-= Guitar Messenger =- | Beyond Theory - Octatonic Scale & Symphony of Psalms

Take a look at the first 17 bars that open the work:

Notice that Stravinsky starts the work with a tutti E minor chord. Tutti meaning the whole/majority of the ensemble will help voice the chord; in this case it really is the whole ensemble that plays the said voicing. This has a curious effect, as most listeners will hear what gets played next against that E minor triad even if the chord is no longer ringing. In fact, that is how we perceive it.

Stravinsky follows that triad with arpeggios that come straight out of the E octatonic pitch collection (E,F,G,Ab,Bb,B,Db,D or E ½-W mode); it is actually not all that useful to attach chord symbols to these arpeggio figures because they are non functional, meaning, they do not truly have harmonic function implied in their use.But, you could go ahead and call the 2nd bar a Bb7 chord followed by a G7b9 chord. You can still see though, that both Bb7 and G7b9 are possible harmonizations for the E octatonic (½-W) pitch collection thus why I bring it up, simply to show how Stravinsky is approaching the octatonic scale in the first 3 bars.

He once again then repeats that same E minor triad. It should be noted that the G natural in this particular voicing of Em is rather odd; rarely will composers double the 3rd of a root position triad that much (there are 4 G naturals out of an 8 note voicing.), this will be explained later on. In measure 5-11, Stravinsky continues his small melodic motif of arpeggiating chords, but this time he extends these chords to notes outside of E octatonic (½-W). In fact, this is the beginning of something important in the movement, where Stravinsky begins to imply a dichotomy that will be present in the entire 1st movement of the work, mainly the balance between the diatonic church modes and the octatonic scale.

In this case, we begin to hear E Aeolian creep into the octatonic arpeggios (this scale would be a very large, 11 note hybrid if read in order: E natural minor+ E octatonic [½-W] – E,F,F#,G,G#,A,Bb,B,C,Db,D); of course do not take this to mean this is a quasi-chromatic scale that gets played linearly up and down. Stravinsky never uses it in that way, he simply introduces pitches that will imply E natural minor into his octatonic arpeggios. (eg: F# and A natural sounding within the previous octatonic arpeggio sequence.)

Finally he breaks both the symmetrical dominance of the octatonic scale and the superimposition of E natural minor+ E octatonic (½-W) completely, by writing an F Dorian (F G Ab Bb C D Eb) scale that simply rises step wise out of the ashes of E octatonic (½-W). Once again the whole ensemble punctuates another Em triad followed by a purely diatonic moment, where Stravinsky has the ensemble play inside of E Phrygian; the first real moment where the octatonic scale is suppressed, and an important moment that sets up the listener to clearly hear the balance of the movement between church modes and the octatonic scale.

Notice however, that Stravinsky uses E Phrygian here, whose most important telling interval would be the b2 between root and 2nd degrees (E-F), it is not a surprise that this interval also happens to be inside the E octatonic (½-W) pitch collection that Stravinsky has been working with so far in the 1st movement. This will become rather important as the movement progresses, and it will be made clear that Stravinsky purposely exploited that link between both octatonic and diatonic scales.