The acoustic scale, derived as it is from the overtone series lends both a tonally functional power and harmonic clarity to my work for large orchestra. The fact that the overtone series, through its first 14 members sounded simultaneously, produces an X $\flat$7 9 $\sharp$11 13 chord, which has a powerful dominant function, insures that a "pan-diatonic" use of a pitch field comprised of these pitch-classes will have a forward-pushing harmonic tension. The close relationship which these notes have to the octatonic and whole-tone scales justifies my pitch-field modulations from the acoustic scale to these modes. These secondary modes also produce strong dominant sonorities. Additionally, because of their symmetrical construction, they are useful to create harmonically static and ambiguous passages. Finally, harmonic resolution can be reserved for the use of diatonic pitch-fields (owing to the asymmetry of their construction). I have attempted to maintain harmonic clarity through the greater part of the work by using triadic constructions as opposed to overly dense pitch-clusters. The contrasting of a triad from one mode against a triad from another mode produces greater chromaticism and tension than sonorities derived from a single pitch-set. This work represents for me a response to the over-fragmentation of materials resulting from unrelenting non-functional harmony which dominates much music today. Specifically, the Chant and Organum sections serve to bring a sense of resolution to the ambiguous symmetrical harmonies which precede them. Resolution of instability is, I think, a necessary process in music which is fundamental to most people's ontological conception of the world. The Coda allows the material to drift back into "uncertainty" which is again, for most of us, the human condition. I have attempted to satisfy an internal and abstract sense of esthetic balance without resorting to purely cerebral means.