see the previous section). Indeed, this sounds
locally as another subdominant-directed ‘modulation’ featuring tonal syntax.
The continuation (bars 5–8) of the sentence is shown in Fig. 23. Observe
how the harmonic divergence builds up continuously at first, with an increase
of the triadic changes in the right hand against a slower rate in the left. This
also provokes intervallic clashes on the musical surface. Among those clashes,

that between En in the bass against Eb in the higher register (indicated by a grey
rectangle) is particularly striking. Harmonic divergence ceases at the end of the
continuation as both hands reunite at the dominant seventh on C, the same
chord that opened the sentence. Though we noted the local resolution of the C
dominant seventh to F minor, it is noteworthy that, at the higher level of the

sentence, it is the C dominant seventh that behaves as a tonic, since it frames the
phrase structure as a stable harmonic entity.
The presentation (bars 9–12) of the next loose sentence is shown in Fig. 24.
This segment features a perceptible change of texture as the accompanying
arpeggios break off. Instead of enunciating a straightforward accompaniment

pattern, the left hand restates a varied version of the initial motivic material.
The harmonic divergence and motivic activity in the left hand contribute to a
heightened sense of movement. The harmony privileges parsimonious moves,
most of them displacing a single semitone, as can be seen in the graph. Note
how chords rooted on C arguably reinforce pitch centricity both at the beginning
and at the end of the segment. It should be noted, however, that, because of the
abundance of steps instead of the arpeggios in the left hand, alternative harmonic
analyses are viable.
Fig. 25 shows the ‘new continuation’ (bars 13–16) of this second sentence,
which brings back the main melody to the right hand (and the arpeggios to the

left) and prepares the entrance of section b. Note how both hands are yet again
united by the C dominant seventh harmony in the beginning of the segment,
before harmonic divergence restarts to build up. This emphasis on a chord
rooted on C at a point of relative stability (because of the harmonic congruence
between both hands) highlights once again the NS as a particular mode, with
clearly defined centricity, as opposed to a heptatonic collection with no defined
centre.
Fig. 26 shows the beginning of section b. There is arguably a heightened sense
of tension in this segment, caused by the high registers, the increase in harmonic
divergence and the number of clashes, all of which stress the independence
of the melodic construction from the harmonic support. Another interesting
aspect concerns the melodic contour, which seems to mirror the wavy bass line;
this process is completed in bars 21–22, preparing the closure of the piece, as
shown in Fig. 27. The ‘cadential’ augmented triad on G (which behaves as a
conventional dominant in this refashioned authentic cadence) is approached
through different chords in both hands. Observe, however, that both harmonies
(Ab minor and E minor) are only a single semitone away from the G augmented
triad, as shown by the graph. A single semitonal displacement also separates the
G augmented triad from the ‘tonic’ C minor that ends the piece. The cadence,
though highly unconventional and featuring an augmented triad, is still clearly
perceptible thanks to the decrease of rhythmic and textural activity, as well as
the bass movement.
If the previous ‘modulations’ emphasised subdominant directionality and
featured successive bimodality, NS-ex arguably highlights the independence
of the melodic construction from the accompaniment pattern, as well as
parsimonious harmonic transformations. The harmonic divergence between
hands can be related to the previously mentioned independence of the prímás in
the ‘Gypsy’ band and seems to be used in the piece as a resource to build tension
and movement. The parsimonious triadic transformations may be related to
the harmonic language of the Zukunftsmusik. In this way the NS-ex seems to
complement the previous section to build a mosaic of neo-verbunkos modernist
elements in Brown’s piece.
∗∗∗
‘New Scale Modulations’ is remarkable in many ways. The piece indeed

creates a scale, and this is done rationally, through invented key signatures that
give rise to precise transpositions of the same heptatonic mode. Unlike many
(perhaps most) of the pieces written by Brown, there are no spelling mistakes.
If, on the one hand, chords are almost always written in an unconventional way,
on the other hand the spelling strictly obeys the conceived mode.
It is especially noteworthy that the NS turned out to be, for a number of
reasons, an ideal tool for the recreation of Liszt’s experimental neo-verbunkos
harmonic language. First, it is closely related to V6 , suggesting a dialogue

with the fact that Liszt alternatively placed the finalis on the sixth degree
of the verbunkos minor. Second, unlike any verbunkos scale, NS contains
H3-1 , making it an especially privileged scale for harmonic transformations;
because it contains H3-1 , it also contains (enharmonised) major and minor
triads on three of its degrees (including the first), incorporating the potential
for verbunkos modal interchangeability. Third, unlike H3-1 it contains an
enharmonised dominant seventh chord also on the first degree, inducing
verbunkos subdominant directionality. ‘New Scale Modulations’ made good use

of the potentialities of NS, for it showed instances of modal interchangeability

and many subdominant-directed ‘modulations’; but the piece is especially rich
in harmonic transformations related to the Weitzmann regions and the hexatonic
cycles. In a deeply rational way, the scale ‘invented’ by Brown diatonicises those
triadic transformations, incorporating them into an experimental neo-verbunkos
musical environment.

The originality of ‘New Scale Modulations’ also merits comment. To be sure,

Liszt never invented a key signature. The use of that artifice in Brown’s piece
could strike an analyst as a mistake in a piece that aims to recreate Liszt’s style
or compositional thinking. However, that apparent mistake can be seen as one
of the greatest virtues of the piece. Arguably, it makes musically explicit for
the first time the structural importance of special scales for Liszt’s harmonic
vocabulary. Indeed, Hungarian musicologists such as Bárdos have suggested
(without satisfactorily explaining) this possibility, but it was only very recently
that Loya addressed the issue in depth. What ‘New Scale Modulations’ does,
therefore, is shed light on a relatively obscure aspect of Liszt’s compositional
mind. And this is done in a very sophisticated and rational fashion, through
a clever and unique mediation between the verbunkos asymmetrical heptatonic
modes and symmetrical scalar and harmonic thinking.
Perhaps this unique and remarkable musical result could be explained in light
of the goals Brown had for her music. With her pieces, Brown believed she
could give evidence of life after death. This she would do by writing music that
would be incompatible with her allegedly limited musical training. By recreating
Liszt’s compositional thinking in such a rational way, Brown distances her music
from its dismissal as an intuitive imitation. One could hardly avoid asking how
someone with apparently little musical education would be able to achieve a
musical result like that. Therefore, ‘New Scale Modulations’ seems tailor-made
for Brown’s purposes. It could be understood as a musical effort to show a deep
understanding of Liszt’s compositional imagination, far beyond Brown’s alleged
capabilities.
Of course, there is always room for scepticism, and one may certainly be
suspicious of Brown’s insistence on her lack of compositional training. When
it comes to paranormal claims, much can be speculated, and many hypotheses
can be conceived. Whether the musical evidence presented here would indeed
confirm any spiritual allegations is far beyond the scope of this article. But this
much is certain: ‘New Scale Modulations’ challenges the dismissal of Brown’s
music as a superficial and lesser pastiche. Rather, it establishes an original, rich
and rational dialogue with Liszt’s compositional mind, inviting musicology to
address her oeuvre.
NOTES
Permission for the reproduction of material from New Scale Modulations in
this article has been kindly given courtesy of the Rosemary Brown Estate.
1. Searle’s opinion is quoted by Rosemary Brown (1974, p. 20) and Ian
Parrott (1978, p. 38).

2. The manuscript is in the British Library (MS Mus. 1211). Because ‘New
Scale Modulations’ exists only in the original manuscript, here the authors
use our own transcription of the piece. The manuscript is undated.
3. The case of Brown prompts some curious narratives, involving renowned
musicians, including some who were not spiritualists or even enthusiasts of
her music. Brown (1971, pp. 148–51) met the conductor and composer
Leonard Bernstein, who, according to her, would have appreciated
a Fantaisie attributed to Chopin and another piece attributed to
Rachmaninoff (except for a bar by Rachmaninoff that the conductor would
not have ‘bought’). The pianist John Lill (1974) believed in the medium,
but for a very unusual reason: he claimed to have had confirmation from
Beethoven’s own spirit that Brown would be an authentic spirit medium.
The cellist Julian Lloyd Webber describes in his autobiography that he was
twice ‘cured’ by Brown of health problems (1984, pp. 66–8). The first was
a problem with his fingers that would have condemned him to retirement;
the second, a kidney stone. Interestingly, Lloyd Webber (2006) doubted
the spiritual origin of the music, because it was strange for him that those
spirits did not seek to develop their styles any further, instead composing
pieces similar to those they did when they were in this world.
4. Bomfim (2019) presents a thorough discussion of Brown’s persona and
its close relation with depictions of historical spirit mediums. It also
discusses in detail the complex, ambiguous and historical relation between
mediumship and gender. We thank the anonymous reviewer for calling our
attention to the need to address more critically Brown’s persona in this
paper and to avoid endorsing unfortunate gender stereotypes.
5. In that regard, see especially Salzer (1928) and Webster (1978 and 1979).
6. Fig. 1 was adapted from Loya (2008, p. 276), with two important
differences: first, Loya writes all scales beginning on D, whereas we write
them beginning on C; second, we included in the figure the semitone
sequence formed by the scale for comparison purposes.
7. In fact, the augmented second is seen by many authors as a specific feature
of the ‘Gypsy’ performance, which even incorporated this interval into
repertoires that did not previously contain it. In that regard, see Gut
([1975] 2012, p. 266) and Bellman (1991, p. 234).
8. Although many instances of this ‘polymodality’ are in fact major-
minor interchangeability (and are therefore more properly considered
bimodality), the term ‘polymodality’ (for Liszt’s music) was initially coined
by Lajos Zeke (1986) and involved a diversity of modes. This verbunkos-
related polymodality can also be viewed as a precedent for Bartók’s

polymodal chromaticism. We thank the anonymous reviewer for associating

our discussion of Liszt’s polymodality with this concept by Bartók.
9. The fact that this intense modal interchangeability is often observed in
Schubert – as noted by Susan Wollenberg (2011, pp. 15–46) – may suggest
a common origin in verbunkos.
10. Although Fétis himself avoided making explicit this evolutionary or
Hegelian approach, there is no question that his theories owed something
to the nineteenth-century zeitgeist. It should be noted, however, that Fétis
was a contradictory figure. He did not welcome his own ordre omnitonique,
which he saw as a sign of musical decline and degeneration (Loya 2011,
p. 156). He was indeed a conservative critic, something that lay behind his
championship of Sigismond Thalberg over Liszt (see Móricz 1993–4).
11. Those relations were omitted in Fig. 3 for the sake of concision and clarity.
12. Alternatively, the verbunkos minor triadic space could also be situated in
Dmitri Tymoczko’s three-dimensional chord space (2011, pp. 85–93). We
thank the anonymous reviewer for this observation, as well as for their
synthesis of the organisation of our Fig. 4 according to the sum classes.
13. This six-note collection – equivalent to the verbunkos minor without the
first degree or kalindra without the fourth – is recurrent in Liszt’s late
pieces. There are at least three other occurrences: the Csárdás macabre (bars
13–40), Sunt Lacrimae Rerum (bars 1–8), and the Hungarian Rhapsody
No. 17 (bars 1–10). Unlike Aux cyprès, all three of these passages employ
the pitch collection of D verbunkos minor (or A kalindra) without the tonic
D. All of them have been discussed by Loya (2006, pp. 238–40; 2011, pp.
169–70 and 232; and 2015, pp. 4–7), though he does not always emphasise
this particular common aspect.
14. For a brief study focused on Brown’s ‘new scale’ itself and some of its
properties (as well as an analysis of a piece by Carlos Almada using the
‘new scale’), see Bomfim and Almada (2022).
15. We also thank Shay Loya for bringing to our attention a possible
occurrence of the NS near the end of Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 4 (bars
185–90). It consists of a monophonic descent of the pitches D–C#–B–
A#–G–F#–Eb, which corresponds to the NS with finalis on Eb. It should
be noted, however, that this could be seen as a superficial and possibly
coincidental occurrence.
16. Indeed, there are only two possible heptatonic supersets of H3-1 . Julian
Hook (2011) calls these SHEXA and SHEXB, standing for super-
hexatonic A and B. Brown’s NS (along with all of its transpositions and

rotations) corresponds to SHEXB. We thank the anonymous reviewer for

drawing our attention to this.
17. We thank Shay Loya (pers. comm., 2021) for emphasising this distinction
between verbunkos traditional practices and this more experimental neo-
verbunkos harmonic language.
18. Aiming to explore the NS’s potentialities, Carlos Almada composed a
set of ten miniatures for piano called Brownian Movements. One of those
miniatures (‘A Walk in Königsberg’) is based on the two maximally smooth
paths shown in Fig. 13.
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NOTE ON THE CONTRIBUTORS

ÉRICO BOMFIM is a pianist and music researcher who holds a PhD in music
analysis from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He has been a professor
at the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES) and is currently a professor
at the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT). His main focus of interest is
the music attributed to spirits by the spiritualist medium Rosemary Brown. As a
pianist, he performs a variety of styles and often includes Brown’s pieces in his

recitals. As a researcher, he also studies Brown’s music in order to compare it

with the styles it was supposed to reproduce.
CARLOS ALMADA is Associate Professor at the School of Music of the Federal

University of Rio de Janeiro. His research interests are in music theory and
analysis, with a specific focus on developing variation, computer-assisted analysis
and composition, and structural studies in popular music; he is also a composer
and arranger. Almada has written eight books addressing several subjects:
variation as a transformational process (2023), the harmonic and melodic
structures of Tom Jobim’s music (2022 and 2023), Schoenberg’s First Chamber
Symphony (2016), counterpoint in popular music (2013), functional harmony
(2009), the structural aspects of the Brazilian popular genre choro (2006) and
arranging in popular music (2001). Almada is the leader of the MUSMAT
Research Group (https://musmat.org/), a member of the Brazilian Association of
Theory and Analysis and a member of the editorial board for MusMat: Brazilian
Journal of Music and Mathematics.
ABSTRACT
This article discusses ‘New Scale Modulations’, an unusual piece attributed to
Franz Liszt by Rosemary Brown (1916–2001), a British composer who claimed
to be a spirit medium. ‘New Scale Modulations’ ‘invents’ four key signatures
that correspond to four transpositions of the same mode. The ‘New Scale’ and
the way it is used establishes a unique mediation between two independent
worlds: that of verbunkos asymmetrical scales and that of symmetrical musical
thinking, especially hexatonic scales and triadic transformations. By this
means, ‘New Scale Modulations’ establishes a deep and rational dialogue with
Liszt’s harmonic language, incorporating several elements of the verbunkos and
Zukunftsmusik. Without ‘proving’ Brown’s spirit medium claims, ‘New Scale
Modulations’ challenges the view of her as no more than a superficial and
intuitive imitator.


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DOI: 10.1111/musa.

ÉRICO BOMFIM AND CARLOS ALMADA

A ‘New Scale’ from the Beyond: VERBUNKOS and Triadic

188 Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

Rosemary Brown’s Compositional Goals

In communicating through music and conversation, an organised group of

For Brown, then, the music should be understood as part of a transcendental

Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023) © 2023 The Authors.

Sceptics are also suspicious of the characterisation of Brown as a simple

© 2023 The Authors. Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023) © 2023 The Authors.

by writing a first movement that incorporated virtually all the characteristics of

The Verbunkos as Structural Principle

© 2023 The Authors. Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

Fig. 1 Verbunkos scales (adapted from Loya 2008, p. 276)

there is a strong connection between verbunkos and Liszt’s advanced harmony

Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023) © 2023 The Authors.

© 2023 The Authors. Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

Successive polymodality, on the other hand, consists of an oscillation between

All Roads Lead to the Future

Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023) © 2023 The Authors.

Fig. 2 Transformations of an augmented triad

© 2023 The Authors. Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

symmetrical pitch configurations related to the weakening of the sense of

Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023) © 2023 The Authors.

Fig. 4 Triadic space of C verbunkos minor

1. enharmonic equivalence is preferentially assumed;

© 2023 The Authors. Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

Fig. 6 Mapping of Fig. 5 onto the triadic space of G verbunkos minor

Equally important as the conformity to G verbunkos minor is the fact that

Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023) © 2023 The Authors.

A ‘New Scale’ from the Beyond

© 2023 The Authors. Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023) © 2023 The Authors.

alternative tonic’ (2011, p. 244). Therefore, this close relation between NS

© 2023 The Authors. Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

Fig. 10 Triadic space of collection H3-1

Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023) © 2023 The Authors.

Fig. 11 Triadic space of the NS collection

‘Modulations’: the Diatonic Becomes Chromatic, and the Chromatic

© 2023 The Authors. Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

Fig. 13 Two maximally smooth paths in the NS triadic space

Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023) © 2023 The Authors.

Fig. 14 Representation in the circle of fifths of pitch-class invariance in four

Disregarding the oddity of the original nomenclature, one may speculate

© 2023 The Authors. Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

Fig. 15 Representation of the almost-complete mapping of the NS onto itself under

Fig. 16 Representation of the three ‘modulations’ in Brown’s manuscript (ma , mb ,

Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023) © 2023 The Authors.

Fig. 17 Expanded triadic space ETS0-5-10

Another dimension to be considered is harmony. Fig. 17 connects the

© 2023 The Authors. Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

A Myriad of Verbunkos Features

Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023) © 2023 The Authors.

© 2023 The Authors.

Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023)

Fig. 20 Brown’s ‘modulations’ (MS = manuscript version; Enh. = enharmonised)

Music Analysis, 42/ii (2023) © 2023 The Authors.