The diminished scale—often referenced by its formal moniker, the octatonic scale—occupies a niche that sits comfortably between strict diatonic tonality and outright chromaticism. Its defining feature ...

Re “Just How Russian Was Stravinsky?” by Richard Taruskin [April 18]: Mr. Taruskin is probably correct when he writes that, through the use of the octatonic scale in all three of Stravinsky’s ...