Chromatic scale

The chromatic scale is any musical scale that contains more than one consecutive half-step (in other words two adjacent pairs of scale degrees or members which are separated by a semitone). However, the term usually refers specifically to the scale that contains all twelve pitches of the Western tempered scale, discussed in this article. All of the other scales in traditional Western music are currently subsets of this scale. Each pitch is separated from its upper and lower neighbors by the interval of one half step, or semitone. In tonal and other music this scale finds little use outside of decorative runs up or down as it has no harmonic direction and is considered cliched. The term 'chromatic' is understood by musicians to refer to music which includes tones which are not members of the prevailing scale, and also as a word descriptive of those individually non-diatonic tones.

Chromaticism

David Cope (1997) describes three forms of chromaticism: modulation, borrowed chords from secondary keys, and chromatic chords such as sixth chords.

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List of chromatic chords:

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• Dominant seventh chords of subsidiary keys, used to create modulations to those keys (V⁷-I cadences).
• Sixth chords
• Neopolitan sixth chords as chromatic subdominants.
• Half-diminished seventh chords as VII⁷
• Diminished seventh chords as chromatic VII⁷
• Altered chords
• Expanded chords
• (Shir-Cliff, etc., 1965)

Other chromatic things:

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• The minor mode in major keys (mode mixture)
• (Shir-Cliff, etc., 1965)

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 of Richard Wagner, such as the opera 'Tristan und Isolde'. Increased chromaticism is often cited as one of the main causes or signs of the "break down" of tonality, in the form of increased importance or use of:

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• mode mixture
• leading tones
• tonicization of each chromatic step and other secondary key areas
• modulatory space
• hierarchical organizations of the chromatic set such as George Perle's
• the use of non-tonal chords as tonic "keys"/"scales"/"areas" such as the Tristan chord.

As tonal harmony continued to widen and even break down, the chromatic scale became the basis of modern music written using the twelve tone technique, a tone row being a specific ordering or series of the chromatic scale, and later serialism. Though these styles/methods continue to (re)incorporate tonality or tonal elements, often the trends which led to these methods were abandonded, such as modulation.

Related Topics:
Twelve tone technique - Tone row - Serialism

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Susan McClary (1991) argues that chromaticism in operatic and sonata form narratives can often be understood 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, Clement calls the chromaticism in Wagner's Isolde "feminine stink" (Opera, 55-58, from McClary p.185n). However, McClary also points out that the same techniques used in opera to represent madness in women were historically the avante-garde in instrumental music, "In the nineteenth-century symphony, Salomes chromatic daring is what distinguishes truly serious composition of the vanguard from mere cliche-ridden hack work." (p.101)

Related Topics:
Susan McClary - Opera - Sonata form - Narratives - Salome

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See also: Total chromatic.

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