What are ways to use the palindromic property of a palindromic scale?

Question

A palindromic scale, as I've seen it described on a number of music theory websites, is defined as one whose sequence of intervals is the same when ascending and descending. For instance: D Dorian (D E F G A B C D) is palindromic because it consists of the interval pattern WHWWWHW, which is a palindrome. Why should we care? Is there anything that can be done with D dorian that can't be done with C Ionian *because* it's a palindromic scale?

Answer 1

The main way that I think people use this property is just for it's symmetrical sound. Because it doesn't arrive upwards in any more significant way than it does downwards,and this sound can give a feeling of constancy/symmetry (while the major scale resolves very prominently upwards, phrygian resolves very prominently downwards, etc.). Also Adam Neely (a YouTuber I highly recommend) talks about the "Modal Brightness Scale", which ranks the modes in order of brightness. Dorian its right in the middle, so it is equally as "bright" as it is "dark" (with Locrian being the "darkest and Lydian being the "Brightest") so that quality of sound can be another reason to use it.

Answer 2

To be totally frank, I'm not convinced there is a reason to care too much. If you are composing you can certainly use something palindromic as a starting point but in the end of the day even someone as "math-y" as Schoenberg still relied on his ears to tell him what direction the music should take.