# Chromaticism in Bach



## concerto for cowbell (Jan 13, 2014)

Maybe someone who knows their Bach can help me here. When I listen to Bach most of the chromaticism comes from the leading tones in secondary dominant chords. I'm wondering if Bach made much use of the other kinds of chromaticism in particular neighbour notes.

For example, in Mozart I often hear, over a C major tonic chord, the introduction of an Eflat, then resolved to E natural. 
Other things like this include (again on a C major tonic) resolving an Fsharp to G natural.

Does this kind of thing happen in Bach? I've mostly listened to his cantatas, if that is a relevant factor here.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

The examples from Mozart are very typically classical. This comes down to the much more homophonic texture and melodic structures in classical style. Chromaticism in Bach often, and most importantly, has a harmonic function rather than to add greater tension to a melodic line. 

I am sure some others could express this more clearly though with some examples....


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

It is often very misleading and 'wrong' to look for vertical harmonies in Bach thinking in common practice terms, to say the least.

Any of the polyphonic works (the vast majority from this composer) are rife with:
1.) independent horizontal activity, that at the forefront of the composer's process.
2.) within the lines, things are still approached - arrived at very much via the contrapuntal / modal techniques, which are very present in Bach's works and, at a glance, clearly still 'in his thinking.' One of a handful of tonal composers who 'came from' the last of the modal era, he did not drop modality or that modal / contrapuntal way of thought, and it is very active.

Look always at the horizontals, then the subsequent resulting harmonies, and think at least 50% modal vs. tonal when you do.

A _very_ famous example, modal / tonal 'hybrid' if you will 
Chorale: Es ist genung





and yes, you can find similar procedures throughout his music, regardless of instrument, registration.

P.s. and back then, as now, in theory, an escapement is an escapement


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## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

concerto for cowbell said:


> When I listen to Bach most of the chromaticism comes from the leading tones in secondary dominant chords. I'm wondering if Bach made much use of the other kinds of chromaticism in particular neighbour notes.


Other types of chromaticism can be found all over the place in Bach, especially in pieces where there is particularly expressive intent. The very opening of the St. John Passion is a good example: while some of the chromaticism is of the leading-tone type you describe (such as the F-sharp in m. 2), much of it is not. The A-flat in Flute II/Oboe II at m. 4 primarily serves to clash with the G in the Flute I/Oboe I above it, similar to a typical cross-relation. The same goes for the B-natural in the next measure: it looks like a leading tone but it isn't part of a tonicizing chord. Its primary purpose is to create a tritone cross-relation with the F above it. And the accompaniment all throughout in the violins is rife with chromatic neighbor tones once you get past m. 4. All of this is quite fitting for the general fear and groveling expressed by the text.

Also keep in mind that it is possible for a chromatic note to be a neighbor tone _and_ a secondary leading tone at the same time. They're not mutually exclusive. In the E-Major Fugue from Book II of the _Well-Tempered Clavier_, the first few A-sharps function both ways: they are neighbor tones (or in some cases passing tones), and they are also secondary leading tones.


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## concerto for cowbell (Jan 13, 2014)

Thanks for the response. I checked out 'Es ist Genug' and, yeah, it's a fairly special chorale.
Since you bring up Bach's debt to modal music, have you heard his dorian chorale:
http://www.kuwo.cn/yinyue/3590639/

In case you can't get kuwo in your country, it's from BWV4, Wir essen und leben wohl


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

One of the most "chromatic" examples of Bach is his Sinfonia Nr. 9 in F minor. Listen to Glenn Gould's reading of it. Yes, most of it is passing tones. Chromaticism becomes necessary in minor keys, because often the flatted 6 or raised 7 is desired, for harmonic reasons. Thus, the existence of the "melodic minor" scale. The leading tone creates a major V chord, and the flat-6 creates a flatted submediant (like AbMaj in C). In Dorian mode, its raised 6 and flat 7 create i minor/IV Maj/v minor functions (like d minor/G maj/a minor).

So, I see these minor differences in minor scales (b6, #6, b7, #7) as being _less melodically significant_ and _more harmonically significant _(when chords are built on the scale steps).


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