Stravinsky and the octatonic: A reconsideration

The importance of the octatonic scale in Stravinsky's music has consistently been overstated. While octatonicism is an aspect of Stravinsky's technique, it is just one of a number of different components that jointly produce the "Stravinsky sound." The article focuses on two techniques that have often been mistaken for octatonicism: modal uses of the non-diatonic minor scales; and the superimposition of elements that belong to different scalar collections.