Vertical thought performs many and diverse functions in Stravinsky's music. This brief look at some of his harmonies is an attempt to find some examples of chords and harmonic technique which recur at different periods in his life. To try to isolate vertical sound from horizontal sense is a tricky procedure, but may be justifiable in the case of a composer who, in common with Ravel, frequently invites us to listen to his harmonies largely for their own sake. Analytical dismemberment in this sense can assist understanding of Stravinsky much more than it would do in the music of Sibelius, for instance. The precise purposefulness of Stravinsky's harmonies is one of the characteristics which distinguish his music from that of his imitators. In the main, it will be found that he has taken over the ‘classical’ function of dissonance (stress preceding resolution) and extended it in harness with rhythm. In this way, a harmonic stress is equated to a rhythmic stress. ‘Motoric’ rhythms being frequent in Stravinsky, there is only rarely an unambiguous resolution of stress. This is of course less true of works based on a pastiche style, in which the associational values of classical stress/resolution are relied on.