Editing Octatonic scale (section)

===Early examples===
[[Joseph Schillinger]] suggests that the scale was formulated already by [[Persian traditional music]] in the 7th century AD, where it was called "Zar ef Kend", meaning "string of pearls", the idea being that the two different sizes of intervals were like two different sizes of pearls.{{sfn|Schillinger|1946|loc={{Page needed|date=December 2014}}}}

Octatonic scales first occurred in Western music as byproducts of a series of minor-third transpositions. While [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]] claimed he was conscious of the octatonic collection "as a cohesive frame of reference" in his autobiography ''My Musical Life'',{{sfn|Rimsky-Korsakov|1935}}{{sfn|Van den Toorn|1983|loc=329, 493n5}} instances can be found in music of previous centuries. Eytan Agmon{{sfn|Agmon|1990|loc=1–8}} locates one in [[Domenico Scarlatti]]'s Sonata K. 319. In the following passage, according to [[Richard Taruskin]],{{sfn|Taruskin|1996|loc=266}} "its descending whole-step/half-step bass progression is complete and continuous".
[[File:Scarlatti Sonasta K319, bars 62-80.wav|thumb|Scarlatti Sonata K319, bars 62–80]]
[[File:Scarlatti Sonata K319, bars 62-80.png|thumb|center|500px|Scarlatti's Sonata K. 319, bars 62–80]]

Taruskin{{sfn|Taruskin|1996|loc=269}} also cites the following bars from [[J. S. Bach]]'s [[English Suites (Bach)|English Suite No. 3]] as octatonic:
[[File:Octatonic bars from Sarabande from English Suite No 3.wav|thumb|Octatonic bars from Sarabande from English Suite No 3]]
[[File:Sarabande from J.S.Bach's English Suite No.3, bars 17-19.png|thumb|center|500px|Sarabande from J. S. Bach's English Suite No. 3, bars 17–19]]

[[Honoré Langlé]]'s 1797 harmony treatise contains a sequential progression with a descending octatonic bass, supporting harmonies that use all and only the notes of an octatonic scale.{{sfn|Langlé|1797|loc=72, ex. 25.2}}