octatonic scale

An octatonic scale.

Eight-note scale in alternating tone and semitone steps.

One of the earliest composers to make consistent use of this scale was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. His pupil, Igor Stravinsky, also used the scale, as have a number of other 20th-century composers.

The repetitive nature of the internal structure of the scale means that it has no sense of a keynote or tonic, and the scale has a limited number of transpositions. Olivier Messiaen used the octatonic scale as one of his modes of limited transposition.