# What is '' chromaticism''?



## peeyaj

I am not into music theory. I cannot read notes but I can appreciate a well-composed music. One of the terms that frequently appears when reading music articles is "chromaticism". Reading it's Wikipedia definition:

"Chromaticism is a compositional
technique interspersing the primary
diatonic pitches and chords with
other pitches of the chromatic scale.
Chromaticism is in contrast or
addition to tonality or diatonicism
(the major and minor scales).
Chromatic elements are considered,
"elaborations of or substitutions for
diatonic scale members."


I cannot understand it. Would someone explain to me, the most dumbed down explanation that a layman can understand. You can cite some examples..

Also, is chromaticism related to harmonic complexity? What is it main function? Who first used it?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Diatonic: music using a scale or mode and adhering strictly to those notes
Chromatic: music that _can_ be in a key (but does not always have to, atonal music is by definition chromatic since it does not adhere to any key) and uses notes from both the scale and outside of the scale. For example, on C major you have the notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B. Using notes outside of this scale (the accidentals, the black notes on the piano, call them what you wish) in addition to the notes in the scale (usually the "outside" notes would have to resolve to a note part of the original scale) then you get music that is chromatic.

A famous example is the opening melody of Beethoven's third symphony in E flat major. The notes are E flat, G, E flat, B flat, E flat, G, B flat, E flat, D, *C sharp.* The note I put in bold font is where Beethoven used chromanticism to create harmonic tension, so yes it is related to harmonic complexity because of all these additive notes.

Shout out to the mods: we should have a music theory forum!


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## tdc

Chromaticism is in reference to using notes outside of the diatonic scale which is made up of 7 notes. The Chromatic scale is comprised of all 12 notes one could play on a keyboard, so when a composer uses 1 or more of these extra notes outside of the Diatonic scale it can be referred to as Chromaticism.


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## tdc

As far as the second part of the question - yes it is related to harmonic complexity, it is increasing the amount of notes used therefore the harmonic possibilities. I think its main function would be to expand the range of sounds one hears in a piece of music - to offer more color, more variation. I am not sure what composer first used chromaticism but I would guess it could be traced back to Renaissance music or earlier.


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## peeyaj

Is chromaticism the foundation of atonal music?


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## tdc

peeyaj said:


> Is chromaticism the foundation of atonal music?


Chromaticism could be seen as the foundation of serialism, but the word 'atonal' could be expanded to include things like micro tones which go beyond the chromatic and diatonic scales.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

peeyaj said:


> Is chromaticism the foundation of atonal music?


It depends on the composer. A lot of atonal music doesn't necessarily put pitch relations, melody and harmony to the fore. Early atonal music could be looked at from the point of view that an increase of chromaticism in the 19th century would inevitably leave composers with nowhere to go but atonality, dropping the hierarchical system of structuring melody and harmony in favour of complete chromanticism.....but in the 20th century we began to see new ways of creating these pitch hierarchies, and different ways one can use pitch as the primary element in music that resulted in rules and order. Dodecaphony and spectralism for example looked at new ways of using structured melodies and harmonies in music.


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## Taggart

Take Anitra's Dance from Peer Gynt. Have a look at bar 15 onward of this. Basically, Grieg is using a chromatic progression - B, A#,F# then B, A F then B, G#, E then B, G, E# etc. Compare that with the harmonies in the previous bars.


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## Guest

peeyaj said:


> I am not into music theory. I cannot read notes but I can appreciate a well-composed music. One of the terms that frequently appears when reading music articles is "chromaticism". [...]
> 
> Also, is chromaticism related to harmonic complexity? What is it main function? Who first used it?


I needed to know the same thing, so I hunted on Youtube and found this...






It's a little plain, but there's others you can try too.


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## Piwikiwi

peeyaj said:


> Is chromaticism the foundation of atonal music?


No, for example: The jazz genre bebop is highly chromatic but it's still tonal. Chromaticism is simply the use of chromatics in music. Tristan and Isolde is an example, it's very common in late romantic music. Verklärte nacht by Schoenberg which is a tonal piece is also quite chromatic.

Since I know more about jazz I'll use it as an example. This piece is highly chromatic but still tonal.







tdc said:


> Chromaticism could be seen as the foundation of serialism, but the word 'atonal' could be expanded to include things like micro tones which go beyond the chromatic and diatonic scales.


Sorry but this is not true, chromaticism and serialism are two different things.


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## tdc

Piwikiwi said:


> Sorry but this is not true, chromaticism and serialism are two different things.


True, but because Serialism is based off the Chromatic scale, the use of this scale _could be seen_ as the foundation of Serialism (what Serialism is based on) that doesn't mean they are the same thing.


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## Mahlerian

Atonality is a fuzzy concept, so let's leave it out of this discussion as far as possible. Chromaticism is certainly what makes expressionist and serial music _possible_.

One can write diatonic music that does not adhere to functional tonal hierarchies (eg. minimalism, neoclassicism, Ligeti's "White on White" from his Etudes for piano).

Modal music is neither chromatic nor tonally oriented. Impressionism was a kind of neomodal practice, because chromaticism was seen as tied to the Germanic sehnsucht of Wagner and his followers.


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## Piwikiwi

tdc said:


> True, but because Serialism is based off the Chromatic scale, the use of this scale _could be seen_ as the foundation of Serialism (what Serialism is based on) that doesn't mean they are the same thing.


It depends on how you see it. I see chromatism as the use of notes outside the initial key. So it's more about how you use chromatics to me but I couls be wrong of course


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## Andreas

I think of chromaticism as calculated destabilizations of a given key.


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## Petwhac

Chromaticism is _colouring_. That is the derivation of the term and many examples of highly chromatic music can be found in Gesualdo and Bach. 
Chromaticism in either melody or harmony is a very expressive tool in music that is fundamentally diatonic. In serial music and post-tonal music it's function as colour is neutralised as no particular note can be said to be chromatic.


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## peeyaj

Is there a relationship between chromaticism and modulation? I always see it in Schubert's music. (articles about him)


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## Eschbeg

peeyaj said:


> Is there a relationship between chromaticism and modulation?


Often, yes. Modulation is a change of key, and while chromaticism does not always result in a change of key, a change of key is almost always initiated with chromaticism. After all, if you want to change key, the easiest way to start the process is to start introducing notes that are not part of the current key, and that's chromaticism.


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## Ravndal

If youre wondering about how a chromatic scale sounds


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## Mahlerian

Petwhac said:


> Chromaticism is _colouring_. That is the derivation of the term and many examples of highly chromatic music can be found in Gesualdo and Bach.
> Chromaticism in either melody or harmony is a very expressive tool in music that is fundamentally diatonic. In serial music and post-tonal music it's function as colour is neutralised as no particular note can be said to be chromatic.


In theory, perhaps, but in practice this is not usually the case (outside of a few total serialist pieces), because emphasis is given to certain notes over others. The ear will find the relationships between the notes that are prominent (or "stable") and the notes that are less prominent (or "unstable") and take it as a sort of coloration.


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## HaydnBearstheClock

It's romanticism without the chrome.

Sorry, was too tempted.


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## Petwhac

Mahlerian said:


> In theory, perhaps, but in practice this is not usually the case (outside of a few total serialist pieces), because emphasis is given to certain notes over others. The ear will find the relationships between the notes that are prominent (or "stable") and the notes that are less prominent (or "unstable") and take it as a sort of coloration.


In that case, in the first movement of Ades's Piano Quintet, when the quote from Brahms is heard, it must be viewed as a highly chromatic passage. 
I think not! It just sticks out!


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## HaydnBearstheClock

Isn't chromaticism basically a scale in which each note is a half-tone apart from the next?


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## Ondine

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> [...]we should have a music theory forum!


I suggested that in a thread of mine... but seems that this idea has not matured enough here in TC 

By the way, thanks for the explanation, CoAG.


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## Eschbeg

HaydnBearstheClock said:


> Isn't chromaticism basically a scale in which each note is a half-tone apart from the next?


That's the chromatic scale, but it's not chromatic_ism_.


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## DavidA

Chromaticism according to Howard Goodall is when each chord has equal value. It can produce astonishing and unsettling effects like in the prelude to act three of Wagner's Parsifal. The music never seems to settle anywhere.


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## Mahlerian

Petwhac said:


> In that case, in the first movement of Ades's Piano Quintet, when the quote from Brahms is heard, it must be viewed as a highly chromatic passage.
> I think not! It just sticks out!


Equivocation doesn't get us anywhere. You are reinterpreting the word "prominent" to mean "anything prominent", which I obviously did not intend.


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## Petwhac

Mahlerian said:


> Equivocation doesn't get us anywhere. You are reinterpreting the word "prominent" to mean "anything prominent", which I obviously did not intend.


Well, post an example of post tonal music, serial or not, where you can point to a particular note or notes that could reasonably be viewed as colouration in an harmonic or melodic sense and perhaps I will agree. 
Why does prominent (your word) equal stable (your word)? Unless it is to do with expectation in which case my Ades example is valid.


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## Mahlerian

Petwhac said:


> Well, post an example of post tonal music, serial or not, where you can point to a particular note or notes that could reasonably be viewed as colouration in an harmonic or melodic sense and perhaps I will agree.
> Why does prominent (your word) equal stable (your word)? Unless it is to do with expectation in which case my Ades example is valid.


Prominence in a texture can turn a tone cluster into an extended dominant chord in tonal music. Non-functional chromatic music works exactly the same way. The ear interprets certain notes as more important than others which are used to "lean into" them, clearly taking on a subsidiary role.

Every melody works this way, from Machaut to Mahler to Messiaen. The idea of having to give an example of something that exists everywhere is bizarre.


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## Petwhac

Mahlerian said:


> Prominence in a texture can turn a tone cluster into an extended dominant chord in tonal music. Non-functional chromatic music works exactly the same way. The ear interprets certain notes as more important than others which are used to "lean into" them, clearly taking on a subsidiary role.
> 
> Every melody works this way, from Machaut to Mahler to Messiaen. The idea of having to give an example of something that exists everywhere is bizarre.


Humour me.
Not convinced.
Please.


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## Mahlerian

Petwhac said:


> Humour me.
> Not convinced.
> Please.


I don't believe that you're acting in good faith. Even before I give an example, you are convinced that I'm wrong. Do you really believe that _every single note_ is given _exactly equal_ emphasis?

Here's an example of a melodic line. It contains a chromatic sequence in it. The ear automatically downgrades the middle notes in a sequence in importance when the continuation is expected to follow as before.


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## Petwhac

Mahlerian said:


> I don't believe that you're acting in good faith. Even before I give an example, you are convinced that I'm wrong. Do you really believe that _every single note_ is given _exactly equal_ emphasis?
> 
> Here's an example of a melodic line. It contains a chromatic sequence in it. The ear automatically downgrades the middle notes in a sequence in importance when the continuation is expected to follow as before.
> 
> View attachment 26208


I am acting in good faith. I simply hold that you are mistaken in thinking that defying expectation is the equivalent of chromaticism in diatonically based music. I don't believe there is an equivalence and your example does not convince me.
I could upload hundreds of pieces from Feldman, Messiaen, Rihm, you name it and not find a meaningful way to describe any particular note as 'coloured' in the sense that I could find in hundreds of examples from CP tonality.
And I stress _a meaningful_ way.


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## Mahlerian

Petwhac said:


> I am acting in good faith. I simply hold that you are mistaken in thinking that defying expectation is the equivalent of chromaticism in diatonically based music. I don't believe there is an equivalence *and your example does not convince me.*
> I could upload hundreds of pieces from Feldman, Messiaen, Rihm, you name it and not find a meaningful way to describe any particular note as 'coloured' in the sense that I could find in hundreds of examples from CP tonality.
> And I stress _a meaningful_ way.


Well, listen for yourself to my example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gcBg-tXn0fs#t=134

Does it work in a tonal fashion or not?

Sorry about calling your bluff, but I didn't think you would be able to tell the difference, and I was right. You didn't take my example seriously, just as I knew you wouldn't.

There exists no example whatsoever that would have convinced you. Your insistence on "meaningful" is sufficiently ambiguous that no matter what I bring up, you would repeat it without a second thought. Therefore, you were not acting in good faith, and I only hope that everyone else who reads this thread realizes this.


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## Petwhac

Mahlerian said:


> Well, listen for yourself to my example.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gcBg-tXn0fs#t=134
> 
> Does it work in a tonal fashion or not?
> 
> Sorry about calling your bluff, but I didn't think you would be able to tell the difference, and I was right. You didn't take my example seriously, just as I knew you wouldn't.
> 
> There exists no example whatsoever that would have convinced you. Your insistence on "meaningful" is sufficiently ambiguous that no matter what I bring up, you would repeat it without a second thought. Therefore, you were not acting in good faith, and I only hope that everyone else who reads this thread realizes this.


You seem to so irked at having your opinions questioned that you are now accusing me of bluffing as well as not acting in good faith. Let us retrace.

*My statement*:_ "Chromaticism is colouring. That is the derivation of the term and many examples of highly chromatic music can be found in Gesualdo and Bach. 
Chromaticism in either melody or harmony is a very expressive tool in music that is fundamentally diatonic. In serial music and post-tonal music it's function as colour is neutralised as no particular note can be said to be chromatic."_

*Your reply*: "_In theory, perhaps, but in practice this is not usually the case (outside of a few total serialist pieces), because emphasis is given to certain notes over others. The ear will find the relationships between the notes that are prominent (or "stable") and the notes that are less prominent (or "unstable") and take it as a sort of coloration."_

My point was about it being an EXPRESSIVE TOOL but you want to turn it into a debate about something else.

Also 'the ear', as some guy would point out, doesn't exist does it?

I asked for an example in *serial or post tonal music* where such chromaticism as a EXPRESSIVE TOOL could be found. However you have quoted me BRUCKNER. 
You clearly feel the need to question my motives and I don't know why.
I would still like an example from post tonal music of chromaticism functioning in a _significantly _similar way to that in CP tonality.


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## dgee

Isn't "chromaticism" kinda moot when you aren't working in a diatonic framework to begin with? So I'd think it might cease to be a particularly useful concept in atonal or post tonal music - despite pitch centres etc

So I'm with Petwhac on this


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

I believe auxiliary and passing notes are taught early on in any music theory book and are just taken to be fact, just as 1+1=2 is fact. I don't see why anyone would think every note has equal importance in a melodic line.  
Chromaticism can be used in passing/auxiliary notes can't it?


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## Petwhac

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I believe auxiliary and passing notes are taught early on in any music theory book and are just taken to be fact, just as 1+1=2 is fact. I don't see why anyone would think every note has equal importance in a melodic line.
> Chromaticism can be used in passing/auxiliary notes can't it?


I don't think anyone has said that all notes in a melodic line have equal importance.
Passing/auxiliary notes can be chromatic or diatonic. Where they are chromatic they do inject colour provided you are in a diatonic framework. As dgee said, in non diatonic music the concept of chromaticism is not really very useful.


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## Taggart

Mahlerian said:


> Modal music is neither chromatic nor tonally oriented.


This has come up a number of times since I joined. A "modal" melody will have a "tonal" centre based on the mode and the start note. If the start note is not the "normal" one for the mode - usually because it's easier to play on the fiddle - then there will be accidentals. Although modes are (strictly) neither major nor minor but somewhere between the two, it is possible to use "chromatic" effects to alter the melody - by which I mean that the feel of the melody becomes more major or more minor.









If you look at the example, it looks like A minor, but has a flattened sixth. In bar 5 and 8, we have an E major figure but in bar 10 we have an E minor figure; in bars 3 and 4 an A minor, but in bar 6 and A major following on from the E major. So, while the whole piece is modal (dorian?), it has a definite tonal centre and exhibits elements of (chromatic) colouring.


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## Petwhac

Taggart said:


> This has come up a number of times since I joined. A "modal" melody will have a "tonal" centre based on the mode and the start note. If the start note is not the "normal" one for the mode - usually because it's easier to play on the fiddle - then there will be accidentals. Although modes are (strictly) neither major nor minor but somewhere between the two, it is possible to use "chromatic" effects to alter the melody - by which I mean that the feel of the melody becomes more major or more minor.
> 
> View attachment 26223
> 
> 
> If you look at the example, it looks like A minor, but has a flattened sixth. In bar 5 and 8, we have an E major figure but in bar 10 we have an E minor figure; in bars 3 and 4 an A minor, but in bar 6 and A major following on from the E major. So, while the whole piece is modal (dorian?), it has a definite tonal centre and exhibits elements of (chromatic) colouring.


Isn't the flat sixth just the harmonic minor scale? You could harmonize line 3 strictly in A minor.

C / / / | C / G / |Am / / / | E / / /|


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Taggart said:


> This has come up a number of times since I joined. A "modal" melody will have a "tonal" centre based on the mode and the start note. If the start note is not the "normal" one for the mode - usually because it's easier to play on the fiddle - then there will be accidentals. Although modes are (strictly) neither major nor minor but somewhere between the two, it is possible to use "chromatic" effects to alter the melody - by which I mean that the feel of the melody becomes more major or more minor.
> 
> View attachment 26223
> 
> 
> If you look at the example, it looks like A minor, but has a flattened sixth. In bar 5 and 8, we have an E major figure but in bar 10 we have an E minor figure; in bars 3 and 4 an A minor, but in bar 6 and A major following on from the E major. So, while the whole piece is modal (dorian?), it has a definite tonal centre and exhibits elements of (chromatic) colouring.


There's nothing odd about the 6th degree (f natural). Bars 9 and 10 are simply passing through (a better way of saying _tonicising_) C major, the relative major. If you look at the harmonic implications in bar 10, you can see something that is quite obviously an imperfect cadence in C major. The piece isn't modal and certainly not dorian, it just shifts the tonal centre at one point for an interesting change in harmony.

Petwhac is correct about the piece not being modal, the g sharp and f natural tell you that it uses primarily a harmonic minor scale. Not a mode.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Petwhac said:


> Isn't the flat sixth just the harmonic minor scale? You could harmonize line 3 strictly in A minor.
> 
> C / / / | C / G / |Am / / / | E / / /|


You _could_ harmonise line 3 entirely in A minor, but it would be odd and doesn't imply this.


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## Mahlerian

Petwhac said:


> I asked for an example in *serial or post tonal music* where such chromaticism as a EXPRESSIVE TOOL could be found. However you have quoted me BRUCKNER.
> You clearly feel the need to question my motives and I don't know why.
> I would still like an example from post tonal music of chromaticism functioning in a _significantly _similar way to that in CP tonality.


The fact is that you couldn't tell from my example that I was not giving you "post-tonal or serial music". My example displays chromaticism used for expressive effect, something which I doubt you now deny. If that example did not "convince you", then I don't believe that any will.


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## Taggart

OK Gilderoy didn't work. Let's try something that is overtly modal BuxWV 152 - Prelude in A minor (Prelude in the Phrygian mode) by Buxtehude. It's pages 33 - 36 of this. The bit on p34 - bars 12 -15 looks fairly chromatic - partly because of the D Sharp (in A Minor??) and the way the G is raised and naturalised.


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## Petwhac

Mahlerian said:


> The fact is that you couldn't tell from my example that I was not giving you "post-tonal or serial music". My example displays chromaticism used for expressive effect, something which I doubt you now deny. If that example did not "convince you", then I don't believe that any will.


You have no idea what I could or could not tell.
A melodic line in isolation and out of context is completely irrelevant to the point. *It just confirms to me the poverty of your argument*. Bruckner is writing tonal music and in that context chromatic alterations have an expressive effect. DOH!
I can find you melodic fragments from Bach, Beethoven and Mozart which divorced from their context could appear non tonal, big deal! It's not clever you know.
Now either show me a *serial or post tonal* example of chromaticism as an expressive tool akin to the way it is in tonal music, or just admit that you can't!

Sheeesh!


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## Petwhac

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> You _could_ harmonise line 3 entirely in A minor, but it would be odd and doesn't imply this.


No odder than Greensleeves which is very similar.


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## Mahlerian

Petwhac said:


> You have no idea what I could or could not tell.


Well, you were unable to recognize a tonal melody line. Otherwise you would have called me on using one before I told you what it was.



Petwhac said:


> A melodic line in isolation and out of context is completely irrelevant to the point. *It just confirms to me the poverty of your argument*. Bruckner is writing tonal music and in that context chromatic alterations have an expressive effect. DOH!


Let me get this straight.

You believe that the contour of a melody line is irrelevant to the discussion of whether or not the melody line exhibits expressive qualities?



Petwhac said:


> I can find you melodic fragments from Bach, Beethoven and Mozart which divorced from their context could appear non tonal, big deal! It's not clever you know.


No you can't. Their music _is_ tonal, full stop. If it looks non-tonal to you, that's only because your idea of what tonality is has nothing to do with tonality.

Minor ninths like in the Bruckner example above may be associated in your mind with "non-tonal" music, but they are not inherently so.



Petwhac said:


> Now either show me a *serial or post tonal* example of chromaticism as an expressive tool akin to the way it is in tonal music, or just admit that you can't!


I won't be able to do it to your satisfaction, no matter how much imaginary ink I spill, because you've made up your mind in advance.

But here are four examples of chromaticism in music, complete with every bit of context (all piano pieces).

The first chromatically turns around an F axis.








The second bar here at the szforzando sign has two voices moving chromatically inwards.








Here chromaticism is used to produce leading-tones, like C#-D or G#-A, both in the third bar.








Note here how the "inner" voices created by the alteration of wide and close pairs move up and down chromatically around a G-B dyad.


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## Guest

I'm saddened to see two erudite and intelligent posters (Mahlerian and Petwhac) having a slanging match over terminology. As far as I understand the OP, the question was made on the assumption of CP (common practice) functional harmony, and apt answers to that have been given (e.g. CoAG's _Eroica_ chromatic C-sharp), to which I would add further glaring examples as in the use of Augmented and Neapolitan 6ths in the Viennese classical style.
@ Mahlerian : I wonder if you may be (at times) confusing "chromaticism" with notational accidentals / enharmonic spellings?
@ Petwhac : I can't off-hand think of an example of serial or 'post tonal' chromaticism as an expressive tool except perhaps for *Scelsi* / use of quarter/eighth tones (which are notated "chromatically") or *Haas* / _Limited Approximations_ (12th tones). But I think you are thinking exclusively of chromaticism in the context of equal temperament.


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## Mahlerian

TalkingHead said:


> I'm saddened to see two erudite and intelligent posters (Mahlerian and Petwhac) having a slanging match over terminology. As far as I understand the OP, the question was made on the assumption of CP (common practice) functional harmony, and apt answers to that have been given (e.g. CoAG's _Eroica_ chromatic C-sharp), to which I would add further glaring examples as in the use of Augmented and Neapolitan 6ths in the Viennese classical style.


Well, there are several separate issues here, and you're right that the ongoing discussion has derailed the main thread topic.

There is chromaticism, meaning the usage of non-diatonic tones in a diatonic setting.
There is the chromatic scale, which is the scale of half steps, 12 notes to an octave.
Finally, there is "chromatic music", which uses the chromatic scale as a starting point.

The question is whether or not the _effect_ of chromaticism, of having "extra" notes that are not part of the fundamental harmony, can be said to be valid when all of the notes are continuously in use. I believe that it is, because the construction of melody lines inevitably leads to such usage, and because prominent notes in a texture will produce the effect of centricity.



TalkingHead said:


> @ Mahlerian : I wonder if you may be (at times) confusing "chromaticism" with notational accidentals / enharmonic spellings?


I am thinking primarily of chromatic motion used to produce leading tone effects in a non-CP tonal environment. From the Romantic period on, especially, chromatic leading tones are one of the primary means of expressivity (along with modulation), and this was continued in post-tonal settings.


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