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Chromaticism is acompositional technique interspersing the primarydiatonicpitches andchords with other pitches of thechromatic scale. In simple terms, within each octave, diatonic music uses only seven different notes, rather than the twelve available on a standard piano keyboard. Music is chromatic when it uses more than just these seven notes.
Chromaticism is in contrast or addition totonality ordiatonicism andmodality (themajor andminor, or "white key", scales). Chromatic elements are considered, "elaborations of or substitutions for diatonic scale members".[2]
Chromaticism began to develop in the lateRenaissance period, notably in the 1550s, often as part ofmusica reservata, in the music ofCipriano de Rore, inOrlando Lasso'sProphetiae Sibyllarum, and in the theoretical work ofNicola Vicentino.
The following timeline is abbreviated from its presentation by Benward & Saker:[3]
As tonality began to expand during the last half of the nineteenth century, with new combinations of chords, keys and harmonies being tried, the chromatic scale and chromaticism became more widely used, especially in the works ofRichard Wagner, such as the opera "Tristan und Isolde". Increased chromaticism is often cited as one of the main causes or signs of the "breakdown" of tonality, in the form of increased importance or use of:
As tonal harmony continued to widen and even break down, the chromatic scale became the basis of modern music written using thetwelve-tone technique, atone row being a specific ordering or series of the chromatic scale, and laterserialism. Though these styles/methods continue to (re)incorporate tonality or tonal elements, often the trends that led to these methods were abandoned, such as modulation.
David Cope[8] describes three forms of chromaticism: modulation, borrowed chords from secondary keys, and chromatic chords such asaugmented sixth chords.
The chromatic expansion of tonality which characterizes much of nineteenth century music is illustrated in miniature by the substitution of a chromatic harmony for an expected diatonic harmony. This technique resembles thedeceptive cadence, which involves the substitution of another diatonic chord for the expected diatonic goal harmony.[9] ...
In the major mode a substitute chromatic consonance often proves to be a triad which has been taken from the parallel minor mode. This process ["assimilation"]...is calledmixture of mode or simplymixture... Four consonant triads from the minor mode may replace their counterparts in the major mode. These we callchromatic triads by mixture.[4]
— Allen Forte (1979)
Thetotal chromatic is the collection of all twelveequally temperedpitch classes of the chromatic scale.
List of chromatic chords:
Other types of chromaticity:
Notes which do not belong to the key [those, "that lie within the major 2nds," of the diatonic scale] are calledchromatic notes.
— Allen Forte (1979)[1]
A chromatic note is one which does not belong to the scale of the key prevailing at the time. Similarly, a chromatic chord is one which includes one or more such notes. A chromatic and a diatonic note, or two chromatic notes, create chromatic intervals.
When one note of an interval is chromatic or when both notes are chromatic, the entire interval is called chromatic. Chromatic intervals arise by raising or lowering one or both notes of a diatonic interval, so that the interval is made larger or smaller by the interval of half step ["altered diatonic intervals"].
— Allen Forte (1979)[12]
A chromatic scale is one which proceeds entirely by semitones, so dividing theoctave into twelve equal steps of one semitone each.
Linear chromaticism is used injazz: "All improvised lines ... will include non-harmonic, chromatic notes." Similar to in thebebop scale this may be the result of metric issues, or simply the desire to use a portion of the chromatic scale[11]
By chromatic linear chord is meant simply a chord entirely of linear origin which contains one or more chromatic notes. A great many of these chords are to be found in the literature.
— Allen Forte (1979)[13]
[During the Romantic period] There was more prominent use of chromatic harmony, which employs chords containing tones not found in the prevailing major or minor scale. ... Chromatic chords add color and motion to romantic music. Dissonant, or unstable, chords were also more freely than during the classical era. By deliberately delaying the resolution of dissonance to a consonant, or stable, chord, romantic composers createdfeelings of yearning, tension, and mystery.
— Roger Kamien (1976)[14]
A chromatic chord is a musicalchord that includes at least one note not belonging in thediatonic scale associated with the prevailingkey, the use of such chords is the use of chromatic harmony. In other words, at least one note of the chord ischromatically altered. Any chord that is notchromatic is adiatonic chord.
For example, in the key of C major, the following chords (all diatonic) are naturally built on each degree of the scale:
However, a number of other chords may also be built on the degrees of the scale, and some of these are chromatic. Examples:
Inmusic theory,passus duriusculus is a Latin term which refers tochromatic line, often abassline, whether descending or ascending.
A line cliché is any chromatic line that moves against a stationary chord.[15][16] There are many different types of line clichés—most often in the root, fifth or seventh—but there are two named line clichés. The major line cliché moves from the fifth of the chord to the sixth, then back to the fifth.[16] Assuming the starting chord is the tonic, the simplest form of the major line cliché forms a I–I+–vi–I+ progression. The minor line cliché moves down from the root to the major seventh, to the minor seventh, and can continue until the fifth.[17][18]
From the late 16th century onward, chromaticism has come to symbolize intense emotional expression in music. PierreBoulez (1986, p. 254) speaks of a long established "dualism" in Western European harmonic language: "the diatonic on the one hand and the chromatic on the other as in the time ofMonteverdi andGesualdo whose madrigals provide many examples and employ virtually the same symbolism. The chromatic symbolizing darkness doubt and grief and the diatonic light, affirmation and joy—this imagery has hardly changed for three centuries."[19] When an interviewer askedIgor Stravinsky (1959, p. 243) if he really believed in an innate connection between "pathos" and chromaticism, the composer replied: "Of course not; the association is entirely due to convention."[20] Nevertheless, the convention is a powerful one and the emotional associations evoked by chromaticism have endured and indeed strengthened over the years. To quote Cooke (1959, p. 54) "Ever since about 1850—since doubts have been cast, in intellectual circles, on the possibility, or even the desirability, of basing one's life on the concept of personal happiness—chromaticism has brought more and more painful tensions into our art-music, and finally eroded the major system and with it the whole system of tonality."[21]
Examples of descending chromatic melodic lines that would seem to convey highly charged feeling can be found in:
Some individual views on chromaticism include:
Not only at the beginning of acomposition but also in the midst of it, eachscale-step [degree] manifests an irresistible urge to attain thevalue of thetonic for itself as that of the strongest scale-step. If the composer yields to this urge of the scale-step within the diatonic system of which this scale-step forms part, I call this processtonicalization and the phenomenon itselfchromatic.
— Heinrich Schenker (1906)[24]
Chromaticism is almost by definition analteration of, an interpolation in or deviation from this basic diatonic organization.
— Leonard B. Meyer (1956)[25]
Throughout the nineteenth century, composers felt free to alter any or all chord members of a giventertian structure [chord built fromthirds] according to their compositional needs and dictates. Pronounced or continuouschordal alteration [and 'extension'] resulted inchromaticism. Chromaticism, together with frequent modulations and an abundance of non-harmonicism [non-chord tones], initially effected an expansion of the tertian system; the overuse of the procedures late in the century forewarned the decline and near collapse [atonality] of the system [tonality].
— Paul Cooper (1975)[26]
Chromaticism is the name given to the use of tones outside the major or minor scales. Chromatic tones began to appear in music long before thecommon-practice period, and by the beginning of that period were an important part of its melodic and harmonic resources. Chromatic tones arise in music partly from inflection [alteration] of scale degrees in the major and minor modes, partly from secondary dominant harmony, from a special vocabulary of altered chords, and from certain nonharmonic tones...Notes outside the scale do not necessarily affect the tonality...tonality is established by the progression of roots and the tonal functions of the chords, even though the details of the music may contain all the tones of the chromatic scale.
— Walter Piston (1987)[27]
Sometimes...a melody based on a regular diatonic scale (major or minor) is laced with many accidentals, and although all 12 tones of the chromatic scale may appear, the tonal characteristics of the diatonic scale are maintained.[28] ...Chromaticism [is t]he introduction of some pitches of the chromatic scale into music that is basically diatonic in orientation, or music that is based on the chromatic scale instead of the diatonic scales.[29]
— Benward & Saker (2003)
Chromaticism is often associated withdissonance.
In the 16th century the repeated melodic semitone became associated with weeping, see:passus duriusculus,lament bass, andpianto.
Susan McClary (1991)[30] argues that chromaticism inoperatic andsonata formnarratives can be chosen to be understood through a Marxist narrative as the "Other", racial, sexual, class or otherwise, to diatonicism's "male" self, whether through modulation, as to the secondary key area, or other means. For instance,Catherine Clément calls the chromaticism in Wagner'sIsolde "feminine stink".[31] However, McClary also contradicts herself saying that the same techniques used in opera to represent madness in women were historically highly prized inavant-garde instrumental music, "In the nineteenth-century symphony,Salome's chromatic daring is what distinguishes truly serious composition of the vanguard from merecliché-ridden hack work." (p. 101)
Technically a fifteenth chord
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