Ganztöne

Ganztöne are musical intervals consisting of two semitones, i.e., whole tones, in German music theory. The standard term in German is Ganzton (plural Ganztöne); Ganztöne is encountered in some texts and colloquial usage. The interval is equal to a whole step in the chromatic scale.

In practice, whole tones are a building block of the whole-tone scale, a hexatonic scale where every successive note is a Ganzton away from the previous one. An example in C is C–D–E–F♯–G♯–A♯–C. Because all intervals are the same size, the scale lacks a leading tone and a firm sense of tonic, producing an ambiguous, floating impression.

The concept also appears in harmony as whole-tone chords or chords built from stacked Ganztöne (e.g., C–E–G♯). In tonal music, the use of Ganztöne often signals a departure from conventional functional harmony and is associated with impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy and, later, certain 20th-century styles including some jazz and contemporary music.

Historically, the term Ganzton is standard in music theory, while Ganztöne is less common or considered a variant spelling. Modern texts typically prefer Ganztöne to avoid confusion with other uses of the word Ganztag or Ganz.

See also: Ganzton, Ganztonleiter (whole-tone scale), whole-tone harmony.