Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom

Pandiatonicism refers to the use of all diatonic notes without the need for scale degrees or harmonies to progress or function tonally (V doesn’t need to progress to I, \(\hat{7} \) doesn’t need to resolve to \(\hat{8} \), etc.). One often hears it as a wash of notes from the major scale, or as chords made of non-traditional combinations of notes from a major scale, often with at least one interval of a 2nd in a chord voicing.

In the first example, notice how Stravinsky creates a wash of sound from the notes of the major scale.

In the second example, Copland uses non-traditional pandiatonic chord shapes in non-functional harmonic progression.

The third example is similar to the first, with Copland creating a wash of sound from the notes of the major scale, with no regard to the dissonant intervals occurring in counterpoint.