Barsky, V. (1996) - Chromaticism (1st Ed.) - Routledge.

Chromaticism
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Chroma ticism
Vladimir Barsky
Translated fram the Russian by

Ramela Kahanavskaya
I~ ~~o~1~~n~~~up
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1996 by Harwood Academ ic Publishers
Publ ished 20 14 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OXI4 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 1996 by OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) Amsterdam B.V. Published

in the Netherlands by Harwood Academic Publishers GmbH.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, elec-
tronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Barsky, Vlad imir

Chromaticism
L Title II. Kohanovskaya, Romela
781.25
ISBN 978-3-718-65704-9 (hbk)
To my teacher
Yuri Kholopov
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CONTENTS
Introduction IX
Chapter 1 EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT OF

CHROMATICISM 1
1.1 Formation of the concept. The pyknon principle 1
1.2 The Aristoxenian theory 5
1.3 Metabole 9
1.4 Chromaticism in the system of medieval
categories: handing on the baton of concepts 10
1.5 The dialectics of concept and phenomennii 11
1.6 Musica [ictal 12
1.7 Mutation and chromaticism 16
1.8 Marchetto da Padua. The premises for the rise
of the modern concept of chromaticism 17
1.9 Classification of intervallic systems in the
Middle Ages 20
1.10 Development of the concept of chromaticism
during the Renaissance 22
1.11 At the turning point. Chromaticism and
chordal harmony 23
1.12 Rameau's theory 24
1.13 Chromaticism and functional theory.
The principle of alteration 29
1.14 Schenker's theory. Chromaticism as
"polydiatonicism" 29
1.15 Chromaticism and the extension of the concept
of tonality 31
1.16 Polymodality as a conceptual principle
of chromaticism 32
Chapter 2 CHROMATICISM AS A CATEGORY OF

MUSICAL THINKING 35
2.1 Intervallic systems: historical aspects
of development 35
2.2 On different genera of intervallic systems 38
2.3 Chromaticism in relation to other categories 44
viii Contents
2.4 Systematisation and differentiation of concepts 48
Chapter 3 HISTORICAL TYPES OF CHROMATICISM 55

3.1 Antiquity 55
3.2 Byzantine musical culture 60
3.3 The Middle Ages 74
3.4 The Renaissance 88
(a) Chromatic madrigals in mid-six tee nth-
century music 97
(b) The chromatic principles of Gesualdo
di Venosa 105
3.5 The stile moderno 111
(a) Chromaticism and musical rhetoric 116
(b) Chromaticism and tonality 122
Chapter 4 CHROMATIC SYSTEMS IN 20th-CENTURY

MUSIC 140
4.1 Expanded tonality 140
4.2 Modal systems 163
4.3 Free 12-tone systems 173
4.4 Strict 12-tone systems 188
4.5 The domains adjacent to chromaticism 194
Conclusion 199
References 203
Index 210
INTRODUCTION
It would be appropriate to begin this book with a parable which is also

a historical fact.
In 16th-century Italy there lived Lodovico Gonzaga, a 16-year-
old seminarist who was very fond of playing ball. Once a certain priest
passing by wondered if for a future priest the youth was too keen on his
pursuit and asked him:
"What would you do if you learned that in half an hour the end
of the world was coming?" To which Lodovico replied: "I'd play on."
According to the Russian thinker Georgy Fedotov, the importance of
culture lies in precisely that: we go on playing ball on the verge of
Doomsday ....
For this reason I venture to suggest that the stormy develop-
ments which have accompanied the formation of our century's artistic
culture - in aesthetics, psychology, compositional techniques, etc. - have
had virtually no impact on the essence of music as it were, primarily
due to the special status of musical language which is too sensitive to
any falsity, transcending anything aesthetically alien that is forcibly im-
posed on it. What was always the primary essence of music has remained
as such. And vice versa: laying bare the separate strata of 20th-century
music history interspersed with chains of artefacts and lines of artistic
destinies, a modern researcher, even if he has been personally involved
in this history, discovers a continuous current of spiritual movement.
This river runs slowly and majestically beyond the horizon, towards a
destination unknown to any living person, forking into tributaries,
plunging underground and seemingly disappearing altogether to
emerge each time anew irrespective of the relief of the surrounding
locality and the firmness of the bedrock ....
Upon coming back to the soil of today's reality, but still remain-
ing in the spirit of the above metaphor, we should admit that the
'landscape' of our contemporary artistic culture is nevertheless more
reminiscent of the lunar one with its thick layers of dust concealing the
traces of past battles and deep craters testifying to the unbelievable cata-
clysms of the past. For the progress of musical art, the 20th century,
especially its latter half, has seen the emergence of a whole series of
phenomena which are fundamentally new compared to the music of
the preceding period. Radical innovations, often unpredictable in this
x Introduction
advance, and the fast succession of mutually exclusive trends and schools
have brought about a certain confusion in the musical world and a feel-
ing of impending crisis. As for today's analyst, he has the advantages
of hindsight concerning the recent past and can try to identify the true
motivating forces in musical history.
From this viewpoint an analysis of current realities in musical
creativity cannot fail to acknowledge the fact of their indisputable
evolution, both as artistic phenomena within their purely professional
framework and as socio-cultural phenomena. And in this context the
set of concepts and terms worked out by the musical science of the past
not infrequently fails to provide descriptive tools that are universally
valid, in the way that music theory in the Classical period managed to
embrace the full range of current musical possibilities.
The alarm signal about the alleged "disappearance of matter",
which rang out early in this century in the fields of philosophy and
natural science, proved invalid: cognition of qualitative matter tran-
scended the boundaries of the microworld. The transformation that has
taken place in the nature of musical material, the effects of which are
now becoming increasingly clear, and the disappearance of generally
accepted stereotypes of musical matter have a direct bearing on the
aesthetic and specifically analytic perception of the very phenomenon
of musical art. Perhaps for this reason theoretical musicology, tradition-
ally a stable, highly conventional and self-contained field of aesthetic
consciousness, emerges today as not so completely autonomous and
carries an Aufhebung of the rapid evolution of 20th-century musical art.
Current musical practice in all of its multiform manifestations,
changeable yet retaining at the same time its principal properties,
constantly calls for pertinent efforts on the part of music theory to
apprehend its most significant and symptomatic features. The very phe-
nomenon of contemporary musical culture, with its incessant retreats
into the past and its fundamental pluralism, places a researcher, figura-
tively speaking, in a situation like that of the notorious ancient paradox
about Achilles and the turtle. In this context prime importance is
attached to comprehending the idioms of 20th-century music and
streamlining the language of their description.
The study of the concepts and terms employed in music theory
and the elucidation of the complicated and subtle links between these
concepts and terms, on the one hand, and the phenomena they define,
on the other, is in the final analysis not a formal task but a means of
penetrating the essence of artistic phenomena, the laws of their forma-
tion and development, and their social function.
Introduction Xl
The range of problems tackled in this book concerns chromat-

icism, an essential hallmark of 20th-century harmony. The author has
striven to provide a thorough study of chromatic theory, though the
book's necessity was ultimately dictated by the needs of musical prac-
tice, specifically, the problems arising from the analysis of works writ-
ten by contemporary composers. An attempt has been made to draw a
complete picture of chromaticism, as both a theoretical and a practical
problem facing the modern science of music.
Theory should not attempt to unify the current divergences in
the interpretation of various categories pertaining to chromaticism. These
divergences are based on the actual intersections of similar types and
manifestations of chromaticism, since the relationship between diatonic
and chromatic elements is not an immutable given but a historically
changing phenomenon which can be apprehended only through the
dialectics of its evolution.
The concept of chromaticism is long and firmly established in
musical consciousness. This term which first emerged in ancient Greek
musical theory has come down to us having undergone numerous
changes. Nonetheless, despite the long historical distance already tra-
versed, its 'crystallisation' could hardly be considered complete even
now due to the constant changes in music, the language used for its
description and the meaning of many of its essential categories.
Below is an extract from the reflections of an ancient philo-
sopher: Ii • they call something 'pyknos' and prick up their ears as if
••
catching the sound of voices coming from a neighbouring house. They

claim to discern some echo in-between the two sounds where lies the
smallest interval which should be taken as the basis of measurement"
(Plato).
And here is a piece of conversation in a French salon in the sec-
ond half of the 17th century:
CATHOS. Oh, what a passionate melody! I could die from delight!
MADELON. It has something chromatic in it ... (Moliere. Les
Precieuses ridicules).
And finally here is the judgement of a 20th-century composer
about the problem of his own metier: the progression of such chords
Ii • • •
is governed by the chromatic scale" (Schoenberg).

All these, and many other, often contradictory statements made
centuries apart (whether at the level of general aesthetic, specifically
musical or ordinary consciousness) latently involve chromaticism proper
as a phenomenon, concept, term, cliche, sign, symbol, etc.
Xll Introduction
Musical practices in the 20th century pose new and rather com-
plex problems in the study of fundamental principles of pitch organisa-
tion. Therefore the analysis of basic harmonic categories, one of which
is chromaticism, acquires particular importance as a means of restoring
time which has gone "out of joint" and identifying the logical princi-
ples in the historical process of musical development.
Chromaticism is a major problem in the science of harmony. To
a certain extent it is related to all the principal branches of this science.
However, despite the intensive research into this problem in modern
musicology, it can hardly be considered to be completely solved. This is
evidenced from a lack of unanimity as regards the essence of concepts
and phenomena involved in diatonicism and chromaticism. The study
of current views reveals that most divergences arise from making an
absolute of the concepts accepted during the period of harmonic tonal-
ity and their extrapolation onto the music of preceding and subsequent
periods, whereas harmonic tonality constitutes merely a stage (albeit
an extremely important one) in the process of musical development.
While paying prime attention to this phase, one should at the same time
take into consideration a wider range of phenomena. Such an approach
is imperative in the current musical context.
At this point it would be apt to be reminded of the statement
made by the Russian music critic Hermann Laroche: "No style can have
absolute significance in art theory; each one is rooted in its own time
and locality and bound by conditions above which it is incapable of
elevating itself no matter how great the content it carries" (see Refer-
ences, No. 101, p. 259).
The importance and complexity of the problem are obvious and
the doubts as regards its possible resolution seem quite valid since the
concept of chromaticism is often treated as a master-key for interpret-
ing all the phenomena arising in new music which are difficult to ex-
plain. It is hardly possible to find such universal tools applicable to all
national cultures, times and styles, for the range of modal principles for
which strict and unequivocal terms retain their value is rather
narrow.
The way out of the current situation will be found not in adding
several more formulations and terms to the existing ones but in clearly
apprehending the sources which led to the confusion of these concepts.
A flexible solution with due consideration for the historical evolution
of music, the genesis of a phenomenon, often proves more valid than a
mere 'label' which sometimes effaces the individual and unique char-
acteristics of the phenomenon concerned.
Introduction Xlll
In broad outline the following two approaches to the

diatonicism/ chromaticism problem have thus far gained currency:
firstly, intervallic (placing diatonic elements on a par with chromatic
elements results in a scale or a group of scales of defined intervallic
structure); secondly, modal (the diatonic collection is here a system of
pitches of definite modal value; the pitches having no functional value
as root tones within this system turn out to be chromatic with respect to
the unvarying steps of the mode). In the latter case chromatic changes
are viewed as a result of the alteration of diatonic steps (the 7-step dia-
tonic base - the variable-altered chromatic superstructure). Such an
approach presupposes the identification of the distinction between a
musical tone and a step. The harmonic system of classical music, for
instance, is classified as made up of 12 tones and 7 steps.
The notion of 'two-tier' correlation of diatonic and chromatic
elements (as base and superstructure) - the result of interpreting the
chromatic pitches as alterations - is limited in historical terms by the
boundaries of period and style and cannot be generally accepted. Al-
teration is indeed related to chromaticism but chromaticism cannot be
reduced to alteration alone: this is evidenced, among other things, from
the existence of 'single-tier' integral chromatic systems in which the
number of tones coincides with the number of steps.
The modal functional approach to chromaticism which was quite
justified at a certain historical stage, turns out not to be the only possi-
ble one and needs readjustment, especially in the context of present-
day musical practices oriented towards the 12-step structure in pitch
organisation. The conception of '12-step diatonicism' as a version of the
modal functional approach to the diatonicism/ chromaticism problem
primarily relies on tonality of the classical type. Its coherence collapses
as soon as the altered tones cease to be resolved according to their func-
tional tendencies through semitonal progression - in expanded tonal-
ity. Otherwise we would have to consider Webern's pitch system, for
instance, according to diatonic principles, which would not be a valid
approach. It stands to reason that the diatonicism/ chromaticism prob-
lem cannot be solved in an abstract way (7 or 12 tones) but only within
the context of modes. But while expanding the field of application of a
concept one should always keep in mind the dangers inherent in losing
the circumscribed meaning of a term. In this respect the intervallic ap-
proach seems to be more suited to the essence of the problem under
consideration as when applied to both diatonicism and chromaticism it
merely involves scales (or to be more precise, systems of scales) regard-
less of their type of modal! tonal organisation.
XIV Introduction
All the above outlines the main purpose of this book which is to
trace the progress of the concept of chromaticism throughout musical
history, to make a specific study of the problem, to recreate a more or
less integrated logical and historical perspective and identify the
dynamics of changing historical types of chromaticism. And last but
not least, to relate these theories to musical practices and apply them to
the analysis of current pitch systems. In other words, to come nearer to
comprehending the idioms of 20th-century music.
1
EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT
OF CHROMATICISM
Concepts have their own history, and their real meaning may quite
often differ from their original one. The differences in interpretations of
the concepts of diatonicism and chromaticism appear to reflect differ-
ent historical stages in their development.
As a phenomenon, chromaticism belongs to the field of inter-
vallic systems and in this sense it could have existed long before it was
defined in music theory (and irrespective of such definition).
The concept of chromaticism emerged from prolonged studies
into the essence of musical processes, coming down to us from ancient
Greek music theory. In the course of centuries of musical development
it has changed its meaning several times. As a result, anyone term may
have been used to denote different phenomena. The identification of
the essence of these different interpretations and their systematisation
constitutes a major prerequisite for solving the problem under consid-
eration.
1. Formation of the concept. The pyknon principle
The word 'chromatic' is derived from the Greek word chroma meaning
colour. In ancient Greek music theory it was used to define one of the
three musical genera: liThe genera are three: diatonic, chromatic and
enharmonic. The diatonic is sung in descending by tone, tone, and semi-
tone, but in ascending by semitone, tone, and tone. The chromatic is
sung in descending by trihemitone, semi tone, and semi tone, but in
ascending by semitone, semitone and trihemitone. The enharmonic is
sung in descending by ditone, diesis, and diesis, but in ascending by
diesis, diesis, and ditone" (7, p. 11; 157, p. 35). A genus was thereby
defined as a certain division of the four notes of a tetrachord", or to be
II
more precise, a certain placement of two mean (movable) tones of a

tetra chord since a tetrachord constitutes not just any progression of four
notes ('through four', diatessaron) but only one which is framed by its
extreme immovable, fixed notes (hestotes), which retain one and the same
pitch in any of the genera and their subdivisions (proslambanomenos-
Hypate hypaton - Hypate meson - Mese- Netesynemmenon - Paramese
- Nete diezeugmenon - Nete hyperbolaion). The genera differed in their
2 Chromaticism
dependence on movable notes (kinoumenoi). "Of the notes enumerated

some are fixed, others movable. The fixed notes are all those that re-
main unchanged and on the same pitches in the different genera. The
movable notes are all those in the opposite case; these do not remain
unchanged and on the same pitches in the different genera" (7, p. 15;
157, p. 37).
The teaching on genera is the most specific aspect of Greek
modal theory (and the most distinct from ours)*. This is due to the fact
that the categories of the diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic genera
developed within the framework of monodic musical culture and have
little in common with the corresponding categories of modern music
theory.
The common ground between the diatonicism of Greek modes
and the present-day understanding of diatonicism is clearly apparent.
There are two possible ways of translating the Greek term 'diatonic':
(1) 'running through tones', i.e. through the whole tones; or (2) a 'tensed'
tetra chord filled up with the widest intervals.
As for the chromatic genus, despite the partial outward similar-
ity immediate in the succession of two semi tones, we observe here
different concepts, another structural principle. The Greek chromatic
(genera with an augmented second) allowed a change in the structure
of a scale (namely its 'density' of intervals, the pyknon) without an in-
crease in the number of tones in the system. In our understanding this
is not even chromaticism but rather a certain intermediate type of inter-
vallic system (hemiolic) between diatonicism and chromaticism. As
Hugo Riemann wrote, "Our elaborate music despite all its advances
lacks chromaticism (in the Greek sense of the word) as a self-contained
basis for the formation of modes" (142, I, p. 206)**.
As for the enharmonic genus of the ancient Greeks (which has
nothing in common with the European term enharmonic), this has
always aroused the most heated controversy. Intervals less than a semi-
tone have no parallel (apart from a few exceptions, such as, for instance,
in the famous codex from Montpellier, see 142, Vol. 2, p. 74) in Western-
European music during the period from the 9th to the 19th centuries.
Nor was there unanimity on this matter among the Greek musicians
* One of the first to use the concept of genus as a scientific term was Aristotle
who defined it as "a manifestation of the essence of many things
of varying quality" (90, p. 325).
** We should point out that this proposition, indisputable as regards the music
of the 17th-19th centuries, could hardly be fully applied to a large number of
musical phenomena that have emerged in the 20th century.
Evolution of The Concept of Chromaticism 3
themselves. Thus, for instance, Plutarch de Cheronea (in his treatise De

musica) expressed his dissatisfaction with contemporary musicians in
the following way: Their dullness and carelessness are so great that
Ii •••
they deny any effect on the senses of the enharmonic diese and discard
it altogether from a melody ... Such connoisseurs put forward their
own insensitiveness as the strongest argument in their favour, as if
everything slipping away from them should therefore be considered
non-existent and unacceptable" (6, pp. 288-289). The opposite view-
point, as is known, was developed in Plato's treatises on the basis of
more general distinctions in the philosophical method of apprehending
the world and the means of cognising its laws. In particular, Plato
accused the Pythagoreans of the fact that while they talk about a
Ii • • •
certain thickening of tones and prick up their ears they extract a tone
from what seem like the closest pitches. Some of them profess to hear a
certain echo in-between as well and, therefore, they claim to apprehend
the smallest distance between pitches in order to measure tones. The
others argue that the similarity between sounds is paramount in
questions of identity, but both parties place ears above reason"
(6, p. 131).
The explanation of this phenomenon should be sought in the
dual position of Greek culture: it had still to become a 'Western' culture
and had not as yet discarded its 'Oriental' flavour. Curt Sachs explained
the exotic intervals of less than a semitone by the fact that Greek melo-
dies were indeed 'Oriental', and their next of kin have lived in the Mid-
dle East to this day, not in the West" (144, p. 214). It remains to add that
they survive not only in the Middle East but in Bulgaria as well, as
reflected in the theory of Bulgarian folk music which retains the con-
cept of musical genera in the ancient Greek sense and employs them in
the theory of Bulgarian folklore (42).
The genealogical tree of ancient Greek music (according to Curt
Sachs) could be represented in the following scheme (144, p. 221):
Scheme 1
Maiorr° Minor-Atonic niC
Division Division Division Division

of a semitone of a third of a whole tone of a third
(enharmonic (Dorian mode) (chromatic) (Phrygian,
proper) Lydian modes)
4 Chromaticism
Theoretically the enharmonic genus signifies the 'splitting' of

the Greek 'atom' (which European culture had come to believe was in-
divisible) that occurred as a result of the increased density of inter-
vallic relationships within a tetrachord. This idea can be clarified by the
following formula:
diatonic chromatic
chromatic enharmonic
The facts concerning the historical evolution of the enharmonic

genus should be taken into account. The enharmonic chroa (shade) with-
out pyknon was known from the earliest times (Olympus was accred-
ited with its invention) which arose as a result of skipping lichanos or
paranete. This led to pentatonic structures of the following two types:
(a) with major thirds and semitones and (b) with minor thirds and whole
tones. The earliest evidence (5th cent. B.C.) of using microtones can be
found in the transcribed musical fragment from Euripides' Orestes
(144, p. 198).
We should point out that all three genera were quite self-con-
tained, none representing a modification of another (the chromatic ge-
nus, for example, was not a 'superstructure' of the diatonic genus or its
'alteration', the more so the enharmonic genus was not a 'superstruc-
ture' of second degree). This was owing to the fact that the chromatic
and enharmonic genera were based not on the introduction of inter-
mediate steps between those of the diatonic scale but on a restructuring
of the steps of the diatonic scale so that the total number of steps (seven)
was commonly retained. To get the pitch of one of the three genera, it
was necessary to restructure lichanos (paranete), i.e. one of the movable
notes of the tetra chord (it should be remembered that the notes in the
ancient Greek Perfect System were named after the corresponding strings
of the kithara and the position of the player'S fingers). The enharmonic
retuning of lichanos (from the diatonic) was called eklysis; the chromatic
retuning (from the enharmonic) was known as spondeiasmos while the
diatonic retuning (from the enharmonic) the chromatic returning (from
the enharmonic) was called ekbole. This is confirmed by the evidence of
Greek theorists themselves - lithe number of lichanoi is unlimited"
(Aristoxenus, see 144, p. 193). It is also related to two major concepts of
ancient Greek theory - thesis (the unchangeable function of a note in
the Perfect System) and dynamis (a function which a note fulfils in rela-
tion to the other notes of the scale). The self-sufficient nature of the an-
cient Greek genera was also preconditioned by the ethos of each genus,
certain definite emotions rendered by available means of a given

genus: "This genus is called enharmonic because it is the best in music,
for it requires artful execution, needs much practice and is difficult for
many people to perform. It should be pointed out that the diatonic
genus expresses something important, strong and melodious, the chro-
matic genus renders sorrow and suffering and therefore is called chroma
(colour) ... " (7, p. 56). Pachymeres viewed the chromatic genus as "more
dolorous and pathetic"; one of the anonymous authors called it "the
most pleasing and plaintive", Sextus Empiricus qualified it as "sono-
rous and doleful" (6, p. 69). Ancient Greek classical tragedy made use
predominantly of the diatonic genus whereas the chromatic genus was
tackled primarily by the virtuoso kitharists. The trinomial nature of the
pitch systems in ancient Greek music is noteworthy: " ... the chromatic
definition was assigned to a genus made taut by semitones; as the inter-
mediary between white and black painting is called colour, in the same
way we call chroma what we perceive as the mean between two oppo-
sites" (7, p. 54).
2. The Aristoxenian Theory
Aristoxenus, one of the earliest Greek writers on music, gave a lot of

attention to classifying the pitch systems of ancient Greek music. It is to
him that we owe the most authentic information about their structure.
In his treatise Elementa Harmonica (Harmonic Elements) Aristoxenus vir-
tually covered all the basic problems facing the ancient Greek science of
harmony. And we should give Aristoxenus credit for specifying the clear-
cut boundaries within this science and elaborating some of its most
difficult areas, in particular, the genus division of pitch systems.
According to Aristoxenus, his predecessors (the so-called
harmonists) had paid insufficient attention to this matter, confining
themselves to the enharmonic genus to the neglect of the other two.
Moreover, their ability to tell each genus apart did not extend to all
chroai, inasmuch as "they were not acquainted with all contemporary
musical styles; nor did they even observe that there were certain loci of
the notes that alter their position with the change of genus". In his opin-
ion, that was "the reason why the genera had not as yet been definitely
distinguished" (157, p. 28).
Guided by his principle of singling out the permanent and
changeable elements in any phenomenon (and not only in harmony),
Aristoxenus drew a distinction between emmeles and ekmeles (melodi-
ous and unmelodious) and compared it with the rules for collocating
letters in language ("it is not every collocation but only certain colloca-
6 Chromaticism
tions of any given letters that will produce a syllable" - 157, p. 29). Later
on, this proposition was further elaborated by other ancient Greek
musicians: "The things considered under quality of voice are these. It
has two sorts of movements: one is called continuous and belongs to
speech, the other is diastematic and belongs to melody. In continuous
movement, tensions and relaxations occur imperceptibly and the voice
is never at rest until it becomes silent. In diastematic movement, the
opposite takes place; the voice dwells on certain points and passes over
the distances between them, proceeding first in the one way, then in the
other. The points on which it dwells we call pitches, the passages from
pitch to pitch we call intervals" (7, p. 9; 157, p. 35). Aristoxenus regarded
dies is as the smallest value for measuring all the intervals encountered
in music, making no distinction between the so-called major (8:9) and
minor (9 :10) whole tones.
In his treatise Aristoxenus provided information on the origins
of the enharmonic genus. He believed that Olympus had only given an
impetus to the development of the enharmonic genus while remaining
oblivious of its essence since he knew nothing about the so called
enharmonic pyknon. According to Aristoxenus, the three tones of pyknon
had the following designations:
barypyknoi mesopyknoi oxypyknoi
pyknon
The credit for turning Olympus's simplified scale into the

enharmonic tetrachord with pyknon should go (according to Aristoxenus)
to Polymnestus of Colophon. Aristoxenus therewith makes the reser-
vation that pyknon involves only those cases where the sum of two small
intervals of a tetra chord is less than that of the third interval. In tracing
the origins of the enharmonic genus Aristoxenus stressed that Olym-
pus had taken satisfaction in the singing voice not touching upon the
definite diatonic tones (the whole tone above a semitonal interval). The
diatonic genus had been further simplified by Terpander (who intro-
duced the skip of the upper tone of a semitonal interval of the diatonic
tetrachord). Aristoxenus asserted that this simplification of a tetra chord
also had a strong ethical effect.
Ancient Greek music theory reflected the predominance of
monodic vocal culture and the high level of its development. This ex-
plains the care the Greek musicians showed for horizontal relationships
between sounds and the attention paid to detailed microintervals. The
Oriental roots of this phenomenon are clearly evident (see above). "The
narrow-stepwise genera once more underscore the similarity between

Greek and Eastern theory; the earliest Oriental wind instruments pro-
duced approximately the same scales which the Greeks transferred into
their own system of a four-step tetra chord with fixed extreme tones, or
to be more precise, onto the kithara with its outer strings whose tuning
remained fixed" (120, p. 144). The seemingly speculative nature of an-
cient Greek theoretical constructs is nothing but a manifestation of the
laws underlying a differing musical culture, far remote in time and hav-
ing another perception of the world. "The various shades of expression
which we reach through consonant combinations (harmony) and tonal
transitions (modulation), the Greeks and other nations with their pre-
dominantly monodic (homophonic, unison) music had to produce
through subtler and more varied nuances of modes". It is no wonder
that as Helmholtz rightly suggested they "developed in themselves a
far finer keenness and sensitivity to these kind of distinctions than we
have" (65, p. 436).
In keeping with the character of their usage in musical practice
the intervals were divided into emmelic and ekmelic, i.e., into melodious
and unmelodious ones (the ekmelic intervals involved complex numeri-
cal proportions - microintervals - or sounds of indefinite pitch - psophos)
(153, p. 59). Such division was necessitated by the fact that the Greek
micro tones were not confined to the enharmonic genus but were in-
corporated in a ramified system of chroai (shades) which were
defined as "specific subdivisions of the genera" (7, p. 21).
Apart from the system of shades, which was described in
Aristoxenian theory (5, pp. 296-297); (Ex. 1a)*, there existed some fur-
ther divisions of the tetrachord which extended either to the entire sys-
tem or its separate sections. The ancient Greek musicians believed that
density of intervals in the chromatic and enharmonic genera "imparted
to the genus or its particular subdivision a gentle property in contrast
to an abundance of large intervals which gave a feeling of hardness" (7,
p. 70). For example, Ptolemy's system included five subdivisions of the
diatonic genus.
In addition to the division of melos into genera, Aristoxenus in-
troduced the concepts of the 'common' melos for all the genera (the
fixed notes, hestotes), 'non-mixed' melos (consisting of one of the scales,
either diatonic, or chromatic, or enharmonic) and 'mixed' melos (the
* The following notation system has been used in the musical example
~=1/4;~=1/2;f=3/4;~=1/8;%=1/3;1;=1/6 - in parts ofa whole tone. The
use of modern notation in such cases calls for a major reservation: ancient Greek
theory did not conceive a notation of absolute pitches.
Ex. la. The Aristoxenian system of chroai (the size of intervals also
indicated in dieses)
Ex. lb. The Aristoxenian scales of mixed melos

combination of scales with various microintervallic structures, as well

as the mixture of three different genera in one melos). So six types of
mixed scales were established (Ex. Ib). If we add these to the six scales
mentioned above, we shall have Aristoxenus' Dodecachordon which
emerged almost two millennia before the famous Dodecachordon by
Glareanus (their profound differences make it possible to trace the evo-
lution of both the music itself and music theory).
3. Metabole
Any survey of non-diatonic phenomena in ancient Greek music (and

their reflection in theory) would be incomplete without mention of the
concept of metabole (transition). In his treatise Eisagoge Harmonike
(Harmonic Introduction) Cleonides gave the following definition of this
concept: "The word metabole is used in four senses: with reference to
genus, system, tone and melodic composition. Metabole of genus takes
place whenever there is a change from the diatonic genus to the
chromatic or enharmonic, or from the chromatic or enharmonic to some
other genus. Metabole of system takes place whenever there is a change
from the conjunct system to the disjunct or vice versa. Metabole of tone
takes place whenever there is a change from the Dorian tone to the
Phrygian, or from the Phrygian to the Lydian, Hypermixolydian or
Hypodorian, or in general whenever there is a change from anyone of
the thirteen tones to any other" (6, p. 232). And further on we read:
"Metabole is transposition from a similar to a dissimilar locus (region)."
There existed another classification of metabole (157, p. 45): (1) a change
from one genus to another; (2) a change from one mode to another; (3) a
change from one transposition scale to another; (4) rhythmic changes.
Along with the change from one genus to another, metabole in
melodic composition (agoge, progression) is also noteworthy. The
ancients distinguished three types of agoge: (1) direct (a-bb-c-d); (2) re-
verse (d-c-bb-a); and circular (a-bb-c-d-d-c-bq-a) (7, p. 89). The latter type is
interesting as a kind of "chromaticism at a distance". It would appear
that something similar took place in metabole from the conjunct to the
disjunct system (as regards the location of tetra chords within the Greater
Perfect System). For precisely this reason Riemann writes that "we
should look for the genuine roots of the ancients' chromaticism not in
the retuning of the kithara's strings but in the direct comparison of trite
synemmenon ('bb') and paramese ('b') (142, I, p. 208). In their later prac-
tices the kitharists called the "bb" string chromatic and the "b" string
diatonic. Riemann believes that the chromatic tetrachord took shape as
a result of the synemmenon tetra chord having incorporated the paramese
10 Chromaticism
(a-bf,-bq-c-d). This also explains Plutarch's indication that kithara chro-

maticism was a very old phenomenon (Ibid). Mention should be made
here of Riemann's other idea about the origins of the chromatic genus.
In his view, this genus had merely combined in one system two forms
of the archaic non-semitonal enharmonic genus (Olympus and
Terpander, see above) if we assume that originally the progression of
two semitones unfolded not successively but at a distance in relation to
the other tones (142, I, p. 215).
4. Chromaticism in the system of medieval categories.

Handing on the baton of concepts
The system of music - theoretical tenets prevailing in the Middle Ages

is something very different from ancient theory. This was due to a sharp
change in musical style (to be more precise, a change in the form of
music-making) and aesthetic precepts in the transition between two
historical stages. At the same time one cannot overlook here the defi-
nite signs of continuity. In this respect a major part was played by
Boethius who, on the one hand, brought the ancient tradition to a close
and, on the other, became a source of ideas for many future writers on
music.
Another source of the Western-European musical system is
Byzantine ritual chant which made use of the ancient melodies and their
simplified Greek form of notation. Meanwhile the chromatic and
enharmonic genera were discarded and the transposition scales were
replaced by a single system made up of proslambanomenos and mese of
the main transposition scales. As a whole, this period could be charac-
terised as a transitional one. The Byzantine musical system by intro-
ducing martyrien (signs indicating the mode of an ecclesiastical melody)
transferred the names of the notes (designated by the letters of the Greek
alphabet) onto the octaves within the corresponding tones. To these
modes were added (following the ancient tradition) the hypomodes
(plagal), though not a fifth but a fourth below the root tones. This
different disposition of the modes is noteworthy compared to the
ancient Greek ones. It was adopted in the Western-European musical
system as well (Frotus, Deuterus, Tritus, Tetrardus - from 'd' upwards).
By the 10th century these modes came to be known by the names of the
ancient Greek modes (Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian), which
led to great confusion. According to Hugo Riemann (140, p. 101), this
was caused by the misinterpretation of one point in Ptolemy's treatise
which indicated that the Phrygian mode was a step higher than the
Dorian one and the Mixolydian was a step higher than the Lydian mode,
an observation which was valid only for transposition scales.
Scheme 2
Medieval Modes Ancient Greek Modes
Hypodorian Hypodorian
Hypophrygian Hypophrygian
Hypolydian Hypolydian
Dorian Dorian
Phrygian Phrygian
Lydian Lydian
Mixolydian Mixolydian
5. The dialectics of concept and phenomenon
Medieval music theory had no developed system of the concepts of

chromaticism (the melodies of the Greek chromatic and enharmonic
genera disappeared from musical practice) and in fact made no use of
this term for systematising musical phenomena (except for direct quo-
tations from Boethius). There arose a paradoxical situation: the very
phenomenon (in its original form) was non-existent while its concept
went on being passed from one treatise to another for as long as a
millennium after its disappearance.
Nonetheless, the extinction of the Greek genus implied no dis-
appearance of the phenomenon of chromaticism, which (in one form
or another) continued to exist in musical practice. The structure of
the medieval modal system contained within itself a premise for the
development of chromaticism - the dual nature of the b~/b*step (a com-
mon feature in Greek musical culture where a similar situation arose as
a result of introducing tetrachordum synemmenon). The anonymous
author in his treatise Dialogus de musica (1Ith cent.) devoted special
attention to the dual species of this tone and called it nona prima and
nona secunda (in the modal system of the period this tone was the ninth
if one counted the steps) asserting that both forms represented neither
a tone nor a semitone with respect to one another but merely divided
the distance between the eighth and ninth tones of the system in differ-
ent ways (53, Vol. 1, p. 254). Thus "one of them is always superfluous,
and in each melody you accept one and reject the other in order not to
seem to be making a tone and a semitone in the same place, which would
be absurd" (157, p. 107).
12 Chromaticism
6. Musica ticta?
The concept of musica ficta (falsa) was generally used to embrace a whole
group of non-diatonic phenomena in medieval music commonly based
on the successive employment of the tones band q. This phenomenon
played the role of 'the Trojan horse' and led to the subsequent disinte-
gration of the modal system. The emergence of this term was founded
on the theoretical notion that the structure of the hexachordal system
admitted the 'duality' of a step exclusively on b (b rotundum, qquadrum).
As a result, the augmentation or diminution of another step by a semi-
tone was viewed (32, Vol. 4, p. 376) as an extra manum phenomenon
transcending the boundaries of the Guidonian hand and defined as
musica falsa (fictitious) or ficta (artificial). This negative definition is in-
variably encountered in the theoretical treatises written from approxi-
mately the middle of the 13th century onwards, with both terms used,
as a rule, as synonyms. The attempt made by Rudolf Ficker (47) to
differentiate between them (by suggesting that in the one case the chro-
matic tones result from the division of a whole tone, whereas in the
other case they arise from the transposition of a hexachord onto any
step) was based on a misinterpretation of the following citation from a
15th-century treatise: "Musica falsa turns a tone into a semi tone and vice
versa. Any tone can be divided into two semitones." As Carl Dahlhaus
proved, the point here is not the division of each tone into two semi-
tones but the inversion of the tone-semi tone intervallic progression
c-bq-a instead of c' -b~-a) "when a tone becomes a semi tone" (37, p. 175).
We should underscore the special significance the 'b~' tone had
in the system of hexachords and its role as an independent step (the
'bq' tone was not a chromatic version of the 'b' tone). Its introduction
violated the close nature of modal diatonic, which had far-reaching
implications. Carl Dahlhaus offers the following three possible inter-
pretations of the functional significance of this tone (37, p. 171): (1) the
splitting of a step ("bV' and "bf' represent one and the same step: nona
prima, nona secunda); (2) expansion of the pitch system (from seven to
eight tones); (3) a change of system (a transfer from the original register
of the scale to a transposition down a fifth).
Major evidence of the independent nature of the "W' tone is the
fact that it was included in the Guidonian hand but only in the middle
of the system. The Guidonian hand did not contain in the bottom part
of its gamut the b~/ bqdual step (for this reason a hexachord from F was
impossible and only the one starting on f was valid). The transference
of the principle nona prima - nona secunda onto other steps was also
viewed by medieval theorists as non-standard and defined as coniuncta
(the Latin definition of the Greek concept synemmenan), which is "the

placing of b rotundi or q quadri in irregular locations" (163, pp. 14-15)*.
The violation of the symmetry of the modal system made it less stable,
which naturally aroused resentment among medieval theorists, but it
was inevitable owing to their wish to avoid the still more dangerous
'enemy' - causa tritoni. Besides, the unavoidable expansion of the tone-
structure used in musical practice was not so obvious in notation as a
result of transposition. Mention should be also made of the ideas ad-
vanced by Gustave Reese who saw the reason for the rise of the b~-bq
step in 'irregular locations' (in loci irregulari) in the latent pentatonic
structure of some Gregorian chants which had led to various methods
of filling up a minor third by the passing tones. Reese draws here a
parallel with the theory of the ancient Chinese tonal system, in particu-
lar, with the concept of pien-tones, passing tones within the pentatonic
scale (139, pp. 157-159).
It would appear that there was no difference in pitch between
altered tones arising from accidentals and those arising from transposi-
tion in medieval musical practice. At any rate these phenomena are hard
to distinguish. The rule of solmisation of lowered steps as fa and the
higher steps as mi, which was mentioned in the anonymous treatise Ars
contrapunctus, should be understood not as a transposition of the entire
scale down a fifth but as a local change in the value of a tone (as a result
of mi-fa solmisation practices) which extended, though, to the neigh-
bouring steps (fa mollaren - mi durales - re or sol naturales (53, Vol. 3,
p.343).
It would be appropriate to consider the extent of employing
the non-diatonic tones (as regards their position) in medieval musical
practice. The extreme viewpoint on this matter was expressed by
Gustav Jacobsthal who believed that as early as the 9th century the
employment of chromatic tones had been rather widespread and the
relationship between F# and G in the 4th mode (Tetrardus) generally
acknowledged (71, p. 22). Jacobsthal based his views on the following
table supplied in a treatise of Italian origin (53, Vol. 1, p. 274):
* The anonymous medieval treatise (32, Vol. 3, p. 426) describes three types of
"mi-fa" progressions obtained as a result of transpositions (a) in conventional
locations bq-c (e-f; h-c); (b) "mi" from 0, F, d (c) "fa" from E, a, e. The two latter
types are considered among coniuncta.
14 Chromaticism
Scheme 3
T T S T T S T T S ill S T T S T T S ill S T
r A B C 0 E F G a b ~ c d e f g a ~ qq X ~
A B m 0 E m G a ~ c m d e m g a qq X m ~
ch
C 0 E F G a b c d ill e f g a ~ X ~
0 E m G a ~ c d e f m g a qq X ~
G a ~ c d e f g a ~ qq X .:l
The author of the treatise, however, does not recognise semi-

tone progressions as justifiable and insists that they should be elimi-
nated: "Special pains must be taken that singers will not introduce these
chromatic tones by mistake in going from one scale to another" (143,
p. 48)*. According to him, two whole tones must always be followed by
a semitone, which creates a singular expressive effect**. The author
limits (see Scheme) the number of permissible semi tones in his division
of a monochord***.
* Because in this case (according to the author of the treatise) progressions (he
calls them dissonantia) arise which, even if "satisfactorily explained by teach-
ers" are faulty (53, Vol. 1, p. 272).
** The structure of the musical system based on the tone-tone-semitone princi-
ple follows the tradition initiated by ado of Cluny: "A semitone is necessary
after two successive whole steps; it allays the monotony of a too frequent re-
petition of whole tones and prevents the disharmony of wide skips. But two
semitones running one after another are impermissible: they exist to soften
and enrich a melody and if you overdo it you get the same bitterness as from
oversalted food" (119, p. 183).
*** "Faulty, extremely lascivious and too delicate music sometimes strives to
employ a greater number of semitones than we have indicated. One must avoid
this practice, rather than imitate it. Beware that something similar arises from
a singer's carelessness when he starts and ends a melody in a manner other
than the way it has been composed. We indicate five semitones of this kind, for
one cannot avoid an imperfection unless one knows of it ... Out of these semi-
tones we accept the one lying an octave higher; as for the rest, we would ask
you to stay away from them, rather than make use of them ... " (119, pp. 188-
189, Vol. 1, p. 272).
The text contains two kinds of signs for indicating semitonal

progressions:
(1) 'm' = 'F#', "C#" and their octave transpositions
(2) 'iii' = 'Eb' and its octave transposition.
The uppermost row of the table indicates distances between
notes by means of the signs T (tonus), 5 (subsemitonium) and m (medius,
intermediate). To indicate F#, use is also made of the sign 'ch' placed
below the sign 'm'. To conclude, the author makes the following
remark: "If you consider studiously and tenaciously what we have
written you shall find the way to comprehend many even more compli-
cated relationships between tones. I shall not further concern myself
with these in order to avoid the suspicion that I am feeding the youth-
ful reader with superfluous dishes instead of simple milk" (53, Vol. 1,
p. 272; 143, p. 49).
One should keep in mind that modes in the musical system of
that period differed in their inner structure and not in their absolute
pitch position for which there was no fixed notation. Hence the seem-
ing abundance of chromatic tones here. The above table demonstrates
the compound lO-tone system which arose from 'adding' the main mode
to its transpositions. This type of 'chromaticism' is rather of an ortho-
graphic nature, resulting from the extrapolation of our principles of
notation. Therefore Jacobsthal's conclusion about the employment of
chromatic tones in the ecclesiastical modes seems to be too far-fetched,
something which is borne out by numerous medieval sources. Thus,
Johannes Afflighemensis points out that the 3rd authentic mode (Tritus),
in contrast to the other authentic modes, lacks a tone descending by a
whole tone from the final one, which he viewed as a sign of imper-
fection since semitonal progressions before the final tone were not to be
employed (53, Vol. 2, p. 245). According to some music scholars, musica
ficta is not so much the theory of early chromaticism as the problem
arising from the scarce indication of chromatic alterations in the sources
of the period, particularly during the time from about 1450 to 1600, or
in other words, from a striking discrepancy between theoretical and
practical sources (9, p. 466). This explains the customary practice of de-
scribing the medieval musical system by drawing on the theoretical trea-
tises written during the period from the 13th to the 16th centuries since
the actual musical material of the period is extremely contradictory (with
rare exceptions the altered tones, as a rule, were not notated). In this
respect we could remind ourselves of the letter sent by Giovanni Spataro
to Pietro Aaron asking the latter to write down all the requisite signs of
alteration which were known in the 16th century (105, p. 166).
16 Chromaticism
7. Mutation and chromaticism
The expansion of the gamut of pitches and in the Middle Ages was also
cultivated through the transposition of hexachords in the process of
mutation and the ensuing introduction of subsemitonium modi. Though
for a long time musical practice had been exclusively confined to the
nearest transposition, by the 15th century the limit of possible transpo-
sitions of a hexachord had obviously been reached. This was recorded
in the treatise Calliopea legale by John Hothby (141, p. 300) which dis-
cussed the transpositions of a hexachord on F# = ut and Db = ut. In his
treatise Practica musicae written in 1496, Franchinus Gafurius (141,
p. 338) pointed to the gradual expansion of mutations and the frequent
solmisation of semitonal progressions not as mi-fa but bearing the names
of the fixed steps (a-g#-a as la-sol-Ia). Johannes de Garlandia writes
about the introduction of a lower semitone (F#) to avoid a tritone (causa
tritoni) in the gradual descent fromqquadrum: "The note before the final
is coloured, separated from the final by either a whole tone or a semi-
tone" (32, Vol. I, p. 115). At the same time the consequences of
banning any departure from the rigid framework of the diatonic
system still prevailed for a long time, being faithfully transferred from
one treatise to another. The church authorities censured chromatic
music as "unruly and ugly" (119, p. 30) and therefore a semitone as a
chromatic potentiality was condemned in certain treatises of orthodox
medieval theorists. According to a 13th-century anonymous author,
"A semi tone is not used at all or else only on very rare occasions"
(32, Vol. I, p. 354). This was in apparent contradiction to the musical
practice of the period. Comparison of the three main types of hexachords
was inevitably to lead to the appearance of a subsemitonium in the
hexachord starting on G and, with the further development of muta-
tion, in other hexachords as well.
Thus chromaticism during the medieval period developed in
two directions:
(1) Realisation of the dual bb/bq step on other steps.* This was
further aggravated by the development of polyphony (b rotundum in
* Johannes de Grocheio writes: "Contemporary musicians in notating chords

have added something different which they called musica falsa. These two signs
band q, which in b fa and qmi denoted a tone and a semi tone, have now come to
be used in all other cases so that they expand a semi tone up to a whole tone
and vice versa: whenever there is a tone it is narrowed down to a semitone and
all of this is done to get good concordance or consonance" (119, p. 287). On the
whole, the employment of musica ficta (jalsa) was recognised as necessary and
quite justifiable: "Musica falsa is not useless, quite the reverse, it is necessary to
get good consonance and avoid bad chords. Therefore it is not false but just
cantus firmus gave rise to eb, while ~ quadrum led to f# to avoid mi contra
fa. Vertical considerations also called for the alteration of a fifth, an
octave and a twelfth in cases where they turned out to be imperfect
(augmented or diminished) as a result of counterpoint. The same fac-
tors account for the emergence of the notorious Regola delle terze-seste
(see below).
(2) The assertion of a subsemitonium (leading tone) as a result of
distant transpositions of a hexachord.
8. Marchetto da Padua. The premises for the rise of the modern

concept of chromaticism
The total employment of all intermediate steps does not involve chro-
maticism in our contemporary understanding of the term. Nonethe-
less, as early as in the 14th century in his treatise Lucidarium in arte musicae
planae Marchetto da Padua dwelt upon the chromatic (semitonal)
motion of a voice which he defined as permutatio: "Permutatio is a vari-
ation in the name of a note which takes place on the same line or in the
same space and has a different sound" (53, Vol. 3, p. 89; 143, p. 113).
Marchetto also introduced a different term for extraneous
pitches: colorati instead of falsi.** It is hard to say how great Marchetto's
influence was on musical practice. At any rate, theorists of later periods
fail to mention permutatio altogether or rule out 'uttering' one and the
same tone both as mi and as fa (47, p. 16). The permutation procedure
(according to Marchetto) presupposed the division of a tone into a
diatonic and an enharmonic semitone or into a chromatic semitone and
a diese*** (Ex. 2a).
unusual" (119, p. 289). According to Walter Odington, 'variation' of the 'b' step
in due time led to the 'variation' of the steps 'f', 'e', and 'e' - and all this to
obtain consonances wherever they could not be naturally derived (this treatise
on consonance was written in the 14th century). The natural lagging of theory
behind musical practice should be also taken into consideration (142 Vol. 2,
p. 181).
** Marchetto argued against the term musiea falsa: "It would be better and more
valid to call such music eolorata than falsa, for by this term we attribute to it a
faulty deficiency" (53, Vol. 3, p. 135). Prosdocimus also stresses the need to
color sonorities as the necessity arises (32, Vol. 3, p. 198a, 251b).
*** According to Marchetto's theory, the enharmonic semitone contains two
dieses, the diatonic three, and the chromatic four, the whole tone consists of five
dieses. It should be taken into consideration that during the periods of An-
tiquity and the Middle Ages, "following the designation of the diatonic semi-
tone as the remainder of the fourth after deduction from it of two whole-tones
of the ratio 9/8, the diatonic semitone [was regarded] as smaller than the
18 Chromaticism
Ex.2a. Marchetto's permutation procedure
10:
8e bS q~ .e-
C)
o(}
I a
~o
')
bS00
II oojS ,g I,g jB 00
II
Ex. 2b. Consonances obtained through permutation
Marchetto's ideas about designations of permutatio are note-

worthy: "There are three designations which may bring about such a
permutation, namely ~ quadrum, b rotundum and a third, which is ordin-
arily called musica falsa ... The first two are found or can be found in
chant of the ecclesiastical liturgy and also in mensural music. The third
appears only in mensural music, although it may appear in the cantus
planus, if that is sung in coloration and used in a mensurated way, as in
the motet and other forms of mensural music. As Richard of Normandy
points out, everywhere we find the ~ quadrum we shall say mi, and wher-
ever we find the b rotundum we shall say fa" (53, Vol. 3, pp. 73-75; 143,
p. 114).
The explanation provided for obtaining consonances through
permutation (Ex. 2b) is quite original. Marchetto writes: "Such a divi-
sion of the whole tone was regarded as coloration and was executed in
such a manner that the singer, when singing the first interval down-
ward, which was a diesis, bears in mind that he will return to the same
note. In such a situation the third consonance follows less naturally and
chromatic. This runs contrary to present-day procedures" (143, p. 115): G-g# =

25/24; bf,-bq =135/128; b-c=16/15. However, such an understanding of the
structure of a tone, quite unexpectedly, better explains the practice of making
chromatic changes to imperfect consonances with their transition to perfect
consonances, for in this case after a chromatic semitone (four dieses) 'perfec-
tion' was ready at hand, at a distance of merely a diese, the smallest interval in
Marchetto's system.
**** No doubt, Marchetto found less naturalness in such a progression of inter-
vals because in a transition from an imperfect to a perfect consonance (the
second and third steps of a given progression) this distance was the largest
(the chromatic semitone, four dieses).
obviously" (53, Vol. 3, p. 75; 143, p. 115)****.

Marchetto is consistent here in his intention to introduce the
concept of coloration instead of musica ficta. In this context it is used for
describing the lower semitonal step. As a whole, the Marchetto's
permutatio symbolises the direct development of chromaticism during
the medieval period, chromaticism in its modern understanding. More-
over, here we can observe due consideration for the vertical aspect in
the interaction of intervallic elements, i.e. the factor of harmony as well.
Many scholars of medieval music believe that it took some time
for the strict diatonicism of the ecclesiastical modes to established itself
in Gregorian chant and admit that intervals smaller than a semitone
were used in the music of that period (see 142, Vol. 2, p. 74; 57, pp. 388,
520). This is evidenced from the attempt to introduce the enharmonic
dieses in the church chants, e.g. in the antiphonary from Montpellier.
Gustave Reese believes (139, p. 161) that such intervals had no fixed
proportions (therefore he doubts their modal significance). If we accept
this viewpoint we are forced to conclude that the mysterious microtones
in the Montpellier codex are nothing but tones of indefinite pitch which
medieval theory defined by the term absonia (Latin: unmelodious, irrel-
evant, incompatible), a concept close to ekmelic in ancient Greek theory.
Such phenomena are systematised in the treatise Scholia enchiriadis
(53, Vol. 1, pp. 173-174; 114, pp. 29-42), though it has no mention of
microtones.
Hugo Riemann (141, p. 48) explains absonia exclusively as sing-
ers' errors and Roman Gruber agrees with him (57, p. 388, footnote),
though the latter admits that this concept might have been used to de-
note microintervallic relationships as well: fl •intervallic steps of less
••
than a semitone by no means constitute the foundations of a mode but

merely fulfil the function of framing, coloration of the principal con-
tour of a melody, not infrequently resulting from an improvisatory de-
viation in actual performance"*. The musical example from the
Montpellier codex transcribed by Hugo Riemann contains special as-
terisks between all the semitones indicating the 'splitting' (142, Vol. 2,
p. 74) and provides support for the adherents of the hypothesis about
* Johannes Afflighemensis testifies to such errors on the part of singers: in

fl • • •
some cases the inexperienced singers, tired by the monotony, lower what ought
to be raised, but more often, in their urge to take the challenge, they illegiti-
mately raise the voice where they ought to sing lower" (119, p. 209).
20 Chromaticism
Ex. 3. Fragment from the Montpellier antiphonary (transcribed by

Riemann)
the use of microtones in the Middle Ages (Ex. 3).
The truth is likely to be found somewhere in between. On the

one hand, during the early medieval period the influence of ancient
Greek musical culture had not been completely transcended. On the
other hand, the "refinement" of the above example signifies that the
musical system, still with its unstable elements* was continuing to
evolve.
9. Classification of intervallic systems in the Middle Ages
Judging by treatises and fragmentary theoretical evidence dating back

to the period from the 13th to the 15th centuries, the musical phenom-
ena which deviated from strict diatonicism failed to find unequivocal
interpretation at the time. The theoretical diatonic/ chromatic systems
of the later Middle Ages, at the beginning of the Ars nova, fluctuated
between 12-, 14-, 17-, 19- and other degree-systems. Nor is any further
progress easily observable in the development of degree-systems (on
the principle of moving from a lesser to a greater number of tones). Carl
Dahlhaus is most likely to have been right in his belief that these fluc-
tuations revealed the lower and upper limits of the tonal resources
accessible at the time (37, p. 178). The "accidental" character of chro-
maticism (resulting from the employment of the principles of musica
falsa) found its manifestation in the instability of the chromatic system
of that period. Its explicitly modal traits allow us to distinguish it from
the chromaticism prevalent in the period of harmonic tonality.
* Intervals smaller than a semi tone (dieses) were mentioned in the treatises of
Regina of Prum, Guido d' Arezzo, Engelbert of Admont, Marchetta da Padua
and Simon Tunstede (117, Vol. 3, p. 411). One should bear in mind that musical
theory and practice did not necessarily fully coincide at the time.
One of the earliest milestones in the theoretical interpretations

of musica ficta (excluding the system of the anonymous Italian author
described above) is the 12-tone system described by Hieronymus de
Moravia (the second half of the 13th century), which includes, in addi-
tion to the diatonic steps, the notes b~, e~, a~, d~, g~ obtained from a trans-
position of the tetrachord mi-fa-sol-Ia onto the other diatonic steps
(37, p. 178).
The 14-tone system was motivated by the rules of medieval
theory according to which the transition from an imperfect to a perfect
consonance should proceed through a half step in one and a whole step
in the other voice. This system was described by Philippe de Vitry in his
treatise Ars nova written around 1320. The initial premise here is as fol-
lows: each diatonic step is confined to one possible alteration
(37, Vol. 3, p. 186). This system including, in addition to the diatonic
steps, the notes b~, e~, a~, f#, c#, d# and g# evolved as a result of employ-
ing cadences with double leading tones (the "Gothic Cadence", to
borrow the term coined by Mikhail Saponov)*. In the 15th century, with
the employment of clausulas with a tritone between discantus and
contratenor, (i.e., with one leading tone), the number of leading tones
was reduced (37, p. 165).
The 17-tone system described by Prosdocimus de Beldemandis
(b~, e~, a~, d~, g~, - j#, c#, g#, d#, a# ) arose from the double division of all
the whole tones in the diatonic scale: "Thus one can obtain two semi-
tones throughout the entire monochord, between all the neighbouring
tones of the basic scale" (32, Vol. 3, p. 257). In functional terms this forms
the most highly-developed system of leading-tone chromaticism (in its
modal sense): each tone has two leading tones (from above and below).
A similar 17-tone system was examined in John Hothby's treatise (see
above). Though it involves the transposition of hexachords, the influ-
ence of leading-tone considerations here is obvious, for transposition is
just a means of forming upper and lower leading tones. One should
also take into consideration that it is based on the Pythagorean system
of tuning (hence the author's highly original terminology, defining d~
as "c of the second order" and c# as " c of the third order". This is impor-
tant for the following reasons. In contrast to the 15th century when the
* Lack of 'onward progress' in the development of modal structures is borne

out by the fact that a similar system, also based on the limitation of each dia-
tonic step to one possible type of alteration and on the principle of modifying
the mi step into fa (and vice versa), echoing Marchetto's permutatio, was de-
scribed by Peter Eichmann in 1604 (37, pp. 339-340).
22 Chromaticism
17-tone system was the maximum possible (under the Pythagorean sys-
tem of tuning), the further expansion of a scale involved a change in the
structure of the tuning system as well. The difference between modal
and tonal-harmonic contexts is reflected not only by changes in the tonal
material but also by the changed relationships between intervallic and
tuning systems. The change of the tonal system made possible by the
"chromatic explosion" in 16th-century music proceeded hand in hand
with the transition from the Pythagorean system of tuning to just into-
nation (approximately from the first half of the century onwards -
Lodovico Fogliani). In contrast to the Pythagorean minor semitone which
did not allow division of the diatonic semitone (e-for bq-c), in just into-
nation a major semitone called for it (37, p. 183). This idea manifested
itself in the 19-tone system evolved by Francisco Salinas by dividing
the diatonic semitones of the 12-tone scale (c, c#, d~, d, d#, e~, e, e#, f, f#,
g~, g, g#, a~, a, a#, b~, b, b# *.
10. Development of the concept of chromaticism

during the Renaissance
The fundamental change in music which took place early in the 16th
century was not unexpected. Chordal harmony, a fundamentally new
category of musical thinking, had been taking shape for a long time
within the framework of the old system. It is no wonder, therefore, that
the music theory of the 16th-17th centuries failed to explain the new
phenomena in contemporary musical practice. As before, musicians
turned for assistance to the three Greek genera (on the other hand, the
expression cantus fictus was still being used in the 18th century). Pietro
Aaron, for instance, provides direct evidence of this, writing about "the
Greek chroma which in Latin signifies colore" (1, Vol. 2, p. 11). And even
such a daring innovator as Nicola Vicentino while asserting that he could
name the genus of the music written by his contemporaries meant the
same chromatic genus as that of the ancient Greeks (167). His contem-
poraries failed to believe him and, as a result, Vicentino spectacularly
lost in 'the debate of the century' which cost him two golden ducats in
a bet he had made in the presence of two judges (the judgement was
announced before the whole of the Papal Cappella Choir, Cardinal
* Salinas writes: "The essence of the chromatic genus lies in dividing a tone
into two semitones". In Chapter 7 of his treatise De musica (1577) he structures
an octave in the chromatic genus by dividing each tone of the diatonic genus
into a major semi tone and a minor semi tone (39, p. 40).
Ferrari and other notables)*. In his book (1555) Vincentino substanti-

ated the concept of the 'chromatic mode' based on the chromatic
tetra chord of the ancient Greeks, which determined the thematic ar-
rangement and harmony of a composition. Gioseffo Zarlino who is jus-
tifiably considered to be the pioneering figure in the teaching on new
harmony shares the viewpoint of the two previously mentioned au-
thors: " . .. music has three genera of melodies, one of which is diatonic,
the second chromatic, and the third enharmonic" (175, p. 75).
As for the concept of chromaticism in the 16th century, we should
also mention the fact that the word cromatico in the first half of the cen-
tury was identical to the designations a note negre and alia misura breve,
i.e. it denoted a frequent use of short time-values in notation. The word
cromatico in this meaning was used for the first time by Cipriano de
Rore in 1544. It changed its meaning a decade later when Rore himself
appeared with chromatic madrigals and when Vicentino's treatise was
written (47, p. 28).
11. At the turning point. Chromaticism and chordal harmony
Despite the quite understandable lagging of musical theory behind

musical practice, gradually (as the 17th century wore on) some major
concepts indispensable for describing the fundamental changes that had
occurred in music came to be clearly recognised. And though these con-
cepts were often borrowed from past vocabulary, they acquired their
new meaning during that period. The assertion of chordal harmony in
music fundamentally changed the guidelines of music theory. It had a
direct bearing on the development of the concepts of diatonicism and
chromaticism which in their historical development also underwent fun-
damental and sudden changes.
* See Edward Lowinsky's afterword to the facsimile edition of Vicentino trea-

tise L' antica musica ridotta alla modern a prattica. The text of this bet makes one of
the most interesting historical documents revealing the heated opposition to
'chromatic expansionism' (no less interesting than the text of the law banish-
ing Timotheos of Miletos from Sparta, see 157, pp. 81-82). It reads as follows:
"We, Don Nicola Vicentino and Don Vincenzo Lusitano, have had an argu-
ment about a composition based on Regina caeli ... I, Don Nicola, have offered
to prove that no living composer understands to what genus the music be-
longs which they currently write and sing, and I, Don Vicentino, on behalf of
all musicians, have offered to prove that I know the genus to which the music
of our contemporary composers belongs .... And therefore we have made a
bet of two golden ducats, two for each of us, to be paid by the loser to the
winner after the discussion and judgement made in public by the expert musi-
cians, Mr Bartolomeo Escobedo and Mr Ghiselin Danckerts, singers of the
Papal Cappella Choir."
24 Chromaticism
At first sight the chromatic theory evolved by Marin Mersenne

looks quite traditional. The introduction to Book 3 of the second vol-
ume of his treatise Harmonie universelle offers a detailed description of
the three Greek genera and their intervallic structure, with the chro-
matic and diatonic genera compared to the colours black and white, the
former setting off the latter (111, Vol. 2, pp. 141 and 153). The diese inter-
vals are also mentioned here. But Mersenne's historical approach is note-
worthy: he compares the Greek musical system with the system of
hexachords developed by Guido d' Arezzo in his intention to demon-
strate that the chromatic and enharmonic genera are "very easy and
necessary for composition" (111, Vol. 2, pp. 144, 153). His attempt to
reanimate the Greek genera represents a new stage compared to
Vicentino. Mersenne divides the octave into four major semitones, eight
minor semitones, three dieses and three commas, "which are indispensa-
ble for perfect composition" (111, Vol. 2, pp. 154, 158). But his treatise
already contains the division of intervals into diatonic, chromatic and
enharmonic ones, and the most important factor here is his identifica-
tion of two methods in the employment of these three genera (111,
pp. 154, 155): (1) in monodic (seule voix) structures and (2) in polyphonic
(plusieurs parties) music. Being aware of the difference between chro-
matic manifestations in monodic and polyphonic music, Mersenne lays
the foundations for developing the concept of chromaticism in the con-
text of chordal harmony.
It should be added that Mersenne did not grant exclusive im-
portance to his diatonic/ chromatic/ enharmonic system made up of 19
tones and 18 intervals, believing rather that "the octave which has a
lesser number of steps is suitable for performing all kinds of music and
is more convenient. Such an octave has twelve semitones which can be
easily produced on musical instruments." In fact, Mersenne proposed a
division of the octave into twelve equal semitones (111, Vol. 2, p. 170).
12. Rameau's theory
Nonetheless, it was the works of Jean-Philippe Rameau that marked

the true beginning of the concept of chromaticism in the context of the
chordal harmony (though he borrowed the terms "diatonic", "chro-
matic" and "enharmonic" from Greek theory following the usual con-
vention). Rameau came to the conclusion that chromatic semitonal
progressions in a melody were functionally related to particular inter-
vallic movements of the fundamental bass. He distinguished the fol-
lowing three types of fundamental bass: (a) in fifths, giving rise to the
t'r:1
(j
a
i2'
,..,..
a'
;::
Ex. 4a. Rameau's enharmonic system -Q.,
b. Enharmonic replacement (according to Rameau) ~
(';)
Q
;::
("")
~,..,..
-Q.,
n
;::-
d
~
;;::,
,..,..
n'
(j;'
~
N
CJl
26 Chromaticism
diatonic system; (b) in thirds, the basis of the chromatic system; and
(c) a mixed fundamental bass (combination of fifths and thirds in a
chord-progression) producing the enharmonic system (136, pp. 93-95),
which (according to Rameau) could exist in diatonic and chromatic
genera (Ex. 4a). Rameau explained enharmonic replacement (in our mod-
ern sense) in a similar way (Ex. 4b).
However, Rameau made a reservation on this matter, pointing
out that such intervals were indiscernible by the ear and, therefore, had
no aesthetic value (136, pp. 95-96). He drew here on his idea of a melody
as a consequence of harmonic progressions: "Not even the most edu-
cated musician, no matter how flexible his voice, can accurately distin-
guish a quarter-tone, for it is unnatural for the voice and it would be
impossible to imagine a progression of two fundamental tones whose
harmony presents this quarter-tone to us" (138, X, p. 53). Rameau re-
mained consistent in following this principle and believed that it made
the tonal system strict and well-balanced: "If we discarded this princi-
ple it would be too easy to imagine any type of interval and introduce
these intervals into harmony, its progressions, and even into the voice.
If we discarded this principle, everything would be acceptable: the
enharmonic diese which divides a semitone, the comma which divides a
diese, the semi-comma which divides this comma - in fact, anything that
presents itself would be equally acceptable" (138, IX, p. 52).
In his reconstruction of the diatonic system Rameau drew on a
belief in the complex nature of a musical tone, which made it necessary
to consider it always from the viewpoint of harmony presented by him:
b-c-d-e-g, as the only natural steps that could be obtained from the
fundamental progression in fifths G-c. The expansion of the scale was
made possible only by adding a new tone to the fundamental bass (by
means of triple progression of the fundamental bass 1:3:9; Ex. 4c).
Ex 4c. Rameau's Dorian tetra chord
24 27 30 32 36 40 56 46 48
- 3 9 3 i 3 ! 3 9 .3
For the sake of the convenient calculation of proportions Rameau

proceeded here from the tonic C. The 'caesura' at the 6th step was ex-
plained by the fact that a movement by three whole tones in a melody
could not be obtained from a fundamental bass progression in fifths
(137, IY, pp. 62-69). Hence, Rameau believed that he had rediscovered
the Dorian tetrachord of the ancient Greeks who, in his view, had made
use of the consequence without discerning its underlying principle. But
the true source of this stepwise progression lay in the fundamental bass
movement of fifths (137, YI, p. 60). It should be admitted that Rameau
was primarily guided by the idea of explaining diatonicism from a har-
monic viewpoint in the context of the chordal harmony that had as-
serted itself by that time.
The significance Rameau attached to chromatic tones was ex-
clusively a matter of their function as leading tones. He believed that
the introduction of a semitone to the following tone involved a change
in tonality, therefore, the progression of the type ut-re-mi-fa-fa# (g) was
already a modulation. He thought that a chromatic tone transferred the
leading tone effect onto another degree and served to create leading
tones for other steps (transforming them into tonics).
Two characteristic aspects should be underscored in Rameau's
chromatic theory: (a) chromatic tones carry exclusively modulatory value
(". " a chromatic semitone is never used except for a change of tonality"
(137, XIV, pp. 146-149); (b) the interpretation of chromatic tones as be-
longing to different natural scales excluded their treatment as changes
to the basic diatonic tones (i.e., as alteration). This is also due to the fact
that Rameau failed to provide a well-grounded explanation of passing
chromatic tones over a fixed fundamental bass (Ex. 4d). Each chromatic
tone here is treated as a leading tone to the subsequent diatonic tone,
but the fundamental bass is not involved in this process. This is in con-
tradiction to Rameau's idea ("a melody arises from harmony"), but the
melodic (rather than the chordal) nature of such progressions is un-
questionable.
Rameau's ideas had a strong impact on the subsequent devel-
opment of the science of harmony in general and the concepts of
diatonicism and chromaticism in particular. Apparently the extreme
method of forming scales through the selection of tones from the har-
monic series is the system offered by Vogler who used 32 tones of the
harmonic series to produce a chromatic scale (154, p. 333). Rameau's
chromatic theory exerted a great influence on Moritz Hauptmann as
well; the latter considered each chromatically augmented tone to be a
third of the dominant chord (i.e., a leading tone of a major or minor
N
c;r:;
Ex.4d. Chromatic passing tones under a fixed fundamental bass in

Rameau's system
n
;::-
Ci
;:;:
:;:,
....
n·
c;;'
;:;:
key) and identified the ascending chromatic scale with chromatically

lowered steps in which the tones of the tonic fifth C-G function as thirds
of the dominant (leading tones - see 154, p. 367).
13. Chromaticism and functional theory. The principle of

alteration
Hugo Riemann belonged to the trend in the treatment of chromaticism

which ran contrary to "Rameau's line". According to his theory, a chro-
matic tone has modulatory importance only if it is 'consolidated' by a
secondary dominant in a subsidiary cadence; as for other chromatic
changes, they result from the alteration of the diatonic steps of the scale
(i.e., being their chromatic versions). This follows from the functional
treatment of tonality (a function is not assigned to one particular chord,
being represented rather by harmonic entities that vary in their tone-
structure). Nonetheless, Rameau and Riemann have one thing in com-
mon in their approach to chromaticism: both regard any tone derived
from alteration as a leading tone in its function (though one should keep
in mind that Rameau drew purely on diatonic tonality while Riemann
treated tonality in a wider sense).
By the 19th century it became a tradition among music theorists
to treat chromatic phenomena as being based on alteration. However,
not everything in the music of that period could be explained in these
terms.
14. Schenker's theory. Chromaticism as "polydiatonicism"
Of undoubted interest are the works of Heinrich Schenker whose theory

of chromaticism represents a major phenomenon in modern musicol-
ogy. The outstanding Austrian theorist put forward and substantiated
the concept of the scale-step which is irreducible to a single chord. A
scale-step, according to Schenker, can be represented by several chords
and when it is reinforced by its secondary dominant it can even become
a temporary tonic (this drive of a diatonic step to turn into a tonic and
its assumption of that role was called tonicisation by Schenker). Along
with defining chromaticism as a result of the tonicisation process ("the
drive of a pitch to become a tonic"), which was quite traditional in itself
(in this case alteration is viewed as "a variety of tonicisation"), Schenker
differentiated between (a) chromaticism resulting from tonicisation and
30 Chromaticism
(b) chromaticism resulting from a mixture of modes (147, pp. 88-94)*. It

allows the treatment of chromaticism as 'polydiatonicism' (chromati-
cism in this case is regarded as the consequence of additional diatonic
elements). Schenker implied here mixtures of major and minor compo-
nents of like-named tonalities**, with the possible addition of other
(Phrygian, Lydian) modes (147, p. 87) and treated tonality as the result
of the combination of all possible mixtures (consequently, non-diatonic
tones in secondary dominants are regarded as within the key).
Schenker's idea about 'pseudo' tonality is no less fruitful: " ... not every
key is in reality what it seems to be" (147, p. 298), it may be just a subor-
dinate step of a principal tonality***.
Schenker's ideas were developed in the theory advanced by Paul
Hindemith (68) who also treats chromaticism as the set of all possible
elements in equal-tempered tonality. It is no accident that his theory
has been called "diatonicised chromaticism" (151, p. 55).
* In this respect Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg was his predecessor (154, p. 309)
who treated the chromatic scale as a result of the combination of the scales of a
central key and the five keys most closely related to it. The same idea was
advanced by Simon Sechter. In his strictly diatonic system chromatic tones are
explained as 'borrowed' from kindred tonalities (in the most expressive way):
"The diatonic degrees, both major and minor, the Mother of all simple and
sound melodies, represent the picture of a family each member of which occu-
pies its own proper place and appears in due time ... The chromatic degrees
represent the picture of a great number of kindred families united by the com-
mon head" (164, p. 185).
** One should make a distinction between Schenker's term Our-moll and simi-
lar terms used by Hauptmann and Riemann. Schenker himself insisted on this
distinction pointing out that the latter meant an actual mixture of scales whereas
he was referring to the sum of all possible versions national of mixtures (147,
p.87)
*** Schenker differentiated between non-modulatory and modulatory chro-
maticism on the basis of the following principle: if the chromatic tones are
followed by a return to the preceding diatonic system, chromaticism "func-
tions in the diatonic sense" (to use Schenker's own expression), otherwise,
beginning from this chromatic change one should accept the new diatonic
system and view this chromaticism as a means of modulation (147, p. 330).
Schenker did not reject the phenomenon of modulation but narrowed down
its sphere of action (e.g., confining it to the development sections of large-scale
compositions). According to this theory, a tonal composition is invariably
monotonal.
15. Chromaticism and the extension of the concept of tonality
Musical developments at the turn of the 19th century and changes in

the character of harmonic material entailed a different interpretation of
chromaticism in view of the concept of extended tonality. Sergei Taneyev
in a letter to Pyotr Tchaikovsky (August 6, 1880) proposed a chromatic
system in which all twelve tones are given equal predominance: "A
scale ceases to have seven notes but comes to incorporate twelve tones,
and not only in melodies but in harmony as well" (160, p. 54). Taneyev
went on to compare the principles of chord-progression in medieval
and contemporary music according to which" after each chord you could
use any other one no matter to which scale it belonged." This idea found
its most definite manifestation in the well-known introduction to
Taneyev's treatise Invertible Counterpoint in the Strict Style: "Our tonal
system which replaced the ecclesiastical modes, in its turn, is currently
being modified into a new system which strives to destroy tonality and
replace its diatonic basis with chromaticism" (159, p. 9).
The concept of chromaticism as an entity of twelve self-suffi-
cient tones underlies chromatic tonality as it was interpreted by Arnold
Schoenberg: "A chromatic scale as the basis of tonality" (150, p. 384).
Moreover, Schoenberg viewed a chromatic scale as a structure based on
a principle other than that of the diatonic scale <major or minor) - a
much simpler and common one. The striving for simplicity, according
to Schoenberg, was responsible first for the replacement of the ecclesi-
astical modes by major / minor scales and then for the substitution of
the latter by the chromatic system which, being a synthesis of the previ-
ous systems, serves as the universal material in expanded tonality (150,
pp. 247, 388). Schoenberg's theory still involves the concept of altera-
tion (as a chromatic modification of any step and not only as a means of
intensifying the gravitation of whole tones towards a tonic triad). But
the concept of chromatic tonality with its twelve self-sufficient steps
comes very close to the concept of chromaticism as a phenomenon
fundamentally unrelated to the alteration of seven diatonic tones,
i.e. approaching the concept of natural chromaticism*. In this respect
it would be apt to recall the very significant statement made by Bela
* The very idea of alteration early in this century was perceived as insufficient
to explain many harmonic phenomena. In his work Die organische Harmoniclehre
Robert Mayrhofer expressed this attitude in a most categorical way: "Altera-
tion is non-existent" (110, p. 210). In his other treatise the same author writes:
"The idea of alteration is a bulwark to hamper any investigation into the
essence of the matter (109, p. 134).
32 Chromaticism
Bartok: "The study of peasant music ... led me ... to an absolutely free
treatment of each separate tone in our chromatic twelve-tone system."
16. Polymodality as a conceptual principle of chromaticism
The concept of chromaticism as a phenomenon unrelated to alteration

has been receiving its theoretical justification in view of certain proc-
esses unfolding in 20th-century musical practice. Thus, for instance,
Roger Sessions believes that the term "alteration" as applied to modern
harmony becomes nonsensical since it "implies the continued impor-
tance of 'root progressions' as a determining factor" (58, p. 416); which,
however, does not prevent him from using the terms 'chromatic' and
'modal' alteration. The problem of alteration is removed by the concept
of 'mixed scale' which was brought into scholarly circulation by Richard
Franko Goldman. According to this theory, the 'mixed scale' is a mode
founded on the twelve-tone scale as the basis of the tonal system in
which all the elements are integral (nothing is 'borrowed' or 'altered')
and moulded into a common tonal system based on a mixed scale (58,
p. 429). And the idea of 'mixture' in general has become extremely popu-
lar in American musicology (to no small degree, owing to the further
development of Schenker's theories by his pupils). Suffice it to mention
such terms as Sessions' 'modal alteration' (based on the concept of 'mixed
scale'), H. Tischler's 'modal mixtures' ('primary mixtures' - the replace-
ment of steps of the initial mode by steps of other modes; 'secondary
mixtures' - the replacement of a major chord by a minor one and vice
versa). The latter term, it appears, can be traced back to John Vincent's
'diatonic chromaticism' based on the idea of the 'interpenetration of
modes', with "all semitones of the octave primarily related to tonics
and creating melodic and harmonic freedom without modulations" (58,
p. 418). Vincent Persichetti explains certain horizontal and vertical ele-
ments characteristic of 20th-century music as derived from various types
of mixtures (58, p. 410), such as: 'polymodality' (two or more modes
with either single or different tonal centres); 'modal interchange' (inter-
change of modes while preserving the tonal centre); 'modal modula-
tion' (a change of tonal centre within the same mode). At the same time
Persichetti retains the concept of 'chromatic alteration' but with him its
nature depends on the chosen basic scale (therefore, a chord defined as
altered in one system may be natural in another one). Polymodality as
a source of chromaticism ('modal 12-step system') underlies Erno
Lendvai's chromatic theory based on the concept of 'polymodal chro-
maticism' (102, pp. 3,59). In one of his earlier studies devoted to Bela
Bartok he draws on a highly original concept unprecedented in the his-
tory of harmony: the choice of intervals in chromaticism following the

law of the golden section (91, p. 341). This theory evolved from a theo-
retical interpretation of Bartok's specific pitch system. Erno Lendvai
extends the principle of the golden section to the laws of chord struc-
tures and chord-progressions: "It is interesting to note that in Bartok's
music, in spite of the frequency of parallels, major third and major sixth
parallels seldom occur, because such parallels cannot be fitted into the
Fibonacci series (2, 3, 5, 8, 13,21, etc.), being quite incongruous to it. We
could even speak of the prohibition of these parallels in the same sense
that parallel fifths and octaves are forbidden in classical harmony" (91,
p. 343). Though Lendvai's theory seems to be somewhat artificial, none-
theless the value of the principle of golden section and the part it plays
in certain pitch structures, in particular, in the symmetry of intervals,
cannot be overlooked.
Coming back to the theoretical tradition to explain chromati-
cism by means of various kinds of mixtures we must identify its roots.
These are undoubtedly the theory evolved by Heinrich Schenker (who
understood chromaticism as 'polydiatonicism' and viewed it as the pro-
duct of additional diatonic degrees introduced by tonicisation) and the
theory advanced by Paul Hindemith (who treated chromaticism as the
sum of all possible elements in equal-tempered tonality, so-called
'diatonicised chromaticism'). One of the instances of how these ideas
have been developed recently is Ikka Oramo's treatise, which is devoted
to Bartok but has a wide field of application (124).
Since the publication of Bela Bartok's Harvard Lectures (deliv-
ered in 1943) bi- and polymodality have become the key concepts for
explaining the principles of his chromatic system and the mode of think-
ing underlying it. The possibility arises of treating any 'dense' chro-
maticism as a mixture of diatonic elements (not in all styles, of course).
According to Ikka Oramo, Bartok's polymodal chromaticism is distin-
guished from other chromatic idioms by the disappearance of the dif-
ference between the root and altered steps while all the tones of such a
system are related not only with each other but also with the centre.
Such a centre should not be identified with a tonic in the form of a chord
(as in major-minor tonality) since Bartok understood polymodality in
purely melodic terms: "These steps carry no intrinsic chordal function;
quite the reverse, their function is diatonic and melodic" (124, p. 450).
The components of a polymodal structure do not, as a rule, constitute
clearly discernible layers in the various voices of a polyphonic entity
but constantly interpenetrate.
The development of national musical cultures in the 20th cen-
tury has given rise to new principles of pitch organisation, which have
34 Chromaticism
found their way into music theory. An interesting idea has been put
forward in Gheorghe Firca's research study Modal Bases of Diatonic Chro-
maticism (48). The author believes that in contrast to chromaticism in
harmonic tonality (and dodecaphony as the ne plus ultra of chromati-
cism of the tonal type), in 20th-century music chromaticism of a new
type asserts itself, which he defines as "diatonic chromaticism". Of
course, this term is far from being very original (see above) and accu-
rate, but its essence is most important: "This is the first structural type
of chromaticism to be based not on the alteration of diatonic elements
in a particular manner but on a kind of transposition of the elements of
a given diatonic system to a certain chromatic system" (48, p. 134). In
contrast to the conventional explanation of chromaticism by means of
diatonicism, in this case diatonicism is explained by chromaticism as it
were. According to the author, diatonic chromaticism is a self-contained
system which has arisen in the course of the evolution of modal sys-
tems, as a result of a structural and historical synthesis (a 'resume of the
entire history of modality'). From the above discussion it would appear
that 20th-century music theory has gradually developed the concept of
an integral chromaticism which, transcending the notion of alteration,
is in principle unrelated to diatonicism and has no need for it to explain
its inner relationships. Moreover, the genesis of various structural types
of integral chromaticism can be traced in sufficient detail for its stages
to be reconstructed. However, at a certain moment a substantive change
occurs and, for example, 'Webern's dense system of pure chromaticism'
arises (90, p. 331), in which the texture is divided into harmonic fields,
each of them containing at least one chromatic (i.e., semitone-based)
relationship, the number of such relationships growing with the thick-
ening of the harmonic fabric ('organic chromaticism', to use Henri
Pousseur's term; see 132, p. 54). And music theory not only has to recre-
ate this picture of the historical development of such phenomena but
also to describe their characteristic features in adequate terms.
2
CHROMATICISM AS A CATEGORY
OF MUSICAL THINKING
1. Intervallic systems: historical aspects of development
Any relatively intricate phenomenon reflects and incorporates the steps

and stages of its historical evolution. This is completely true of chro-
maticism which represents musical texture in its most complex state in
the twelve-tone system.
The development of musical thinking is embodied in the evolu-
tion and change of intervallic systems. In logical terms the 'mechanism'
of this process may be viewed as an expansion of the acoustical scope of
intervallic systems with their concomitant reorganisation*. This pro-
cess should not be characterised as a continuous accumulation of new
tonal relationships with increasingly complex inner correspondences.
Otherwise the twelve-tone system conventionally employed nowadays
would look like quite a modest consequence of centuries of develop-
ment. Furthermore, such a treatment of the evolution of intervallic
systems would present itself in a schematic way - as the planned and
purposeful attainment of a preconceived goal. Nonetheless, on a large
scale (temporal and cultural) one could trace back the stages of such
development.
Physically, the range of available sound material is inexhaust-
ible. However it took a great span of time before acoustically stable
sounds gave rise to musical tones (as a result of man's conscious activ-
ity). The totality of all acoustical sounds may be represented in the form
of an extensive field of pitches ranging from infinitesimally close to
infinitely distant acoustic relationships. During different historical
periods (and in different cultures) the degree of differentiation of the
acoustic field changed (along with the changing mode of organising
individual elements in this field: tetra chord - penta chord - hexachord-
octachord), which has been manifested in the historical mutation of in-
tervallic systems.
* It was Pyotr Meshchaninov who provided a plausible justification of this

idea. Thus, for instance, the seven-tone diatonic system can be organised as
(a) 'modulatory space', (b) as a system proper, and (c) as an integral part of
another, more intricate system.
36 Chromaticism
The intervallic system is understood here as a collection of pitches

which follows a particular mode of organisation and reflects the level
of development and logical coherence of musical thinking, i.e., a scale
arranged according to a certain structural principle and representing
the material portion of the underlying modal system in the correspond-
ing system of tuning.
The formation of such a system in the proper sense of the word
was preceded by the stage of primitive 'ekmelic' glissandi essentially
syncretic in its nature and lacking as yet any accurate and conscious
method of pitch organisation and any inner differentiation of tones
(If ... glissando prior to the development of intonation systems was
caused by non-differentiation of the notions about the essence of a
scale of pitches"; 122, p. 140). The moment of the identification of a
separate tone in the 'misty cloudness' of the acoustic field in musical
consciousness and its perception as a foothold constitutes one of the
most mysterious events in music history: If How many hundreds of mil-
lennia must have passed before man could distinguish a pitched, primi-
tively resonant tone out of the acoustic howling and roaring. .. And
even when he was able to discern it, it took some time longer to learn to
reproduce it consciously on the same pitch and at various pitches in at
least one register ... " (173, p. 522). At this stage there occurred the
sharp narrowing down of the diapason, the intuitive identification of
acoustically kindred tones (the so called 'epoch of the fourth' in the
development of the musical system; 79, p. 17), and a transition from
'sliding' to stepwise intonation. This has been confirmed by the find-
ings of comparative musicology. Here is the description of tunes char-
acteristic of the Yedda aborigines (57, p. 17): If ... the main type of the
Yedda tunes represents the persistent repetition of a root tone framed
by one or two subsidiary tones ... ". An intervallic system of this type
which frames the root-tone from above and below signifies a reorgani-
sation of the material provided by nature. After that began the forma-
tion of the simplest modal systems based on the multiplication of the
principle underlying the framing of root tones (with their rhythmic dif-
ferentiation) and on the composition of elementary melodic cells. One
of the key systems of this type is the pentatonic scale representing
the five-tone system devoid of semi tones, which formed the basis of
many ancient cultures. In music theory this is sometimes treated as
'protodiatonicism', as an 'inner stratum' of the diatonic system; at the
same time it is quite a self-contained and original system (and what is
more important it is a stable system, a fact which is graphically evi-
denced by its usage in some contemporary cultures).
Chromaticism as a Category of Musical Thinking 37
It would be wise to avoid a simplistic approach to the formation

of intervallic systems in which diatonicism (the next stage in the logical
scheme of evolution) is viewed as an expansion of the pentatonic scale
up to seven tones, chromaticism is regarded as the diatonic scale ex-
panded to twelve tones, micro chromaticism is treated as the chromatic
scale extended to twenty four tones, and so on, i.e., a mixture of the
concepts of mode and acoustic scale. The historical facts testify against
such notions. Curt Sachs' findings show that pentatonicism in ancient
Egypt was based on the twelve-tone system. This statement seems para-
doxical only at first. In his study of the structure of ancient Egyptian
harps this major connoisseur of the earliest musical instruments came
to the conclusion that the mode of their tuning "provides a progression
of more 'fractional', narrow intervals which meant that the musicians,
though they still avoided progression by a semitone, could easily pass
from one mode to another. The new principle of tuning called for an
increase in the number of the harp's strings, a closer spacing of the oboe's
finger openings and more convenient and narrow finger-boards on the
lute" (120, p. 58). It was Sachs who transcribed the unique written record
(circa 3rd millennium B.C.) of pre-Hellenic (Babylonian) musical cul-
ture, which is currently kept at the Berlin Museum of West Asia, and
proved that the harp's part for the vocal accompaniment notated by
means of the characteristic asterisks of the Sumerian epoch embraces
the scale C-D-E-F-F#-G -A-B-C (120, p. 104). The ancient Chinese
musical system had a similar structure (a pentatonic system based on a
more differentiated scale). As early as the 1st millennium B.C. it made
use of the twelve-tone scale within an octave (57, p. 204) with simulta-
neous use of the tones from the pentatonic scale, which made it possi-
ble to build it up on different steps (in cases where two additional tones
were introduced to the pentatonic scale, they were viewed as the pass-
ing tones)*. We must emphasize once more that one should differenti-
ate between tone-structure and intervallic system. The seven tones of
the diatonic scale may function as compound pentatonicism (without
minor seconds) while the twelve tones of the chromatic scale - as com-
pound diatonicism ('polydiatonicism') and as modulatory space.
* Each of the twelve semitones in the musical system of ancient China was
'individual', not identical with any another, and associated with the calendar,
ceremonial procedures, corresponding to one of the twelve months, the posi-
tion of stars in the skies, etc. (176, pp. 353-357).
38 Chromaticism
In the present study we draw on the premise that man in his

practical musical activity at an early stage mastered a great number of
pitches and used all of them as working material to structure the sim-
plest modal systems in his music-making (the twelve-tone aggregate
was not apprehended in theoretical terms but formed the potential
material basis of the system, with a semitone as the smallest interval,
which could be produced on a wind instrument and fixed in the tuning
of multi-stringed harps, perceived already as such in stepwise intona-
tion). The twelve-tone structure in ancient cultures (Egyptian, Syrian,
Chinese) was compound in its nature. Only part of the tone-structure
was used, but that part was the most characteristic (the pentatonic scale,
for instance, fills up the octave asymmetrically, which makes each tone
in this scale highly individual since each pitch of such a modal struc-
ture forms varying intervals with the nearest adjacent tones).
An intervallic system is not an immutable and isolated given,
but a historically changing phenomenon. Up to the 16th century the
diatonic system, for instance, was derived as a result of a chain of fifths
within an octave (modal diatonics) and based on the Pythagorean sys-
tem of tuning. The emergence of polyphony and the comprehension of
a consonant triad as an entity (rather than simply as a sum of intervallic
relationships) led to an inner reorganisation of the intervallic system.
During the period of harmonic tonality the same diatonic system arose
from the summation of the three main chords of a major mode (see
Rameau's theory) with simultaneous changes in the tuning system (first,
just intonation evolved by Fogliani and Zarlino, then equal tempera-
ment elaborated by Mersenne and Werckmeister). At the same time
the structure of the diatonic scale (seven tones) remained identical both
in the modal (fifths) and tonal (fifths and thirds) systems. What did
change was the 'structural motivation' (the term coined by Pyotr
Meshchaninov), the tuning system and the character of tonal relation-
ships.
2. On different genera of intervallic systems
As was mentioned above, one of the first to use the word 'genus' as a
scientific term was Aristotle, though Plato had also employed it (to
define his 'ideas'), and it can be encountered in the teaching of the
Stoics to denote a combination of many indivisible mental subjects
(41, p. 287). But in his treatises Aristotle made systematic use of this
concept, treating it on a par with other categories and as part of the
following hierarchy of judgements about the essence of a phenomenon:
definition - property - genus - attendant.
According to Aristotle, definition is "a phrase denoting the

essence of a thing"; property is "something which, though it does not
express a thing's essence, belongs to that thing alone and is interchange-
able with it"; genus is "what manifests itself in the essence of many
things which vary in appearance". By "manifesting itself in the essence"
Aristotle stresses the need to indicate the basic and the essential in
the subject under consideration. Finally, the attendant is "a concomi-
tant property which, though it does not belong to either of the above -
definition, property or genus - is inherent in a thing, or something
which may be inherent or not inherent in one and the same thing" (11,
pp. 352-355). According to Aristotle, each proposition and each prob-
lem, taken separately, takes shape either from its definition, or its prop-
erty, or from its genus, or the attendant. The train of his thought is as
follows: it is necessary that everything pertaining to the essence of a
thing should be either interchangeable with it or not. If the proposition
is interrelated with a thing, it forms either its definition or property (if it
denotes the essence of a thing, it is its definition, or it does not denote
the essence of a thing, though it is interchangeable with it, it is its prop-
erty). If the proposition is not interchangeable with a thing, it is either
part of the underlying definition, or not. In the first case it is genus or its
differentia (since, according to Aristotle, definition is composed of a
genus and its specific differentia); in the latter case, it is the attendant,
for it is neither definition, nor property, nor genus, but is still inherent
in a thing (11, p. 357). Aristotle believed that an adequate definition
could be made provided the genus of a subject was properly determined.
"The function of genus is to indicate the essence of a thing, and genus is
what in the definition is placed in paramount position" (11, p. 471).
Ancient Greek teaching distinguished the genera of diatonic,
chromatic and enharmonic (as separate types of intervallic systems). In
simplified terms the so-called chroai (shades) were regarded as sub-
divisions of these genera, but Ptolemy, for instance, viewed them also
as generic concepts, treating the placement of the interval characteristic
of a given genus as a specific distinction. The first interval in the hemiolic
ratio of the 'soft' or 'tonal' chromatic genus (defined by Aristoxenus
respectively as 22 + 4 + 4 and 18 + 6 + 6) occupies the upper position in
the tetra chord (52, p. 326).
The matter of 'reanimating' the ancient genera has been repeat-
edly raised in the course of centuries of musical development. Let alone
the direct attempts to introduce them in musical practice (Nicola
Vicentino), we should point out instances of the mechanical transfer
of the terms onto the theoretical soil which produced quite different
'fruit' (Pietro Aaron, Gioseffo Zarlino, Marin Mersenne, Jean-Philippe
40 Chromaticism
Rameau). In this respect the theory of Bulgarian musical folklore stands

apart (see below). The different roots of European musical culture and
the nature of the historical evolution of the tonal system characteristic
of this region call for appropriate readjustments. "Trying to embrace
the present-day world we draw on the vocabulary that took shape in
the world that is past and gone" (to quote Antoine de Saint-Exupery),
but we must do this very carefully, taking into account the contempo-
rary musical situation. For by the 17th century the concept of genus
acquired new meaning in modal theory. In contrast to the preceding
period when the musical genera were used to define transposition scales
(cantus durus - cantus mollis) and their subdivisions were designated as
modes ('c' belonged to the Ionian mode and 'a' to the Aeolian mode-
in the German terminology Tongeschlecht - Tonart), in the stile moderno
the modes came to be regarded as genera: the Ionian mode, for exam-
ple, referred to the major scale and the Aeolian mode to the minor scale.
And in this context major and minor scales were treated as generic
categories whereas transposition scales acquired the status of species
(for details, see 33, p. 296). The rapid developments in 20th-century music
have once more shaken the meaning of major/minor scales as generic
categories - far from everything in modern music can be explained in
these terms - and have once again called for a return (this time on a
new coil of the spiral) to the concept of the genus of the intervallic sys-
tem. Such an approach is dictated by the actual context of musical
practice, particularly in modern music.
The current division of tonal systems into two genera in our con-
temporary musical theory (diatonic and chromatic; our enharmonics
have nothing in common with the Greek category of genus, being a
consequence of notation in the context of equal temperament) is clearly
insufficient in view of certain specific musical phenomena which go
beyond the framework of these concepts (e.g. anhemitonic and
microintervallic systems). It seems quite expedient to restore the sys-
tem of the Greek generic categories, complement it and update it in
conformity with the modern interpretation of the phenomena in ques-
tion. In so doing, we should bear in mind that the ancient Greek chro-
matic genus and the chromaticism of harmonic tonality are phenomena
rooted in different sources (in the former case we have modal chromati-
cism of the monodic type which arose from the density of intervals in
the tetrachord, the seven-step system; in the latter case we have tonal
chromaticism which arose from the density of harmonic tonal relation-
ships, from a mixture of harmonies or 'micromodes'. One should also
take into consideration the fact that the ancient Greek chromatic genus
emerged in music which knew no modulation. Metabole was not such a
major means of form-building as modulation in classical music, where

chromaticism as a generic category was forced into the background (with
the correlation of monotonal exposition, modulations, etc. coming to
the forefront).
Mention should be made of the theory of Bulgarian folk music
which, following the Greek tradition, still divides music into four gen-
era: pentatonic, diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic (42, p. 284). This
phenomenon is explained by the fact that Bulgaria for a long period of
time has remained at a 'crossroads' of many cultures and has retained
Middle-Eastern forms of music-making (the predominance of vocal
music, the development of instruments without fixed intonation). The
chromatic genus in Bulgarian folk music implies scales containing one
or more chromatic tetrachords (!), much in the ancient Greek tradition
of hemiolics, up to the preservation of its ethos (42, p. 382); (Ex. 5).
The tendency of nations towards the exchange of cultural val-
ues in the 20th century and the development of national musical cul-
tures have given a fresh impetus to the study of their specific musical
language and, in particular, their modal thinking. The attempts made
by some musicologists to extrapolate the concepts and terms intrinsic
in European musical practice have in most cases proved futile. The
application of such categories of European modal theory as, for exam-
ple, diatonicism, alteration and so on, to some Eastern cultures fails to
reveal the singularity of their modal systems. By treating the modes
with an augmented second as 'modified diatonicism' (something which
has become customary among music theorists), we impart a shade of
imperfection to the basic structural principle underlying the ethos of
such modes and their exotic colorfulness for European consciousness
(let us recall the so-called "Russian music in the Oriental style"). The
concept of alteration is all the more inapplicable to those modes which
are integral in their essence (apparently, the concept of alteration is
altogether irrelevant when applied to the modes of folk music). As
regards their genus, it is not a case of 'modified diatonicism' but rather
'unmodified non-diatonicism', and the above mentioned term 'hemiolic'
seems to be the most suitable generic designation for modes of this
type.
Studies of the old Russian musical culture, a vast layer in music
history and a major chapter in the formation of modal systems, also call
for the introduction of another category of genus to define the modal
system of the Russian church, based wholly on the so-called obikhodny
(generally-used) scale. When examining it from the point of view of
diatonicism in the European sense we encounter an insurmountable
obstacle - cross-relations in the obikhodny mode fail to be explained
~
Ex. 5. An example of the chromatic genus in Bulgarian music tv
lI47~: .A~ [~1-4 ] IlWi: c.o" &
Kp.~ - C:;OIh TBo -/,(,M I XfU-t - u-e) Jtia - ~-
-c;;; -- e n
;::;-
C{h u iou-hI - (£ - J.U( - e rlL Ti5o- 11_ _ d
) ,~ I ~
~H J ~H:~r :::.
.......
;::;.
[j)'
~
h? -~ t-f l' .... ~~.P: /pl ~ e-

-" ~k: /t12
~ b.t. /uIMf I I~ - k Ie -fe. C.f-

t~HJ
,
'----
J.u) - 'l.!)
+~
kf.-
0':----
~
- ~.
through this approach. One should duly take into account the compound
character of this type of modal system ('mixodiatonicism', the term
coined by Yuri Kholopov) in which these cross-relations constitute an
inalienable component (a similar situation arose in medieval music with
the dual character of the 9th step).
The increase in generic categories allows us to take a more flex-
ible approach to the correlation of diatonic and chromatic elements. In
fact, European chromaticism occupies an intermediary position be-
tween the two 'pure' states of pitched texture (diatonic and hemitonic,
the latter representing the ultimate state of chromaticism), being a con-
sequence of their interaction, their waxing and waning to various de-
grees (let us recall the idea propounded by Aristides Quintilianus who
defined the chromatic genus as the spectrum of colour lying immutably
between black and white).
Scheme 4
diatonic chromatic hemitonic
In music theory attempts have already been made to define chro-

maticism by the term 'hemitonicism'. It seems most logical to use it for
defining integral (semi tone-based) chromaticism, in fact, as a generic
category. In this sense it has been used to characterise Webern's highly
individual pitch system (89). The term is most suitable since it indicates
that the structural characteristic of the pitch system (chromatic connec-
tion), is disassociated from the chromatic scale and ranks on a par with
'anhemitonicism' and 'diatonicism', which are also structural terms
(while 'chromatic' primarily describes an ethos). As regards the idea of
increasing the number of generic categories, which has been consist-
ently developed by Yuri Kholopov, of great interest is the long-estab-
lished attempt made by Alexei Ogolevets who, being under the spell
of the number 5, has looked for the European genera in all of the world's
musical cultures as a kind of inner stratum (the seven-tone diatonic scale
plus five tones gives the 12-tone chromatic collection. The chromatic
scale plus a further five tones produces the 'ultrachromatic' 17-tone
system in Arabic music; five more tones produce the super-
'ultrachromatic' 22-tone shruti system in Indian music; 123, pp. 501-
503).
44 Chromaticism
As Aristotle wrote, "To solve a problem one should make divi-

sions and subdivisions based on the principle of common genus" (11,
p. 339). Applied to the problem under consideration here, the result of
these divisions and subdivisions may be presented in the following
scheme:
Scheme 5
ekmelic anhemi- diatonic mixo- hemiolic chro- hemi- micro-

tonic diatonic matic tonic chro-
matic
3. Chromaticism in relation to other categories
Each genus of the intervallic system constitutes the unity of the indi-
vidually characteristic scale and a definite principle of tonal relation-
ships, i.e. a mode, in the corresponding system of tuning. The
substitution of one concept for another (instead of an in-depth study of
the issues) is one of the reasons for the current divergent interpreta-
tions of diatonicism and chromaticism. But the concept of scale is wider
than the concept of mode (the 7-step diatonic scale incorporates seven
diatonic modes: the Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian,
Aeolian and Locrian)*. It predetermines the advantages of the scale-
oriented approach (as a more general one) for defining the genus of the
intervallic system. Nevertheless, the diatonic/chromatic problem can
be solved only in relation to a mode, and not in an abstract way. The
facts of its historical evolution should not be overlooked, for the change
in the technique of presentation (polyphonic instead of monodic) was
likely to change the concept of mode as well. The generic categories of
the monodic modal system also traversed the path from monody to
polyphony, from intervallic-melodic to homophonic composition, from
modality to tonality. The change in the category of genus has been closely
linked with the evolution of the modal system.
A mode in the context of harmonic tonality fundamentally dif-
fers from a mode in monodic music. A chord in polyphony is not just a
form of statement but also a form of existence. The succession of chords
forms an organic part of tonality and reveals its structure. The differ-
ence between modal and tonal systems, the latter functional in its
* The correlation between the intervallic system and the mode represents the
relationship between the material basis and its interpretation.
nature, may also in a certain context depend on the difference in their

respective structural units; in the former case the structural unit is a
'line' (horizontal) and in the latter case it is a chord (vertical). But in
musical practice this difference does not always exist in its pure form:
the category of chord does not cancel out but rather 'mediates' the cat-
egory of 'line' (in the sense of the Hegelian Aufhebung). Hence harmonic
tonality presents itself as a functionally defined set of chords, each chord
being a kind of 'micromode' striving to attract into its orbit its 'own'
modal scale. The intervallic system thus becomes compound in charac-
ter, the succession of chords superceding (and acquiring greater impor-
tance than) the changes in melodic modes. The tonal-homophonic type
of thinking brought forth other means of contrast and other techniques
of form-building (monotonal statement and modulation). In this con-
text the problem of genus retreated into the background. Particular
importance was attached to the matter of the relationship between
monotonality and modulation (and the criteria for modulation). This
came to determine the classification of a system as diatonic or chro-
matic. The definition of the genus of an intervallic system during the
period of chordal harmony involved defining the structure of tonality.
The historical evolution of chromaticism is an indisputable fact.
Within the framework of tonal harmony occurred a change in its very
concept: " ... while the definition has been preserved the object defined
has gradually come to change" (174, p. 105). Nevertheless, chromati-
cism has remained a generic category of the intervallic system. At the
same time the solution of the diatonic/ chromatic problem during the
period of chordal harmony invariably involves due consideration for
the historical type ('stage') of tonality. Its two-dimensional vertical-
horizontal) character calls for the identification of the following three
'levels': (a) melodic (melodic steps of tonality); (b) chordal (the chordal
steps of the tonality); (c) "fundamental" (the interaction of root tones as
the foundation of tonality, compare with Rameau's basso fonda men tale).
The turn towards diatonic thinking by the Viennese classics was
not a step backward (as compared, for instance, with Gesualdo's mad-
rigals) but rather a step forward, the next stage in the evolution in which
the dynamics of contrast within the stratified chromatic entity came to
the foreground in the musical form itself. Herein lies the main func-
tional characteristic of chromaticism in the context of homophonic to-
nality. In contrast to the local implications of leading-note chromaticism
in modality (the 'Gothic' cadence with double leading tones did not
affect the structure of the Dorian mode and was independent of it), the
range of its action within the framework of tonality (with the constant
relationship between the tonic chord and its fundamental) had radi-
cally changed. The contrast between monotonal statement and modu-
46 Chromaticism
lation, which was brought to the fore, entailed the differentiation of chro-
matic phenomena into non-modulatory and modulatory ones. This dif-
ferentiation could be actualised provided the boundaries of tonality had
been defined (this appears to have been the most important point within
the framework of this type of musical thinking).
Chromatic harmony is a particular, albeit very important, stage
and a major component in the developmental process of tonality. But
tonality is an equivocal phenomenon which requires historical differ-
entiation. The difference between the earlier and later stages in its de-
velopment had been reflected in the varying approaches to harmonic
tonality in the "theory of fundamental progressions" (thoroughbass)
and the "theory of functions".
According to the theory of fundamental progressions which
views a scale as the basis of tonality, the chords on the seven diatonic
steps form a closed system (strict diatonicism ensures the closed nature
of tonality). The key chord (tonic) asserts itself as a result of the domi-
nant effect of the seventh chord on the 5th step (the sole step on which
a chord containing a major third and minor seventh is possible within
the diatonic scale).
The theory of functions treats a scale (which forms the basis for
chord progressions - the vertical projection of a mode) not as giving
rise to tonality but as a phenomenon of second order, arising from the
combination of functional chords (the operation of a function allows
for a certain freedom in the selection of a chordal 'representative'). There-
fore the theory of functions reflects a later stage in the progress of har-
monic tonality at which it "presents itself not as a closed cycle of scale
degrees but as, in principle, an infinitely extendable embodiment of
relationships directed to one center, the tonic" (37, p. 158). By the 19th
century the diatonic nature of the system had ceased to be taken for
granted. The functional mechanism of harmonic tonality (where a cer-
tain function may be performed by chords which vary in their tone-
structure) caused "an expansion from the outside". The use of contiguous
elements of different tonalities* and the extension of vertical relation-
------ - - - - - - - - -
* Boris Asafyev describes this process (as applied to the music of Glinka and
Mendelssohn, in the following manner: "Both marches - Glinka's Tchernomor's
March and Mendelssohn's Wedding March - in their own way solve the prob-
lem of the romantic C major absorbing its 'neighbouring' tonalities achieving
the fullest possible synthesis and unifying them so that melodically their
sonority is perceived by the ear as C major" (12, p. 224). Though the tonality
which unifies Tchernomor's March is E major, rather than C major, the observa-
tion itself is incontrovertible.
ships expanded the concept of tonal harmony: in the 20th century it has
become quite possible to place any interval or chord on any step of a
tonality*. In this way the transformation of diatonic tonality into chro-
matic tonality may be viewed as an evolutionary pro-cess consisting of
several stages: the compound chromaticism of classical tonality (its ini-
tial element being the 7-step diatonic scale) based on the principle of
"from the particular to the general"; major/minor tonality (the inter-
mediate stage); modern chromatic tonality covering the former's modu-
latory space without modulation as such (compound chromaticism at
the level of the stepwise structure of tonality perceived through the
relationship of roots of chords within tonality and the contrast between
their tone-structures.
Textbooks on harmony, as a rule, treat diatonicism in its own
right (not for instance, as modified pentatonicism) and chromaticism
exclusively as a combination of diatonic elements, a modification of
the diatonic basis. Hence chromaticism is viewed as 'displaced
diatonicism', in other words contextually. This tradition was initiated
by Fran<;ois Gevaert who in his treatment of the chromatic mode as con-
sisting of twelve harmonic steps distinguished intervals and chords
chromatic in their essence and composition (29, p. 153). Georgy Catoire
who based his own theory on Gevaert's system (28, pp. 69-70) identi-
fied three spheres in the chain of fifths: diatonic, chromatic and ultra-
chromatic (Gevaert considered only the first two). Each sphere is diatonic
in itself but chromatically related with the other two (it should be noted
that Catoire's 17-tone chromatic system, strictly speaking, does not in-
volve 17 steps, having arisen from equal temperament and being, as
Alexei Ogolevets pointed out, merely of orthographic nature).
Such an approach calls for the justification of the concept of chro-
maticism through diatonicism and can be explained by the fact that
diatonic elements potentially give rise to chromaticism (European
chromaticism may be regarded as having originated from an "increased
density of diatonic elements").
* Widely known are the statements made on this matter by Sergei Taneyev and
Bela Bartok (see above). Alois Haba's idea is also noteworthy: "Any tone can
be unified with another tone of any tonal system. Any chord of two or more
tones can be unified with any other chord of two or more tones of any tonal
system" (62, p. VI). The free disposal of each separate tone of the chromatic
system entailed a change in the concept of chromaticism which appears in
such a context not as the sum total of certain elements but as the consequence
of thinking in an integral system in which each tone is essential.
48 Chromaticism
True enough, the ancient chromatic genus was perceived (both

in theory and practice) as a self-contained genus on a par with the dia-
tonic one. But chromaticism during the period of harmonic tonality rep-
resents a quite different phenomenon (see above). Nevertheless this fact
makes us realize that the interrelationship of diatonic and chromatic
elements as absolute and relative phenomena is not universal and that
it would be inadequate to explain all musical phenomena exclusively
through diatonicism. Indeed, in modern music we can observe the re-
verse process: integral chromaticism, devoid of alteration, has no need
for a context to explain its structure. Integral chromaticism may be struc-
tured in different ways, retaining one major characteristic - the princi-
ple of chromatic connection. Indeed, this factor makes it difficult to refer
integral chromaticism to the so-called artificial modes which arose
from the further development of the classical major / minor system and
emancipated themselves in some compositional styles. The presence
of diatonic elements does not contradict, of course, the essence of
chromaticism, but the diatonic nature of some elements in a system does
not guarantee the diatonic nature of the system itself, for it is a matter
of proportion ('density'). In principle, if we decompose any chromatic
system, no matter how 'dense', into small groups of up to two or three
tones, we shall invariably be able to reduce it to diatonic elements (as a
result of our equal temperament). But if we explain the 'mechanism' of
such pitch structures in terms of the coordination of basic diatonic ele-
ments and diatonic elements of second, third and subsequent order
(i.e. the base and the superstructure) and define the structure of the
system in general as 'multilayered diatonicism' we may overlook the
specific features of the system.
4. Systematisation and differentiation of concepts
To develop a theory of chromaticism, it is vitally important to differen-

tiate between certain concepts which have lost their 'independence' in
the process of evolution, in particular, the concepts of alteration and
chromaticism, for their interrelationship is unilateral: alteration presup-
poses chromaticism, but the latter cannot be reduced to alteration alone.
The very term requires specification.
The concept of alteration arose from the two-fold notation of the
'b' tone as early as in the 10th century q durum, b molle) and its literal
meaning was 'change' (from the Medieval Latin alteratio). The term ac-
quired its classic definition in the functional tonal system which em-
ploys more tones than steps (12 tones but 7 steps). The principle of
alteration symbolised the variable nature of chromaticism in the con-
text of classical tonality. This led to an extension of the interpretation of

the concept during subsequent periods: alteration implies any chro-
/I • • •
matic change or deviation from the given diatonic context" (100,

p. 180). In this way alteration is treated as a wider concept than chro-
maticism. In fact, one concept was substituted for the other, whereas
alteration, strictly speaking, has always been just a particular kind of
chroma ticism.
We should point out the linear nature of this phenomenon and
its relationship with so-called non-chordal tones. An analogy suggests
itself between tones outside the diatonic system and tones outside the
chord (respectively the basic steps of a mode and chordal tones)*.
The melodic nature of alteration finds another manifestation in
its tonal function: the framing of a diatonic tone from above and from
below by adjacent semi tones.
Alteration remains a purely melodic phenomenon unless it
changes the structure of a melodic scale. As soon as the structure of a
chord changes (in cases where structure comes to represent a stable type
of chord), alteration ceases to be a purely melodic phenomenon (though,
the so-called altered chords are nonetheless genetically rooted in the
clear-cut chromatic linearity).
Alteration arose as a result of the functional approach to tonal-
ity. Its use is confined to the music of this period. To quote Ernst Kurth,
" ... it is not quite logical to assert that altered tones here (in the impres-
sionistic style) no longer need resolution since in their inner dynamics
these tones are no longer chromatic, remaining as such at best out-
wardly" (l00, p. 369).
The genetic relationship between alteration, chromatic passing
tones and leading tones is obvious: many 'altered' chords arose from an
intensification of the whole-tones' gravitational tendency towards the
tones of the following chord. The difference between alteration and lead-
ing tones may be formulated in the following way: alteration involves
the preceding tone (being a 'reflection' of its initial form) while the lead-
ing tone is related to the following tone (being an 'anticipation' of the
goal tone). As it happens, such an unequivocal definition is not always
either possible or necessary. Alteration and leading tones are histori-
cally interrelated categories, often going hand in hand. Any attempt to
treat either as the essential one is not dialectical in its essence. This in-
terrelationship somewhat changed in the music written in the late 19th
to early 20th centuries, with the emergence of the phenomenon of 'post-
* German terminology is sometimes used to define non-chordal tones, e.g. as

harmoniefremde Tone ("tones alien to harmony, i.e. to a chord").
50 Chromaticism
alteration' (the term coined by Yuri Kholopov), a kind of 'static altera-

tion', which in many respects lost its linear and unidimensional func-
tion (for instance, in Scriabin's compositions).
In the above mentioned book Robert Mayrhofer (109, p. 134)
expressed his doubts as regards, for instance, the tones 'f' and 'f# ' be-
ing the alteration of one and the same step, stressing only their har-
monic opposition (to avoid the very idea of their kinship, the author
insists on introducing the letter 'm' instead of 'f# '). Mayrhofer raises
objections to naming leading tones after the tones which are not their
'ancestors' and offers the following nomenclature (110, p. 44): ei (d#) - ai
(g#) - di(c#) - do (e~) - go (a~) - co (d~) - m (f#) - b (b~).
Differentiating between altered and leading tones is particu-
larly important for analysing a linear progression of altered chords in
close succession. Their diatonic prototype may precede them in the pro-
gression (or else be simply implied - in this case the alteration-based
nature of the phenomenon is unambiguous), but it may also follow. In
the latter case there may arise the chords made up of leading tones for
which Hermann Erpf proposed the term freie Leittoneinstellungen - free
leading-tone formations (46, p. 56).
One should also take into consideration the fact that the Euro-
pean system of notation (and the attendant structure of keyboard in-
struments) was based on principles of alteration. Notation in ancient
Greece with its special designation for each of the twelve tones obtained
by transposition scales and the ancient Chinese notation having at its
disposal a separate hieroglyph for each tone of the system were both
structured chromatically, which left room for developing the scope of
these tonal systems. But the European tradition of notation often con-
ceals the genuine essence of certain chromatic phenomena (especially
in 20th-century music) as a result of its orientation towards the diatonic
nature of the tonal system.
In present-day musicology the concept of alteration is treated
both in more general and more specific terms (as the chromatic change
of any modal step and as the chromatic change of unstable modal steps):
(1) "Alteration means the chromatic change of steps"; (2) "Chromatic
changes of steps providing resolution by a minor second for a tonic
triad are called alteration in the proper sense of the word" (156,
pp.51-52).
The two-fold approach to the essence of alteration in music
theory reflects reality in view of the specific features of the European
tonal system. Its general principle may be formulated as the con-
traposition of tonal stability (monotonality) and tonal instability (modu-
lation). From this standpoint all the components of harmonic tonality
may be considered according to their function in a system: either as

centripetal or as centrifugal, which is not quite identical with the con-
cepts of non-modulatory and modulatory elements of tonality. Thus,
for instance, alteration of the first type (the chromatic change of any
modal step) is non-modulatory ("any alteration occurs within a mode";
156, p. 53) in its harmonic nature, but it is centrifugal in terms of its
function in the tonal system (the matter of leading-tone chromaticism is
solved analogously by means of the latter approach).
The main difficulty arising in the analysis of chromaticism as it
was understood during the period of harmonic tonality is due to the
fact that in the course of the 17th to the 19th centuries it often implied
musical phenomena unrelated to the immediate progression of semi-
tones. Chromaticism became compound (compare with the concept
latente Chromatik; 164, p. 60), which entailed a change in the very con-
cept of chromaticism.
Quite frequently chromatic phenomena came to include second-
ary dominants and subdominants, 'deviations' (subsidiary key areas)
and modulations, major/minor systems, and the like, i.e. the phenom-
ena which are chromatic in position but not in essence (to use Catoire's
terminology). There is no contradiction in this approach, for histori-
cally chromaticism developed in two ways: through (a) the modifica-
tion of the initial diatonic basis ('from within'); and (b) the penetration
of certain elements from other tonalities ('from without'). The first way
(alteration, leading tones) is more traditional and graphic (it is symbol-
ised by the conventional chromatic scale). The second way involved
transformation of external harmonic relationships into the means of in-
ner structure, where chords "previously obtained exclusively through
modulation into other tonalities gradually turn into tonal harmonies
owing to the optional use of caesuras between chords of different
tonalities" (156, p. 106). The principle of juxtaposing elements of differ-
ent tonalities in the form of logically worked-out chord progressions
may be illustrated by the example of the "invasion" episode in the
development section of the first movement of Shostakovich's Symphony
No.7 in which a diatonic melody (stated in parallel major triads)
creates a far from diatonic effect. Any two adjacent triads are diatonically
related, nonetheless, chromaticism (in its 'scattered' form) makes up
the basis of this episode.
Subsidiary key areas and the attendant secondary dominants
and subdominants play an exceptional part in the chromatic process
which unfolds 'from without'. Thus, for instance, Heinrich Schenker
who viewed chromaticism primarily as a consequence of the tonicisation
process - the drive of modal steps to turn into 'tonics' - referred these
52 Chromaticism
tonal deviations and tonicisations to monotonal progression. Accord-

ing to the basic principle of Hugo Riemann's concepts Klammerdominanten
and Zwischendominanten, a musical composition as an entity constitutes
in principle an 'extended cadence'. The penetration of secondary domi-
nants and subdominants into diatonic tonality led eventually to their
use as self-contained chords in monotonal structures (while the dia-
tonic chord through which they had initially entered into relationship
with the tonic could be skipped). In his theory Arnold Schoenberg, for
example, treated the secondary dominant not as a chord directed to the
secondary tonic but as a chord on a definite step, the dominant in the
broad sense of the word (150, pp. 384-85). As a result, Schoenberg in-
terprets tonal deviations as phenomena based on alteration (as a change
of the corresponding diatonic progression). This idea is extremely fruit-
ful, for the extension of the concept of tonality (in monotonal statement)
and the 'reduction' of modulatory space by no means wipe out the phe-
nomenon of modulation itself. Differentiation between non-modulatory
and modulatory chromaticism involves a distinction on the basis of their
respective functions in a musical form, rather than by harmonic means
alone.
The concept of the subsidiary key-area also requires differentia-
tion. In conformity with the above-mentioned idea of the functional
approach to the components of tonality we should differentiate between
subsidiary areas arising from a deviation into another mode of the same
tonic (centripetal) and regions arising from a deviation into the area of
another tonic (centrifugal), i.e. modal and tonal deviations.
Of vital importance is the differentiation between the steps of a
tonality used in a deviation (the treatment of a step as a subsidiary key-
area) and functioning as the basic steps of a mode. The criterion is likely
to be found in the character of the relationship between a particular
step and the tonic (whether it can be related directly to the tonic chord
or only through another intermediate chord).
As for modulation, the following considerations should be taken
into account in view of the systematisation offered in the present book:
(1) The phenomenon of chromaticism retains its prime impor-
tance within the framework of monotonal statement. Modulation in tonal
harmony constitutes merely a transposition, introducing a new point
of departure ('alteration' at the level of the entire system, displacing all
the tones throughout and establishing an integral system of new pitches).
(2) Modulation (along with tonal deviation) is treated here from
the standpoint of its 'directional' tendency, whether centripetal (modu-
lation within the same tonic) or centrifugal (modulation directed to
another tonic). Centripetal modulation is a customary phenomenon
between principal and subsidiary parts of the recapitulation section of

sonata form.
(3) As regards the relationship between modulation and form,
two types of modulation should be differentiated -large-scale and small-
scale: "Small-scale modulation involves tonal motion within a theme,
incorporating a possible cadence on a step other than the tonic at the
close of the period, modulatory development in the middle section and
a return to the main tonic. Large-scale modulation amounts to a transi-
tion into another tonality occurring simultaneously with a passage to
another theme, a spell in another tonality (the tonality of another theme)
and a return to the main tonality with the recapitulation of the initial
theme" (84, p. 354).
One more way to achieve chromatic tonality is to mix diatonic
elements (chords, scales). It would appear that the process of mixing
elements of various tonalities within the major / minor system was initi-
ated by the raising of the 7th step of the natural minor scale, which
eventually led to the regular interchange of major/minor chords. This
kind of mixed chromaticism represented as 'polydiatonicism' paves the
way for the development of tonality from a bimodal to a polymodal
chromatic universal system. The distinctive feature of mixed chromati-
cism is its compound character in which one can still discern the origins
of the diatonic elements which make up the entity. Mixed chromaticism
occurs as a result of the maximal 'compression' of tonality.
Tonal harmony represents the combination of two systems (ver-
tical and horizontal), for you cannot exclude monody from polyphony,
the phenomena of a monodic culture remaining here both in their pure
and 'mediated' form. Both vertical and horizontal relationships should
be taken into account in any type of chromaticism, for melodic and
chordal chromaticism may not necessarily coincide: a system may be
diatonic at the chordal level and chromatic at the melodic level, while
the principles of classification remain the same.
54 Chromaticism
Scheme 6 (a)
Mixture
leading tones - - - - - - - diatonic steps alteration
modulation tonal deviation
Scheme 6 (b)
"from without" modulatory tonicising mixed

integral
chromatic
(hemitonic)
"from within" leading-tone altered
3
HISTORICAL TYPES OF CHROMATICISM
1. Antiquity
Just a few specimens of ancient Greek musical art have been preserved
to date in the form of papyrus fragments and inscriptions engraved in
stone or recorded in medieval treatises. Most of them date from late
Antiquity, providing merely progressions of tones in Greek alphabeti-
cal notation (without indicating the specifics of instrumental accompa-
niment if any, the nature of sound production, and performance
details). Therefore in the reconstruction of these fragments, in addition
to the problem of writing them down in the modern system of notation
alien to ancient musical art, there arises the additional problem of the
proper interpretation of that specific soundworld, a question which
could hardly be solved at the present stage.
Out of those preserved to date we have selected for our analysis
three examples in three different genera of ancient Greek music to give
an idea of their ethos and mode of organization.
Scalia, the epitaph of a certain Seikilos, engraved on a tombstone,
a small round marble column, dating from circa 1st century A.D., be-
longs to the lyric genre. Its characteristic feature is the simplicity of its
musical structure. In its intonation Scalia follows the melodic model,
apparently widespread in ancient times, which amounts to a successive
unfolding of the underlying mode (Phrygian in ancient Greek termi-
nology). The actualisation of this idea is fully manifest in its form whose
facets make up hestates. The line of the principal tones represents a full
scale of the Phrygian mode. Owing to the specific character of Scalia its
diatonic coloration is sustained throughout. Its diatonicism is structured
through the combination of two tetrachords, an organisation which is
reflected in the structure of fourths and fifths underlying its melodic
line (Ex. 6).
The Delphic Hymn ta Apalla I has a more intricate structure
belonging to mixed melos in Greek terminology. Moreover, this frag-
ment reveals a mixture within one system of the unified (synemmenon)
and divisible (diezeugmenan) tetrachords. This explains the occasional
immediate succession of three 0) semitones, which was not generally a
feature of ancient Greek music, being more in the vein of our under-
standing of chromaticism (Ex. 7).
56 Chromaticism
Ex. 6. Scalia of Seikilos

Historical Types of Chromaticism 57
""\
.... .~
....
.'~"
~
l;: I
• I
~
~
......
I
~
~
"
I
~
\
~
.t-I ~
I, .~
"
-....;:
~
~
1
.....
......
.... ~
::s
I
~
.-.!.. :!Ii('"
~
~ ~
I
\J
I
...~
~ ~
....'" ~
\
~ ~
1i
I
~ ~
~
~ -{
I
..~"
~
~
~
~
1
~ ~
'-< I \
..9 .u
'0 ~ ~
::::...
~
....a -.3 ~
:::: ....
on
l::
I
~
'-' ~
:E
::::...
~
Q
t---:
>< 00
~ 00
58 Chromaticism
In the above example the treatment of the chromatic as a self-

contained genus independent of the diatonic is obvious. Its entire form
is based on this principle: the first part of the Hymn (omitted in the Ex.)
remains strictly diatonic whereas the second part in contrast is noted
for its hemiolic intervallic movements by an augmented second and the
ensuing semitonal progressions. Noteworthy is the descending charac-
ter of its movement and the intensification provided by descending lead-
ing tones. The structural principle of such chromaticism is the density
of intervals in a tetrachord, pyknon. And it is pyknon, not chroma that is
comparable in nature to modern chromaticism. In fact, Greek chromati-
cism and chromaticism in our contemporary sense have only their name
in common. The relationship of the ancient Greek example of the chro-
matic genus with the scheme outlined above corroborates the follow-
ing conclusion: Greek chromaticism cannot be fitted in the classificatory
framework evolved for the music of our harmonic tonality since on the
basis of this approach, strictly speaking, it is not chromaticism at all.
According to ancient analysts, Euripides' Orestes reveals height-
ened attention to musical considerations, as is evident from the frag-
ment of its first stasimon supplied with notational symbols and notes
for performers* which was discovered late in the 19th century. It is one
of the earliest (though poorly preserved) examples of Greek composi-
tion and a unique record of classical Greek tragedy written in the
enharmonic genus. It is undoubtedly a result of conveying the specifi-
cally 'heavy' atmosphere of the tragedy in general and the given frag-
ment in particular:
Great prosperity among mortals is not lasting:
upsetting it like the sail of a swift sloop
some higher power swamps it in the
rough doom-waves of fearful toils, as of the sea ... **
The enharmonic genus was considered as being extremely diffi-
cult to execute, requiring much practice from the performers. It called
for a certain style of music-making and specific grounds for its employ-
ment (Ex. 8).
The use of microintervals in ancient Greek music is a particular
problem arising mainly from the impossibility of recapturing the sin-
gular manner of their execution. Still this matter was elaborated in con-
* See V. Yarkho's commentary to Orestes in: Euripides. Tragedies. Vol. 2.

Moscow, 1969, p. 700.
** Euripides. Orestes, trans. M.L. West. Warminster, England: Aris and Phillips,
1987, p. 83.
Ex. 8. Fragment of the first stasimon from Euripides's Orestes
« ~a.To lo f» i - fO"}-IAC. ,ad. - ,i - fOS <:< tJ(.~ (J'«-s ~

~ '9 ')1 t t \~ ::r.:
c;; .
l ~ 1 V=V y== ...,..
, ' ~" " 1 ....o
«ga' ) a..¥'cX.(3)> - oL~ - ")(.f:tJ-EL 0 ~f. - ('a.r ~< oitfjor o1f~ ",.
;;:,
-
~
"\j
~ i tG ) I £ ti '"'"
« 1'6 "LPO» S 'tjH ~fo'[o£S ~. ya. «Sf. -ta !los hiS., ~
n
~
t\ t ~ ". f'd]" \ ;:;
;::
;;:,
...,..
«LiS » ~~1i~otf ~o~/3 ;l - :d «far ~/,Ata)V»
\ L. 't .:::k r, r
'c;;;::"
V-l I I \
~ I
, .. ~ , .. ~,V ..,
£a.. <1E.lf.uf~t yo d «u Va) y 7rOY(()Y~) WfIJ! flo vi «oz/ ~
\ to!' ,
«nd..h SLS hd) YJ. I,'~ otdt- v )<El y 1t..JjH-fL c1t v..,
CJl
\0
60 Chromaticism
siderable theoretical detail, as far as discussing the intervals of a sixth

and a twelfth of a semi tone, no doubt, in purely speculative and hypo-
thetical terms. The first of these, for example, equal to the interval by
which two chromatic dieses exceed two enharmonic ones, constitutes,
according to Aristoxenus, "an interval smaller than the smallest admit-
ted in melody" and therefore it is amelodetos, i.e. unsingable (112, p. 93).
To the same group of phenomena belonged, according to Aristoxenus,
the subdivision of the intervals of the scale into quarter-tones owing to
their ekmelic nature. And though the ancient Greek teaching of melody
ruled out the immediate progression of two pyknon in singing (121,
Vol. I, p. 304), it was quite possible in playing musical instruments. At
any rate, Aristoxenus' text contains an indication that a scale which
involved three immediate progressions by a quarter-tone was used in
playing the aulos (121, Vol. I, p. 311).
2. Byzantine musical culture
As is known, the ancient and West-European musical systems came to

be interrelated (in theory and practice) mainly through the Byzantine
church chants. However, though in general this idea raises no objec-
tions on the part of most music scholars, the details of the transition of
the medieval musical system have not been clarified to date, calling for
special study. And while underscoring the transitional character of this
period which spans almost a millennium, one should not exaggerate
the significance of its 'developmental' features to the detriment of its
'stable' elements. Otherwise we may overlook the traits that distinguish
Byzantine musical culture from ancient music, on the one hand, and
medieval music, on the other.
Analysis of the Byzantine modal system, which is indispensa-
ble for elucidating the spread of chromaticism during that period, should
take into due account the specific character of Byzantine notation which
can not always be fully transcribed into modern notational symbols.
This is especially true of its earlier forms, the so called ecphonetic nota-
tion used during the period from the 10th to the 12th centuries. Hence
it is customary to describe the Byzantine modal system by referring to
the theoretical sources which for a very long time showed a nostalgic
loyalty to Greek musical theory, apparently running counter to the
current musical practice.
The evolution of the Byzantine modal system is conventionally
divided into the following stages: the Hagia Polis - Asmata period (up to
the 14th century) - the Koukouzeles period (from the 14th century up to
Chrysanthos' reform in 1821) - the modern period (beginning with the
1821 reforms). The octuple hierarchy of the four authentic and four plagal
modes, characteristic of Byzantine modal system, took shape during
the Hagia Polis period.
The problems arising in comparison of the Byzantine and West-
European musical systems can be explained, on the one hand, by the
difficulties involved in deciphering the written records of Byzantine
musical art and, on the other, by the nature of the evolution of musical
practices in Byzantium and Europe, the influence of local musical tradi-
tions and the ensuing changes, which were quite substantial in most
cases. The fact that such interrelationship is indisputable has been con-
firmed by relevant research studies (see, for instance, 171, pp. 3,202). In
addition to the influence exerted by Byzantine musical practice on West-
ern-European music, one should also take into consideration the com-
mon sources of these musical cultures which were rooted, according to
expert opinion, in early Christian church chants, borrowed partly from
the Judaic divine service, Syrian hymns (translated subsequently into
the Greek language), and their affinity as a result of the common ori-
gins in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region. The influence of
Byzantine church music, because of the orthodox nature of church art
in general, extended even over to Finnish church music (through the
Slavic tradition; 152, p. 6) whose melodies have retained close links with
the Byzantine musical tradition.
The study of the characteristic features of the Byzantine modal
system calls for a clear-cut differentiation of the historical stages in its
evolution. Some 19th-century music scholars used to describe this sys-
tem drawing on the theoretical treatises written within their own cen-
tury, a practice which should be recognised as invalid.
The music played in the Greek church today is based mostly on
the principles and notational techniques worked out early in the 19th
century by Chrysanthos of Madytos (and his disciples and followers-
Gregory the Protopsalt and Chourmouzios the Archivist). According to
Chrysanthos, his musical system was founded on the musical practice
of the ancient classical period. His reform amounted to inventing a new
solmisation system, a new interpretation of the traditional Byzantine
chants and their transcription into the new notational system.
Chrysanthos is also accredited with systematisating the Greek modes
and defining their precise interrelationship (115, p. 87). Gregory the
Protopsalt contributed by clarifying the rules of modulation from one
mode to another and specifying the signs designating such modula-
tions (phthorai) which were divided into three genera: diatonic, chro-
matic and enharmonic (with the corresponding notational symbols).
Chourmouzios was also engaged in studies of musical orthography,
62 Chromaticism
providing new interpretations of the old Byzantine chants. By the end

of the 19th century the Chrysanthos reform was treated by Western schol-
ars as a transformation of the authentic nature of Byzantine chants
(though accurate and non-contradictory data were available then to a
lesser degree even than today). At the same time it is hardly relevant to
assess Chrysanthos' activities as wilful and unconnected with the real
processes unfolding in the musical practice of that period. Neo-
Byzantine church chant is in many respects akin to some Middle-
Eastern traditions (nasal singing, the conventional "decoration" of the
principal tones of the melody, the use of glissandi and non-tempered
intervals) due to the penetration of certain elements of Turkish music
into it since the 14th century when the church chants assimilated
certain "musical manners" of the Ottoman Empire. But it appears that
sufficiently close links with the medieval Byzantine musical traditions
were still in existence, even though as regards its modal system neo-
Byzantine musical practice is usually defined as non-diatonic (and it is
actually so in its essence; 43, p. 32). According to Constantine Maltezos
(a mathematician by education), by the beginning of the 19th century
two scales were generally used in church music in Constantinople: (1)
"the diatonic Byzantine scale" based on the Pythagorean system of tun-
ing and made out of diatonic intervals; (2) "the Turko-Greek scale" also
based on the Pythagorean system of tuning but including 'chromatic'
three-quarter tones (115, p. 96). However, some scholars in their com-
parison of the present-day melodic formulas of church music with their
'ancestors' believe that Chrysanthos while carrying out his reform was
aware of the essence of the medieval Byzantine neumes but regarded
them as graphic abbreviations of more elaborate melodic formulas pre-
served and developed in the oral tradition, which is inaccessible to us
today (135, p. 248).
The possibility of non-diatonic elements (chromatic and en-
harmonic in the Greek sense of these concepts) existing during the
period prior to the Chrysanthos reform has been confirmed by some,
often circumstantial, evidence, which nonetheless proves that the divi-
sion into three genera was not invented by the 'three teachers' of the
new melos (4, p. 99), such a practice being inherent in the chants of the
earlier period.
The available theoretical studies in Byzantine church music un-
ambiguously testify that in ascending from the primary mode we get
the authentic modes and in descending from it the pIa gal modes (4,
pp. 97-98). But the description of modal progressions on the steps of a
diatonic scale indicates their relative position rather than their inner
structure (a scale, the principles of their combination into a system of

intervals - tetrachord, pentachord, octachord).
Transcriptions of Byzantine chants by means of West-European
notation are based on the assumption that the Byzantine church chant
consisted exclusively of whole tones and semitones and was diatonic.
This idea formed the basis of the studies by such experts in this field as
Egon Wellesz, Henry Tillyard, Oliver Strunk et al; it also predetermined
the accepted principles of transcribing Byzantine church music. The
modal system of medieval Byzantine music, furthermore, had no abso-
lute pitch owing to its purely vocal character. The choice of the 'central
octave' D-d for transcriptions has been explained primarily on the ba-
sis of its convenience since it makes no use of 'accidental signs' (158,
p.194).
As a whole, the use of chromaticism in Byzantine music is a
matter for further study in view of the insufficient data available to
present-day theory on the construction of the Byzantine modes. Thus
some scholars question whether their tetrachordal structure was in con-
formity with the Greek tradition (54, p. 243). Attendant difficulties arise
from the absence of unequivocal indications of chromaticism in the Byz-
antine musical sources which have been preserved to date. For the same
reason all the transcriptions of Byzantine melodies in the series
Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae are based on the diatonic scale. The coded
nature of Byzantine musical notation aggravates the situation.
However the widespread opinion about the exclusively diatonic
nature of the Byzantine modal system does not exhaust all the current
viewpoints on this matter. Thus in some recent publications scholars
draw attention to a number of 'unfamiliar' signs in the Psaltikon, inex-
plicable by the current theory of Byzantine music and pointing to the
transposition of conventional melodic formulas by a fourth. In some
cases this entails the introduction of the tone 'f#' instead of 'f' (Ex. 9a).
'Faulty' signs are encountered in the Sticherarion too and only as
regards the special melodic formula (anastama) of the tone 'd' in the 4th
plagal mode. Christian Thodberg discovered 181 instances of the use of
this formula in the melodies in this mode, which were recorded in a
13th-century manuscript (161, p. 609). He regards it as a transposition
since this type of melodic formula is usually intoned from 'g' (Ex. 9b).
The scholar is not inclined to view such instances as copyists'
errors. Besides, as Henry Tillyard pointed out (162, p. 226), the later
Byzantine manuscripts quite frequently reveal major changes in the
notation of one and the same chant during different historical periods
(the use of 'chromatic' signs instead of common diatonic neumes). In
64 Chromaticism
Ex.9a,b. Unfamiliar signs in Byzantine music to indicate

transposition of melodic formulas
this respect Yevgeny Gertzman writes: " . .. the later changes in the
traditional neumes of the earlier manuscripts should be regarded not
as accidental and isolated phenomena but as representing a definite
tendency in the evolution of musical thinking" (54, p. 247; Ex. 10). More-
over, one should bear in mind the notorious conservatism on the part of
the Eastern Orthodox Church as regards its music. On the other hand,
the absence of indications in the theoretical sources regarding the use of
chromatic and enharmonic tones (and the precise signs noted down
and employed for these purposes) does not necessarily imply the non-
existence of the phenomenon as it were. The reason may be either the
insufficient differentiation between the modes of the various genera
during that period or the fact that oral tradition was followed in the
practical study of such matters (for details, see 3, p. 7).
The standpoint on the presence of non-diatonic elements in
Byzantine music expressed in the theoretical literature is grounded not
only on the corresponding extracts from the treatises (which strictly fol-
lowed the Greek tradition and remained 'aloof' from current musical
~
Vi·
,..,..
Ex. 10. Various interpretations of traditional neumes at different Q
-..;
historical stages r=;.
;;:,
~
-
"'1:3
~
~
n
~
d
;:i
;;:,
,..,..
r=;
Vi·
;:i
0\
V1
66 Chromaticism
practice) but also on a number of indirect indications in the Byzantine

notational system itself. Thus, the use of various phthorai (the signs mean-
ing a transition from one mode to another - eight signs for each mode)
and melodies characterised as phthoric are reminiscent of the ancient
Greek metabole. Some Byzantine scholars raise the matter of modula-
tion in this respect. To our mind, the application of this term is hardly
possible since it is an essentially different phenomenon compared with
modulation in modern music. Besides, the process of passing over to
another mode is usually described in Byzantine sources as breaking the
rule (logos) in accordance with which the chant in a given mode is to be
sung, altering its form (idea) and modifying its original nature. And there
is no mention of changes in the underlying scale in a transition to an-
other mode, only a change in the 'set' of melodic formulas (170, p. 309).
In conformity with neo-Byzantine theory there existed various
forms of metabole designated by an extremely detailed system of special
signs (phthorai) differing from the signs used during the classical By-
zantine period, though performing the same function (135, pp. 10-11):
(1) metabole in genus (the interchange of diatonic, chromatic and
enharmonic scales within one melody); (2) metabole in the pitch position
of the modal system within one genus; (3) metabole in mode (a change of
a mode within a given melody; a special phthora was used to differenti-
ate between metabole with a change in the pitch position of a mode and
those without a change thereof); (4) metabole in a system (the synemmenan
systems of octachords, pentachords, tetrachords).
According to expert opinion, the third and fourth types of
metabole existed as early as the 13th century (135, p. 11).
The period manuals on the performance of Byzantine music (the
so called Papadikai), mention the fifth along with the octave as an equally
important interval, in view of the differentiation between the octave-
based and pentachordal systems. The latter was also called a 'wheel'
(trochos) arising in cases when the initial tetrachord d-e-f- g as the 'root'
of the system was complemented from above and below (through
diezeugmenon tetra chords in the Greek terminology) by tetrachords of
similar structure (akin to the medieval Daseia system - Ex. 11).
Ex. 11. The Daseia medieval system

The specific definition of the penta chordal system in neo-By-

zantine music, forming the basis of its primary mode (from 'd', echos
protos), denoted a singular property of its intervallic structure: if a melody
moved from 'd' ascending to 'g' and then, across the 'spoke of the wheel',
progressed to the opposite 'I' and descended then to 'c', the latter pro-
gression by means of the 'spoke of the wheel' joined with the initial'd',
closing up its circular motion (155, p. 299).
Scheme 7
d
f e
d
g
c
The pentachordal system of the 1st mode, which was character-

istic of Byzantine music of earlier periods and described by Chrysanthos
(155, p. 299), i.e. in the 19th century, attached the value of a functional
tone (in present-day terminology) to a fifth performing a role equiva-
lent to that of an octave in the octave-based system. The latter was char-
acteristic of the fourth mode (from 'g'). But the greatest mystery lies in
the fact that the Byzantine treatises mention the third mode (from '1')
and the second mode (from 'e') as having enharmonic and chromatic
structures respectively (155, p. 288). Moreover, as early as the Koukouzeles
period differentiation was made between the 2nd diatonic mode, called
also leghetos (the authentic mode on Ie', with 'b' being the characteristic
tone of the system), and the 2nd chromatic mode (authentic and pIa gal)
called nenano (with 'bV being the characteristic tone of the system; 170,
p. 306). Such an understanding of chromaticism unambiguously points
to the vestiges of the ancient Greek modal system.
The Western-European musical system as early as the 10th cen-
tury had a precisely fixed scale in which a transposition, if it involved
68 Chromaticism
the accurate reproduction of intervallic values, would have been theo-

retically impossible without going beyond the confines of the system,
which would have entailed the use of tones whose existence was not
yet recognised. In musical practice such departure outside the system
was rather widespread. Back in his time Odo of Cluny had recommended
the introduction of certain corrections in the chants in which semitones
found themselves in irregular locations. Such phenomena might have
been all the more unavoidable in Byzantine music with its lack of any
differentiation between tones and semitones even in its notation and its
complete lack of awareness of 'accidental signs' and the problems they
can cause (for details, see 64, p. 60). The theoretical sources which have
been preserved to date shed no light on the matter under consideration.
Nonetheless quite a number of scholars draw our attention to the unfa-
miliar signs to be found in unaccustomed locations, whose interpreta-
tion implies a transposition of separate melodic phrases (as a rule, by a
fourth or a second; 64, pp. 61-62). The explanation of these unfamiliar
signs as copyists' errors, which is in principle possible, could hardly be
valid in all cases (Ex. 12).
A highly original theory of chromaticism in Byzantine music,
which is treated by its author more in the vein of the ancient Greek
tradition - as embodied in a particular tetrachordal structure, has been
advanced by G. Amargianakis who believes that the chromatic genus
was known and used in Byzantine musical practice even prior to the
14th century. In his view, this is evidenced from the phtoric sign nenana,
used as the main definition of a mode, which showed the interpolation
of chromatic progressions into a melody. But the key evidence of the
employment of the chromatic genus during this period, according to
Amargianakis, lies in the martyrien of the Deuteros mode.
Amargianakis' analysis of Byzantine melodies in the Stichera
for the month of September (with selected examples written in the modes
Deuteros, Plagal Deuteros and Nenana) was based on the division of melo-
dies into 'formulas' treated as recurrent sequences of neumes. It was
discovered that one and the same melodic formula is encountered in
melodies belonging to different modes, which may either imply their
'intermodality' (to use the author's terminology) or reflect the partial
transition into another mode (the term 'modulation' used in this re-
spect does not seem to be quite appropriate as regards the music of this
period). The problem is further complicated by our poor knowledge of
the construction of the Byzantine modes and their generic classifica-
tion. If the prevailing division of the Byzantine church music into three
genera (diatonic - Modes I, IY, Plagal I, IY; chromatic - Deuteros, Plagal
.u.-.
(j)
;::l
S
<l)
......::::.-.
::::
til
N
>,
co
.S
::::
0
......
.-.
..-.
(j)
0
P-.
(j)
::::
til
~
N
,....,
><
~
70 Chromaticism
Deuteros, Nenano; enharmonic - Mode III, Plagal III) existed in the Mid-
dle Ages (something which is still hard to assert today), the possibility
arises of varied interpretations of identical sequences of neumes
('formulas') in different modes which do not belong to the same genus
(depending on the intervallic structure of these modes). Such varied
readings may also create quite a different musical effect (Ex. 13).
Ex. 13. Treatment of equal progression of neumes in different modes
Besides, Amargianakis has analysed 56 melodies dating from

the 14th century from the manuscript Sinai 1230 in the modes Deuteros
(authentic and plagal) and Nenano, showing that here use was made of
a special system of signs based on the "y" element which as time passed
became the symbol 0 identical to the phthora of 'nenana'. The first of
these, either on its own or accompanied by the symbol of plagality, is
placed on the steps F, G and b~ while the second is invariably to be found
on the step a.
The appearance of the 'y' element on the steps E, b~ (the initial
steps of tetrachords) is customary for the diatonic modes as well being
due to the location of semitones above these steps. Its emergence on the
step G leads the author to believe that the interval G-a is also a semi-
tone, which is confirmed, in his opinion, by the fact of the invariable
location of the sign 0 on the step a. Moreover, the 'y' element is con-
stantly used in the chromatic scales of the modern Byzantine musical
system (3, pp. 8-11) and placed on the steps over which semitones are
indicated. Hence the interval G-a implies two possible interpretations:
either as G#-a or as G-a~. Amargianakis' hypothesis finds unexpected
confirmation in an oft-cited specimen of Byzantine psalmody referred
to by Egon Wellesz, Roman Gruber and others (Ex. 14).
The study of features inherent in the Byzantine modal system is
indispensable not only for solving the task at hand but also in view of
.~
ul ......
~
~ ~ ~
I ~
~ (
I
~ ~
'E
a
~
c:
~
~, ~ ~
"'~
~
Q ";::)
cc::! 1\
~
~
\.\,I
~ 'N
Q
>.
'"d I
0
8
........
l! ....
...IOi
til
(fJ I .sr
P-.
Q)
~,
,:::::
......
..... ~
,:::::
til
N
>.
~
o::l
........
i
0
.....,:::::
Q)
I
8b.O ~
~
'-'
~ ~
til
~
!-<
........
,~
'b ~
-< ~
~
......
~
x
72 Chromaticism
its relationships with Slavic musical traditions, Bulgarian and Russian

in particular. The translation of the Greek scriptures into the Slavonic
language entailed the migration of the eight Byzantine modes and Greek
terms onto Slavic soil. Along with the Byzantine system of defining the
modes (authentic - plagal), the South-Slavonic and Russian manuscripts
dating from as early as the 10th-13th centuries register the 'Slavic'
method of their designation - the consecutive numbering from I to YIII
(130, p. 75). As the Slavs assimilated Christianity, their church chants,
along with the Greek modes, copied the neumatic notation that could
be traced back to Byzantine roots (in particular, the so-called Coislin
Byzantine notation characteristic of a relatively early stage in Byzantine
music history, with melodic intervallic relations that are hard to define).
Comparison of the Slavonic and Greek heirmologion reveals that the
division into eight modes constitutes the sole consistent element in
most manuscripts (despite the different numbering of the modes since
Slavic musical terminology did not use the word 'plagal'; 165, pp. 37,
126-127).
Three main approaches can be distinguished in the specialist
literature devoted to the links between the Old Russian and Byzantine
musical cultures. In the first of these the old Russian music is treated as
a variety of Byzantine music ("Byzantine music with a Slavonic accent")
in conformity with the following popular legend about "three bards":
" ... and there came from Tsargrad three Greek bards with their genera.
They gave rise to angelic singing in the Russian land rendered in eight
modes" (The Register Book of Russian Tsars, 1563 - cited from 118,
p. 39). Another group of researchers is inclined to believe that the old
Russian music is of Byzantine origin but, later on, acquired singular
features. The latest trend is to claim an authentic origin for early Rus-
sian music and to argue that its singular characteristics were preserved
throughout its later development (118, p. 7).
As regards the range of problems considered in this book, the
most important factor stressed by most researchers is the relationship
between the Byzantine and Old Russian modal systems, which mani-
fests itself both at a more general level and in some particular aspects.
In this respect one should raise the problem of 'strange voices' ('strange
flats') in the Znamenny chants in double neume notation, dating from
the late 14th to the 17th centuries.
As was mentioned above, some modern researchers of Byzan-
tine music point to the unfamiliar ('faulty') signs in Psaltikon and
Sticherarion, which seem inexplicable in terms of Byzantine theory. In
their opinion, these signs testify to the presence of transpositions in
Byzantine musical practice, these signs being used not to indicate
absolute pitches but a change of the entire scale. Therefore the treat-
ment of 'strange flats' in Russian monody (Exs. 15a, b and c) as indica-
:(
I
--
~
~
I
3 I
t
,I::i
~
~ ~
~
.,.
~
~
,
~ ~
~ Q
""I
,
... I»
c:p> ~
.
~
:s' ~
.r.:.
(~ ~
~
U· I
:>-, ~
'"d I ~
0 ~
~
0
E
~ v ..> ~
.....te :t: I.Q
I
(/J
(/J ~
;::::s :s ~
0::: 4- I
.....
~ ~
~(/J
.....te w
c.J
c;::: ">I..
a;
bfJ ~
~
~
te
.....'"'
~
CJ)
~
u
,.o~ -.c:
te~
l!)
,.....
~
<t:
UJ
,
~
><
~ ~ ./ ~
74 Chromaticism
tions of a change of mode, signs of mutation, which has been proposed

by Yuri Kholopov (86), puts into a new light the matter of its genetic
relationship with the Byzantine - and in a wider context - with the Greek
tradition, linking unfamiliar modality (a change of mode) with metabole
of scale ('system').
3. The Middle Ages
Chromaticism in the medieval modal system - the very positing of this

question looks paradoxical enough. Indeed, the diatonic character of
medieval melodies is commonly recognised as one of the most essential
characteristics in distinguishing the system of ecclesiastical modes from,
for example, ancient music or corresponding phenomena in subsequent
historical periods. According to the historical evidence, this can be
explained by the emotionally elevated status given (for ideological
reasons) to musical harmony and the specific social function of music
during that period. The general tenets of the prevailing religious doc-
trine found their concrete manifestation in the 'tonal asceticism' and in
the narrowing-down of the number of possible intervallic relation-
ships to the minimum requisite for medieval musical practice.
However, this contradiction turns out to be only external. The
medieval modal system was not a closed, hermetically sealed phenom-
enon. Therefore in analysing it one should take into careful considera-
tion its historical evolution, the at best only partial correlation of
theoretical sources with musical practice, the different functional
orientations of individual musical genres and forms (in particular, the
delimitation, sometimes quite substantial, between sacred and secular
music) and the attendant differences in the tonal vocabulary, which are
clearly discerned with historical hindsight.
In our view, the study of non-diatonic phenomena in medieval
musical practice should begin with the identification of their major
premise, namely: the role of semitone in the modal system of the
period. A rigid definition of its function as a mi-fa relationship and the
ensuing restriction of the immediate succession of two semi tones ham-
pered 'chromatic expansion', but it would appear that this was soon
running counter to the demands set forth by current musical practice.
Besides, the very system of medieval modes which presupposed the
'splitting' (though not simultaneous) of the 9th step was not so closed
that it left no room for mimesis - for transferring this phenomenon onto
other steps. Each new semitone became the 'axis' of a new tetra chord
built up on a pitch different from that prescribed by theory (from C, F,
G). The widespread occurrence of such phenomena evoked a response
on the part of music theory which "making a virtue out of necessity"

elaborated the so called technique of mutation to maintain the illusion
of diatonicism. One of its varieties was employed in the cases where a
melody called for the use of both b molle and qdurum which belonged to
different hexachords (Ex. 16).
The technique of mutation was based on the theoretical propo-
sition concerning the affinity of tones separated by a fourth and a fifth.
Hence in a change of hexachord such tones were named by the same
syllables to maintain the illusion of a fixed notation (the E-b fifth was
sung as mi-mi, the F-b~ fourth as fa-fa). In practice the problem of muta-
tion was restricted to the choice of the appropriate hexachord: if a melody
contained the tone qdurum, use was made of the opening syllables of
the 'natural' and 'hard' hexachords; in the case of b molle, the opening
syllables of the 'natural' and 'soft' hexachords were used; mutation from
a 'hard' into a 'soft' hexachord was possible only via a 'natural'
hexachord.
It is difficult to say how regularly use was made of the non-
diatonic tones in monodic liturgical chants. At any rate, according to
the theoretical evidence, their use was limited (32, Book 2, p. 293); the
earliest mention of the introduction of the tones 'foreign to a hexachord'
is contained in the treatise De musica (53, Vol. 1, p. 274). This purely
musicological problem could hardly be solved in all cases by drawing
on the surviving specimens of medieval musical art. The comparison of
edited manuscripts of the same compositions reveals a large number of
divergences (sometimes quite substantial) in the number and frequency
of accidentals. Undoubtedly, the rise of polyphony brought about a new
stage in the development of the medieval modal system and its regen-
eration (9th century). With the addition of a second voice to Gregorian
chant, the modes ceased to be purely melodic. The need to take into
account vertical relationships led to a different use of 'extraneous tones',
and in conformity with medieval musical practice, they often failed to
be notated. The desire to retain at all costs the 'purity' of liturgical chants
and avoid intervallic relationships which sometimes lacked appropri-
ate notational symbols was satisfied through transpositions in which
these 'extraneous tones' were 'disguised' as b molle and qdurum. True
enough, such theorists as Pseudo-Odo coped with transgressions of the
diatonic boundaries by means of 'melodic alteration', to use the 20th-
century terminology (53, Vol. 1, p. 252; Ex. 17). The persistent unwill-
ingness to note down accidentals to a certain degree extended to secu-
lar music as well, becoming a grave obstacle to the progress of musical
practice. This tendency to avoid chromaticism in notation (which, with
the development of polyphony, was to become more and more un-
76 Chromaticism
I:
:s
~
:s
"-l:s
!
:s
~
..,J
()
-.s:
v ~
d
)Co
~
::::c
~
~
....
~
.-t I
Q)
co,.)
u
'00 c:..,l
0
;:J
E £
.......
ro
> f
.....
(]J
::t
"d -e:r
(]J
lo.
E Q
.....::: -S:
-.)
::: cS
.....
0
..... )(.
0
ro QJ
.....
;:J ::r: @
~
\0
......
>< 00
~
avoidable but up to the 16th century was still considered 'suspicious')

was also due to the common practice of differentiating between strict
counterpoint and its concrete harmonic elaboration (35, p. 124). In strict
counterpoint the system of rules on how to avoid parallel relations and
treat dissonances was based on the categories of thirds and sixths as
classes of intervals. In the process of 'harmonic concretisation', which
constituted a second step in the musical realisation, the structure of in-
tervals had to be 'specified' partly by the performers themselves. A few
rules of musica ficta, which have come down to us, may serve as a 'guide'
in this labyrinth. These rules explaining the principles of using musica
ficta in actual performance practice reveal a major problem of this
period - that of leading tones.*
In the earliest organums the effect of the leading tone is almost
imperceptible. This is evidenced by the vestiges of pentatonic thinking
in Gregorian chants, which were pointed out by Knud Jeppesen and
J6zef Khominski (Ex. IS). However, even what may be considered as a
manifestation of the leading tone from our retrospective standpoint,
was obtained in the initial stages of polyphony by means of other tech-
niques contrapuntal in their nature. Dissonances in chords arising in
counterpoint were corrected by augmenting or diminishing one of the
tones (Ex. 19).
To avoid a melodic movement by a tritone, in conformity with
the conventional belief in mi contra fa diabolus est, one of the tones, for
instance, would be diminished. For the same reason a step leading to
an octave from the final tone of a hexachord was often excluded alto-
gether from the system (and did not even have a name). It could be
obtained only by transposing the whole system a fourth up, or a fifth
up. Moving from the 6th step of a hexachord to a tone a second higher
(this step had a dual form) and returning to the initial tone, use was
made of b rotundum in accordance with the rule Una nota supra la semper
est canendum fa (any note above fa is always sung as fa, i.e. it carries the
modal function of fa) which implies the presence of a semitone below it
(Ex. 20).
* Knud Jeppesen, for instance, believes that the entire history of music might
justifiably be considered a "history of the leading tone" - from its emergence
in Gregorian chants and its initial careful avoidance, through its fully acknow-
ledged role to its introduction in the modes in which it was 'alien' - and then,
with the transition of polyphony, its establishment in cadences, which eventu-
ally led to all Wagnerian and post-Wagnerian chromaticism (72, p. 69).
Similar ideas were expressed by Ernst Kurth and Boris Asafyev.
'-J
Ex. 17. One of the ways used to disguise extraneous pitches in medieval music 00
P4-tl~e eiJl'~ .. , c.otpOl,i~
9
d
~
:;:,
.....
n'
c;;'
~
Ex. 18. Venite gentes (l1th century)
Ex. 19. Tu patris sempiternus ("Musica enchiriadis")
Ex. 20. Una nota supra la

80 Chromaticism
It should be emphasized that during the initial stages of poly-

phony a leading tone was not consciously used even in cadences. On
the contrary, the exclusion of a minor third from the pen ultima served
as the main device for avoiding leading tones (in his treatise Micrologus
Guido d' Arezzo assigns the primary role in a cadence to a major sec-
ond, sometimes a major third). Moreover, the problem of cadence in
our sense simply did not exist in the 'sonorous' harmony of organum.
Nevertheless during that period and for some time afterwards the use
of semi tones was not precluded altogether: despite the statement made
by a 13th-century anonymous author that "a semitone is not used at all
or else only on very rare occasions" (32, Vol. 1, p. 354), the process of
introducing semitones in cadences, initiated in the 13th-century two-
part motet (first within diatonic modality and later using musica ficta),
with the appearance of three-part compositions, came to involve
clausulas with double leading tones. By this time the tones bb, eb, c#, f#
had been discovered in musical practice as a result of the above-men-
tioned rules of counterpoint. Their introduction into clausulas ushered
in a new stage in the development of the medieval modal system - the
stage of the deliberate employment of leadingtone chromaticism (to use
the terminology of the musica ficta period; Ex. 21). The use of these and
similar cadences - and especially their establishment, around the sec-
ond half of the 13th century, at the level of subsidiary cadences on the
various steps of a mode - undoubtedly disrupted the strict diatonicism
of the modal system, though one should not overestimate their influ-
ence on the basic, primary modal structure. Nevertheless leading tones
in the Middle Ages were of modal, rather than tonal significance, since
artificial leading tones were directed towards consonances which,
though they were similar to 'chords' and 'sixth chords', were conceived
simply as a sum of intervallic relationships, rather than chords as enti-
ties in their own right. Therefore initially each leading tone was of local
significance, affecting only the tone to which it was directed. The regola
delle terze-seste* also originated from the principles inherent in the struc-
ture of intervals, reflecting a later stage in the employment of musica
ficta. According to this rule, an imperfect consonance (a third, a sixth)
should be resolved into a perfect consonance (unison, an octave, a fifth)
through a half step in one and a whole step in the other voice (i.e. a
* The regola delle terze-seste represents a generalisation of musical practice and

is not treated in treatises on music as a specific theoretical concept.
is:: "-VI
I...
~ po
,
.., ( ~~~
..«
~
]~
~1Q." ~ ~l
Ex. 21. Le me qui doie (motet)
~
:-
~I '"'. I
Bele
.~
~ I-
~
I'
82 Chromaticism
third moving stepwise to a fifth, or a sixth to an octave, in our termino-

logy, should be major while a third moving stepwise to a unison should
be minor; Ex. 22). Even Marchetto da Padua who cited examples of
the most radical penetration into the chromatic sphere (including the
immediate succession of two semitones; see above), which undoubt-
edly generalised the widespread application of leading tones in 13th-
century musical practice, makes use of these categories of intervallic
structure, namely the categories of consonance and dissonance: "These
and similar dissonances are agreeable in the judgement of our ear be-
cause they prove to be the nearest neighbours of consonances, being
separated from the latter by the smallest distance. Hence there arises
the question of why it is sometimes necessary for dissonances pleasing
to the ear to stand at a small distance from consonances. Our reply to
this question is as follows: because dissonance in this case becomes some-
thing imperfect, which calls for perfection. And consonance constitutes
a perfected dissonance because the lesser the distance between disso-
nance and consonance, the nearer it comes to its perfection and its iden-
tity with consonance" (53, Vol. 3, p. 89; 143, p. 112). Looking at a sixth
from this perspective, Marchetto points out that this interval (dissonance)
"gravitates less to a fifth than to an octave because in singing one quite
often has to add embellishment called fictius" (53, Vol. 3, pp. 82-83).
Though the instances of "permutation" cited by Marchetto stand
somewhat apart, while the musical specimens preserved to date do not
always make it possible to trace the concrete influence of his ideas, the
following proposition seems quite probable: at the turn of the 13th cen-
tury the use of leading tones was becoming more and more determined
by the logical relationship of chords (though still within the framework
of intervallic structures).*
By the 14th century, the compound 12-tone upper 'limit' had
been set in compositional practice as a result of two main factors -lead-
ing tones and the change of modes (transposition may be regarded as
an additional factor). At any rate, already in Machaut's compositions
the hierarchical system of clausulas with double leading tones combined
with the principle of transposition remains within these boundaries and
makes it possible to explain the essence of the tonal relationships in a
composition (Ex. 23a), while some clausulas are characterised by a
greater degree of intervallic 'density' (Ex. 23b). An example dating from
* Among other things, we can judge the extent of such practice from state-
ments made by contemporaries: "It is not false but genuine and necessary, for
no motet or rondel can be sung without it" (32, Vol. 3, p. 18).
Ex. 22. Le serviteur (chanson, 15th century)
C-
Historical Types of Chromaticism
83
00
~
Ex. 23a. Guillaume de Machaut. Virelais Tres bonne et belle, mi oueil

joyeuse pasture prennent en vostre figure
n
~
d
;::
;::,
f:f.
11)'
;::
Ex. 23b. Guillaume de Machaut. Ballade Se quanque amours
the late 14th century demonstrates a quite daring treatment of leading

tones and the joint effect they exert together with a mixture of modes
(Aeolian and Ionian), revealing some features similar to the principles
of pitch organisation characteristic of subsequent historical periods (Ex.
24). By the early 15th century these trends became more and more dis-
tinct and evident while the choice of 'chords', still viewed as a sum of
individual intervallic relationships, showed a great degree of diversity
(Ex. 25).
As a whole, 15th-century chromaticism represented a two-fold
phenomenon. On the one hand, it was not as yet consciously appre-
hended as such, being treated by contemporary musicians as 'acciden-
tal', not involving the fundamental nature of the music (this belief was
demonstrated outwardly by the fact that accidentals were rarely used
in contemporary notation). On the other hand, and this is most obvious
to contemporary musicians, chromaticism was a major expressive re-
source. The establishment of closer relationships between consonant
tones made the process of harmonic unfolding logical and purposeful
(leading tones as the decisive feature of 15th-century chromaticism gave
86 Chromaticism
)(
'""
:>-, ::s
I-<
.....;::::s ~
~
Q)
£
u
~
.....
"'i'
,.....
'-'
~
;::::
<ow
::::
;::::
~
a.i
bJ:J
til
K
.........
0
Cfl
..f
N
><
~
Ex. 25. Guillaume Legrant. Credo (15th century)
. \ t~oeoJ t'":\
LChClttl}]
~
(ii'
...,..
a
....,
~'
;;:,
~
-
~
Vl
""
-Q..
9
d
~
;;:,
...,..
~'
(ii'
~
00
'-l
88 Chromaticism
the impression of a conscious regulation of harmonic progressions and

were, from this standpoint, functional; for details, see 35, p. 124).
At the turn of the 16th century there occurred a change in the
concept of polyphonic composition which manifested itself, at the level
of the compositional process, in the transition from the successive com-
position of voices (discant - bass - alto) on the basis of a cantus firmus to
the practice of simultaneous composition, which laid the foundations
for the development of imitative polyphony and the subsequent estab-
lishment of homophonic music. In this respect 16th-century harmony
represents the 'interregnum' period between the purely intervallic con-
ception of vertical pitch structure which prevailed in the 15th century
and the establishment of tonal principles in sound organisation that
took place in the 17th century. This entailed a change in the concept of
chromaticism as well. Carl Dahlhaus defines it as variable (35, pp. 125-
126). Such an approach to sixteenth-century chromaticism does not ex-
clude the factor of the leading tone but rather places the main focus on
the effect of a new coloration of the initial diatonic basis of the system
and, as a result, the aesthetic impact of such types of progressions was
derived not from the phenomenon of gravitation to the following chord
but by the referring back to the initial diatonic form which through its
chromaticisation was seen in a fresh light as if 'illumined' from within.
The emergence of sixteenth-century variable chromaticism was
closely linked with the prevalent heated debates about tuning and tem-
perament (according to Dahlhaus's witty remark, these problems were
"as popular in academic circles as the problems of harmony in 18th-
century salons"; 35, p. 127). Chromaticism viewed as the momentary
effect of recolouring chords presupposes that each chord involved in
this process (during the period under consideration a chord of thirds
and fifths or thirds and sixths) is treated as an isolated unit, which in
turn calls for the acoustic explanation of these intervals as consonances,
i.e. the transition from the Pythagorean system of tuning to just intona-
tion. In this way the gradual transition from the medieval to the mod-
ern concept of chromaticism unfolded in the 15th and 16th centuries
against the background of far-reaching changes in the systems govern-
ing the most essential categories in musical thinking.
4. The Renaissance
The most elaborate use of chromaticism during the Renaissance period

characterised the second half of the 16th century. Here music scholars
commonly distinguish the following trends (30, pp. 172-173):
(1) Transpositional chromaticism expressed by the usual altera-

tion signs and having little in common with our understanding of chro-
maticism. This trend will not be considered in this context.
(2) 'Experimental chromatic labyrinths'. For example, Adrian
Willaert's composition Quidnon ebrietas represents one of the first ex-
amples which embraces a full circle of fifths. In effect, this is compound
chromaticism arising from an extended approach to the transposition
of hexachords, analogous to modulatory chromaticism of a later
period*. In fact, in this piece the composer makes use of the musica ficta
principle, reaching far beyond the circle of fifths and anticipating equal
temperament and enharmonic equivalence to convey the specific tonal
relationships taking shape within the composition. Edward Lowinsky's
transcription of the second half of Quidnon ebrietas which involved
numerous parallel seconds and sevenths proved a milestone in the com-
prehension of its tonal structure. According to Lowinsky, an adequate
interpretation of this composition calls for a transposition of the lower
voice by two semitones (to the great pleasure of the composer himself
the most skilful singers of the Papal Cappella Choir failed to cope with
this kunststiick; 108, p. 286).
Quidnon ebrietas was noted down in cantus mollis with a flat in
the key signature. In this case the tone d becomes the borderline of the
17-tone system accepted at that time in music theory (Prosdocimus).
And the fact that the accidental is missing before f in Bar 21 may signify
Willaert's unwillingness to go beyond that system of notation (for this
reason f~ and b~~ have not been notated in the chain of fa steps: b~, e~, a~,
d~, g~, d ... ). One should bear in mind that in the notation of the period
the sign of a flat was used, as Carl Dahlhaus proved (38, p. 254), as a
hexachordal sign (the so-called "principle of relative notation") and did
not indicate the precise pitch of a step on which it was placed (as with
the 'strange flats' in Russian monody, see above.) Another hexachordal
sign was q. Therefore a flat before f could mean either f~ or fU. The
modal function of the signq was mi, and of the signlr-fa. Meanwhile the
sign # was treated as chroma which left the basic structure of a hexachord
* After the use of this technique in Josquin's Absalom [iii mi, it remained in
vogue among 16th-century composers (Rare, Marenzio et al). Despite the seem-
ingly 'tonal' association of triads, with their fundamental tones related by
fourths and fifths, such progressions were used primarily for coloristic effects
(in particular, the effect of 'color thickening' and a departure from the 'tonal'
centre).
90 Chromaticism
unchanged. The musical systems of Prosdocimus and Hothby were also

based on interpreting the diatonic steps, on the one hand, as mi and, on
the other, as fa. Only according to these principles could one appre-
hend, for instance, Costeley's sacred chanson Seigneur Dieu ta pitie (circa
1558) based on a progression embracing 16 hexachords in Fa steps = bb,
eb, ab, db, gb, cb, fb, bU, eU, aU, dU, gU, cU, fbb, bf,U, ef,U*.
From this standpoint let us look at Romano Micheli's six-part
madrigal 0 voi che sospirate (Ex. 26). The composer scored only the first
tenor's part, not going beyond fb in his notation. The tonal structure of
this composition has been deciphered through the realisation of the
specific canonical scheme of the initial head-motive based on a major
triad. This piece's singular sonic effect is achieved through the constant
alternation of major and minor triads throughout the composition, which
is predetermined by the characteristic interaction of harmony and
counterpoint.
The critical turning point in the harmonic development of this
composition occurs at Bar 23 where there arises a need to 'correct' the
composer's text by entering into the region of double flats. This is
necessitated by the strict rules of the imitation techniques and the logic
of the harmonic movement. Any performance of mm. 23-31 which
involved a non-critical and over-literal adherence to the author's
notation** would grossly distort Micheli's elegant conception, which
was in line with the manneristic ideas of the time, and does not result in
the framing of the madrigal by a G-major chord (in this case the circle of
fifths is not closed up).
Another principle underlies the composition Ut re mi fa sol la,
ascribed to Alfonso Ferrabosco (Ex. 27), based on the statement of the
celebrated hexachordal formula in ascending semitones from c, c#, d,
eb, e, f, f#, g (eb ... f c g d ... e ... f# c#). At the same time within the
* A special case here is the so called "secret chromatic art" in mid-sixteenth-

century Netherlandish motets. Diatonic modality is here weakened through
immersions in the remote chromatic spheres (symbolising definite affects in-
herent in certain portions of the text) owing to the need to employ accidentals
missing in the notation. The key to such tonal operations was often concealed
in the music itself and only the most experienced singers were capable of find-
ing it. In most cases such secrets were passed down by oral tradition (06).
** The notation used during that period had no signs adequate to cover the
'musical America' discovered by the composer in this composition. But the
lack of a theoretical concept and its corresponding graphic representation does
not imply the non-existence of the phenomenon itself.
Ex. 26. Romano Micheli. Madrigale a sei voci in Canone 0 voi che
sospirate
VOl
I
-k I c VOl cltt ¥ - ~pl - W - VOl -k I c VOl cltt ¥ -
.\
~pl - W -
~
- Yv\ 1-
~~L \1A) -
I
C~ \~ - \~t - t~ - i.e {':1 - ,u.O' 1(0 - l'~ li. '>«
\!)
tv
Ex. 26. Romano Micheli. Madrigale a sei voci in Canone 0 voi che
sospirate (Continued)
9
Cl
~
:;::,
,..,..
;::).
Vi'
~
71t. - gA.. - it. "0" 1t1; 1i~ p'L~ {Q'tdIX K.jo'l.- tt, ~Ofl mi -t it pi If 1CuLa. ~- 't..t I &01. - f:c tit.. u 11/;-J( - -- 'U.£.
Ex. 27. Alfonso della Viola (Ferrabosco ?). Ut re mi fa solla

94 Chromaticism
corresponding sections pure diatonicism predominates almost without

exception.
(3) 'Ancient' chromaticism of the 16th century has been associ-
ated by many scholars with the attempts made by Nicola Vicentino and
other composers from his milieu to revive the ancient chromatic genus
in the context of polyphony. Lack of information about the sources of
data pertaining to the ancient genera at Vicentino's disposal and his
understanding of the spirit of ancient Greek music (an adequate notion
of the real functions of the ancient Greek pitch system in actual musical
practice is problematic even today)* raises the matter of the correspond-
ence between the phenomena characteristic of a monodic culture and
the differing phenomena arising within the context of mid-sixteenth-
century contrapuntal writing, though in many respects some affinity of
origin is preserved. It should be also taken into account that Vicentino,
like many of his predecessors and contemporaries, reconstructed the
gamut of ancient Greek music upside-down. His examples of musical
genera and his famous liS even chromatic octaves" are built up in an
ascending direction, acquiring an absolutely different meaning com-
pared to the Greek system of descending tetrachords (Ex. 29). All these
actual contradictions inherent in Vicentino's attempt to revive the an-
cient genera within the framework of the musical art of his time are
further aggravated by a kind of paradox in his compositional techniques:
Vicentino believed that such compositions could exist and be performed
in different versions - as enharmonic (with accurate observance of all
the notational signs), as chromatic (disregarding all the dots over the
notes, which in Vicentino's orthography indicated enharmonic augmen-
tation) and as diatonic (disregarding all similar signs and 'accidentals';
167, p. 67). By way of illustration he refers to his own madrigal Soav'e
dole' ardore: " . .. it is chromatic throughout, with some notes belonging
* This is evidenced, for instance, by J6zef Khominski's remark regarding the

celebrated fragment from Vicentino's elegy Jerusalem (Ex. 28), pointing to his
"too free use of chromaticism" which in this case, in the scholar's opinion,
amounts to "a skip from a chromatic tone in any direction, the ascending or
descending, regardless of diminution or augmentation of a tone" (92, Vol. 2,
p. 315). In this concrete case representing the exposition of the ancient Greek
chromatic tetra chord by means of imitative polyphony one can hardly expect
'to retain the direction of movement predetermined by chromaticism', i.e. to
set before such chromaticism the demands inherent in the functional type of
sound organisation. Moreover, in the ancient Greek musical practice and theory
the interval of the trihemitone was not regarded as a skip, for it arose from the
progression of two neighbouring steps.
..
Ex. 28. Nicola Vicentino. jerusalem
I
,-
o~
I
.....
0.-<
,.
~
OJ
u
:>ro I
..-
ou QI
Z
-
\0
0\
Ex. 29. Vicentino's chromatic octave; a sample of monody in the

chromatic mode Tetrardus
n
;:s-<
2l
3i
i=:l
.......
n'
c;;'
3i
to the enharmonic genus so that a student singing these two ordini to-
gether could appreciate all the diversity inherent in one and the same
piece of music ... To test this, such com-positions could be sung in three
ways" (167, p. 67): (a) without any accidental signs, i.e. without b
*
rotundum and quadrum, the chromatic or enharmonic dieses (= the dia-
*'
tonic genus); (b) with the signs band the chromatic diese, but without
the enharmonic diese (= the chromatic genus); and (c) with all the signs
as notated (= the mixed chromatic/ enharmonic genus).
Let us conduct the experiment offered by Vicentino: bringing all
the voices of the madrigal together and notating it in the three versions
(Exs. 30a, b and c).
In this case the chromatic and the enharmonic versions present
themselves as accidental alterations of the musical fabric whose sub-
stance remains unchanged despite the modifications chosen by the
singer. On the other hand, the ancient genera transferred by Vicentino
onto his contemporary method of counterpoint represent the essential
categories which largely determine the concrete musical ethos.
Vicentino's striving to attain 'miraculous effects' through these genera
can hardly be wondered at. According to some music scholars, here we
observe a discrepancy between aesthetics and compositional technique:
the accidental aspect of the compositional technique (the chosen genus)
turns out to be essential in aesthetic terms and, vice versa, the essence
of the compositional technique (the contrapuntal structure) appears
accidental from an aesthetic point of view (35, p. 123). Besides, the mad-
rigal Soav' e dole' ardore in its three possible realizations illustrates the
conventional practice of contemporary musicians of differentiating
between abstract counterpoint and its concrete harmonic elaboration.
The latter was considered as the secondary, 'upper' layer in the
music's realisation, often left at the performers' discretion (and in most
cases not stipulated in the notation). As a result, such compositions were
based, like Vicentino's, on the abstract contrapuntal framework, identi-
cal in its diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic versions, whose intervals
within the boundaries of their intervallic class remained undefined,
allowing for modifications and changes (Dahlhaus views such para-
doxes in Vicentino's music as a manifestation of his "manneristic think-
ing"; 35, pp. 123, 125).
(a) Chromatic madrigals in mid-sixteenth-century music
In his analysis of the music of this period Edward Lowinsky introduces

the concept of 'triadic atonality' to define the system of tonal relation-
ships which came to involve certain elements of tonal harmony charac-
Ex. 30a, b, c. Nicola Vicentino. Madrigale Soav' e dole' ardore
teristic of the stile moderno (for example, the triad conceived as an entity,
rather than merely as a sum of intervallic relationships, a conception
which had been established as early as in Zarlino's theory), but not as
yet taking the form it was to have in music between the 17th and 19th
centuries, primarily as regards functional relationships. His term
'atonality' used in this context must be accepted with great reservations
as one which describes the principles of transitional musical style in
view of the current state of musical evolution (between modality and
tonality) and indicates the lack of any classical type of major / minor
tonality* which, strictly speaking, could not have been in existence -
simply because such phenomena historically preceded, rather than
followed tonality. Each phenomenon of this kind would appear to call
for a historical approach and analytical comprehension according to its
own laws. The more so here as the chromaticism of the late 16th to early
17th centuries signifies the initial stage in the transition to harmonic
tonality, on the one hand, and the culmination of the development of
medieval modality, on the other. It is this factor which should predeter-
mine the method of research: one has to bear in mind that the phenom-
ena which created a system during the period of harmonic tonality had,
at the end of the 16th century, merely an incidental function within this
system, and can be related to their subsequent manifestations only with
hindsight.
One of the main features characteristic of compositional tech-
nique of the 16th to early 17th centuries (and of the earlier period as
well) is its static character (in contrast to the 'dynamic' functional mecha-
nism of harmonic tonality), which can be explained by a different type
of musical thinking based not on the subordination of certain chords to
others (as in the functional tonal system) but on their coordination with
each other in a modal system lacking the concept of a tonal centre**.
Thus, for instance, the tonic-dominant relationship of the chords in
Gesualdo's madrigal Merce! is founded not on the principle of subordi-
nation inherent in the tonal system, but constitutes merely a local
device for combining two separate chords, which neither extends to the
following chords nor ensues as a consequence from the previous one.
In this way chromaticism manifests itself through the combination of
transposed diatonic elements. According to the classification offered
* The same as in 20th-century atonality.

** The concepts of subordination and coordination are used by Carl Dahlhaus
(37).
100 Chromaticism
above, this type of chromaticism may be defined as mixed. To the same

category belong the compositions discussed above which involve a 'jour-
ney' around a circle of fifths in which this abstract intervallic scheme
takes on the form of a chain of dominants, owing to the fact that each
step represents a major triad. Chords from this chain are connected
through the movement of their roots in fifths, sometimes by leading
tones as well, however they are not related mutually as dominants to
tonics. The dominant principle does not manifest itself as yet at the level
of the system as a whole, but only as a means of connecting tonally
neutral chords. The succession of chords does not give the impression
of a motion towards a single defined goal. The first chord progresses
onto the second, the second onto the third and so on. The preceding
progression is independent of the following one. The fact that a major
triad is built up on each step of the transposed diatonic scale does not
reduce these triads to the role of chromatic 'substitutes' of the corre-
sponding steps. The case in point is more likely to involve variability of
the initial contrapuntal framework, i.e. the variability of separate inter-
vals within their respective intervallic class. This factor lends such
progressions a special coloristic effect (Ex. 31). More-over, the very
method of notation reveals the composer's linear type of thinking (the
additional factor conducive to crystallisation of this musical structure
is the indication of stile antico). It is hard to say precisely what Marenzio
was after trying to revive the 'ancient style' of chromaticism in the mu-
sical context of his time, nevertheless the immediate semitonal pro-
gressions in some voices are directed more 'forward' than 'backward'.
Contemporary musicians were not unanimous on the point of
whether such progressions constituted chromaticism or not. Zarlino gave
an affirmative answer to this question, believing that transposition una-
voidably entailed the use of chromaticism (175, Vol. 3, p. 76). Vicentino
objected to this by arguing that transpositions, even the most remote,
merely imitated the intervals of the untransposed mode (167, p. 47; 61,
p. 394). However sixteenth-century chromaticism remained primarily a
kind of melodic writing and its influence on the vertical harmonic struc-
ture (keeping in mind the attendant difficulty of tuning - in particular,
the combination of g# and ab in the previous Ex. would be out of the
question in just intonation) was only a secondary consideration, whether
in the examples which revived the ancient Greek chromatic genus or in
the progressions which employed bass movement of a major or minor
third (up or down) where it is hard to avoid melodic chromaticism in
one of the voices (Ex. 32).
Ex. 31. Luca Marenzio. Muti una volta quel suo Antico stile
101
102
Ex. 32. Orlando di Lasso. Carmina cromatico

Chromaticism
The latter example cited repeatedly in the specialist literature is

interesting for its anticipation of Rameau's idea of chromaticism arising
from the movement of the fundamental bass in thirds. For all their out-
ward similarity, such phenomena have different roots. What Rameau
codified drawing on the already established functional tonal system
was, for Orlando di Lasso, just a coloristic effect (determined to no small
measure by the text of the given fragment) within the framework of a
system still in the making, if departing quite significantly from ortho-
dox modality. We may even presume that this fragment could have been
deeply rooted in its conception in the same abstract diatonic intervallic
framework familiar to us from the afore-mentioned example of
Vicentino, but colorfully decorated. Nevertheless, such immediate
successions of two semitones, which are in line with the modern under-
standing of chromaticism, appear to be quite symptomatic of the gradual
change in the very concept of chromaticism (from 'mediated', i.e. unre-
lated to direct semitonal progressions, compound chromaticism to 'im-
mediate' chromaticism, to use the terms initiated by Theodor Kroyer
(98, pp. 15-16». Nonetheless a major part of so-called "sixteenth-cen-
tury chromaticism" arises from cross-relations, a Mi-Fa clash, rather than
from direct semitonal progressions. It would appear that there was no
regular term to define music full of accidentals, though not so frequently
employing direct chromatic progressions (in his regard Juan Bermudo
speaks of the semichromatico as a mixture of diatonic and chromatic ele-
ments (61, p. 393». The unexpected use of chords "chromatic in their
position" and their 'illogicality' even (or perhaps the more so) to the
ears of 20th-century musicians was likely to be determined by their
coloristic function. Hence the effect of spontaneity achieved by such
chords whose progressions could hardly be explained in logical terms.
The emphasis here was placed on the effect of passing from one chord
to another, from one color to another. The analysis of an extreme case of
sixteenth-century "mediated" chromaticism (Ex. 33) reveals that within
the framework of a quite coherent harmonic entity in G-major (though
this tonality is insufficiently defined and lacks the classical clarity of its
explicit components) use has been made of 14 tones (from ab to d#) and
the triads from C minor to C# minor while the range of tonal steps ex-
tends from Bb to F#. At the same time this piece whose title discloses the
composer's intention contains a single 0) instance of obvious melodic
chromaticism as a direct and intentional succession of semi tones, ex-
cept for the residual phenomena of musica ficta. As for the rest (for a few
exceptions such as, for example, the juxtaposition of G minor and F#
minor triads), each harmonic sequence demonstrates the diatonic level
Ex. 33. Giovanni Macque. Consonanze stravaganti
of relationships. The singular sonic effect of this piece is achieved by a

turn of harmony involving the progression of two major or two minor
triads with their combined movement in thirds (and attendant cross-
relations), which was characteristic of 16th-century 'chromaticists'.
(b) The chromatic principles of Gesualdo di Venosa
The madrigal was undoubtedly one of the genres in sixteenth-century

music which made the widest and most diverse use of chromaticism. In
this respect the compositions of Gesauldo di Venosa are of particular
interest, representing a kind of "compendium" of the devices and tech-
niques inherent in chromatic writing, which in his music become the
only possible mediator between music and text, the bearers of the spe-
cific 'madrigalian ethos'.
Though Gesualdo drew on the experience of his predecessors
and contemporaries, his creations are distinguished by a singular artis-
tic logic which in many respects determines the naturalness and suit-
ability of his celebrated 'chromatic idioms'. And the fact that the
composer confined himself exclusively to the madrigal genre can be
explained by the imperfection of the contemporary keyboard instru-
ments and their inability to keep abreast of the latest innovations in
vocal music (Gesualdo was known to have shown keen interest in
Vicentino's archicembalo, which was responsible, among other things,
for the expansion of the tonal soundscape in Gesualdo's works up to
0, and in his repeated employment of variations on the ancient Greek
chromatic tetrachord).
Though some madrigalian procedures tinged with chromatic
intervals, such as the simultaneous chromatisation of all the voices, the
use of a chromatic tetra chord in its ancient Greek version as the
melodic basis, the descending progression of chromatic semitones, and
non-harmonic relations, had occasionally been employed by his pre-
decessors too, it was Gesualdo who made them an indispensable part
of the musical language with which he spoke to his contemporaries,
turning such devices from an exception into a rule.
A large proportion of the chromatic phenomena in Gesualdo's
compositions involve such non-musical factors as word-painting
(Ex. 34). However even his works reveal a tendency to gradually free
initially madrigalian procedures from the dominance of the text, mak-
ing them part of the musical language functioning according to its own
immanent laws. Another factor conducive to chromaticism was the lack
of unified devices to convey various affects (to use the terminology of
Ex. 34. Gesualdo di Venosa. Ahi, gia mi discoloro
the later period) through musical 'rhetorical figures' in the works of

Gesualdo and other contemporary composers. Thus, for example, one
of the most common types of chordal progressions in Gesualdo's mad-
rigals - the combination of major and minor triads at a distance of a
major third (the role played by triads moving in thirds in the music of
the period was outlined above) - can be used to convey opposite emo-
tional states. In his madrigals Mora lasso, Merce! and Deh, coprite il bel
seno this chordal progression accompanies the words mora, mora, morte
while in the madrigal Beita, poi che t'assenti it appears at the word belM
(beauty)*. The invertible character of such chordal pro-gressions within
a rhetorical figure indicates that in the context of a work prime impor-
tance is attached not to the tonal function of chords but their modal
interrelationship, i.e. the immediate relationship of chords, not calling
for the presence (obvious or implied) of a third chord for their compre-
hension (Exs. 35-38).
A chromatic change of harmonic intervals in Gesualdo's style is
of exclusively coloristic character and does not affect the primary sig-
nificance of individual intervals in the counterpoint (an augmented fifth
and a diminished fourth in this case create a dissonant effect, but in
terms of counterpoint they are treated as consonances). The above men-
tioned distinction between harmony and counterpoint becomes in
Gesualdo's music the fundamental factor determining the use of chro-
maticism in many respects.
The eleven tones used in the first four measures of the madrigal
Merce! are structured in major triads with the basic tones being b-a-g-
JfJ-e, but the entire progression thus formed turns out to be filling in
the contrapuntally orthodox two-part framework of outer voices (Ex.
36). The above cited exposition of the madrigal Moro lasso, which was
characterised by Charles Burney in his time as "extremely shocking and
unacceptable" with its chordal progressions having "no relationship
either real or imaginable" (55, p. 318), is, as a matter of fact, quite cor-
rect in terms of counterpoint, with its combination of chords with two
common tones.
* In this case, though, the direction of the chords changes and their intervals
turn into a minor third.
108 Chromaticism
'"""'
ct
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Ex. 36. Gesualdo di Venosa. Madrigale Merce!
Ex. 37. Gesualdo di Venosa. Madrigale Deh, coprite il bel seno

Ex. 38. Gesualdo di Venosa. Madrigale Beita, poi che t' assenti
......
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Beginning with his earliest compositions, Gesualdo worked out

a specific contrapuntal technique of imitation as a result of which his
madrigals often give the impression of homophonic music. The most
adventurous harmonic progressions are mediated by conventional coun-
terpoint, thus coming to appear orthodox. Due consideration for both
vertical and horizontal factors are indispensable for an adequate inter-
pretation of Gesualdo's chromatic techniques*.
Thus, the chromaticism of the system characteristic of Gesualdo's
madrigals is in most cases defined as chromaticism of the contrapun-
tally combined elements of this system. Direct movement by chromatic
semitones penetrates to the level of the individual voices and runs
through the entire harmonic structure, relegating imitation to the back-
ground.
5. The stile moderno
Chromaticism in the stile moderno represents a fundamentally new phe-

nomenon. In fact, only in the music of this period do we come across
the phenomena which precondition the formation of a new concept and
have no direct analogies in previous historical periods. The establish-
ment of this concept in the theoretical sphere reflects the essential
changes which occurred in the musical language during that period.
While stressing the novelty of phenomena we should keep in
mind such factors as continuity, historical roots and premises. There-
fore it seems natural to look at chromaticism in its modern sense from
the standpoint of its affinity with certain long-standing principles in
musical thinking and their reflection in the music of a new historical
period. At the same time it should be clearly understood that modal
chromatic features and the chromaticism inherent in the epoch of har-
monic tonality are fundamentally different phenomena whose descrip-
tion therefore calls for the use of the appropriate tools of categorization.
* Igor Stravinsky in his orchestration of the madrigal Be/td overemphasized

the vertical nature of the chromaticism, bringing it into line with the modern
understanding of chromaticism, and overlooked (perhaps, deliberately) the
contrapuntal relationships governing Gesualdo's use of chromatic chords.
112 Chromaticism
The substantive change that had occurred in the evolution of

the musical language by the beginning of the 17th century was prima-
rily manifested in corresponding phenomena in musical practice. In his
attempt at a theoretical interpretation, a scholar quite often faces the
problem of choosing analytical tools adequate to these phenomena (new
concepts to describe the novel practice had not been as yet evolved by
contemporary theory) and has to solve the following dilemma: either to
impose onto the past the categories used in the theory of a later period
or to perpetuate the concepts of the old theory which arose at another
time in response to different phenomena. This matter is especially
relevant as regards the music written at the turn of the 17th century.
And in historical retrospection it is only natural that we prefer to attach
greater importance to the 'revolutionary' nature of changes, rather than
to the 'evolutionary' development of the musical language.
Concurrent with the formation of the new concept of chromati-
cism, there arose a system of attendant, kindred concepts, though use
was still made of certain categories from previous periods. In this re-
gard mention should be made of a phenomenon pertaining to the emer-
gence, late in the 16th century, of a new keyboard genre, a composition
based on a chromatic theme bounded by the perfect fourth (it was often
called a 'chromatic ricercare' or 'chromatic fantasia'). Such themes were
rooted in experiments conducted by Vicentino who treated the ancient
Greek chromatic genus not as a pyknon but as a genus composed of
two successive semitones and a melodic skip of a minor third. Never-
theless, most 'chromatic' themes written in the late 16th to early 17th
centuries were based on filling up the perfect fourth by semitones.
Chromaticism was still regarded as purely the province of melodic
writing, with the principles inherent in the exposition of chromatic
melodic formulas through tonal harmony being neglected and disre-
garded. It is worth noting how contemporary musicians themselves
explained certain themes which deviated from the principle of filling
up the perfect fourth by semitones. Thus, according to Artusi, Trabaci
characterized some of his own divergent themes as inganno (Italian;
deception, error) referring to the occasions when "one theme is suc-
ceeded by another that does not use the same melodic intervals yet re-
tains the same names of hexachordal syllables" (70, p. 262; Exs. 39a, b
and c).
In the latter example a chromatic progression calling for due
consideration of the vertical factor is characteristically reduced to a
u
J:.r..
~
o
te
[fJ
.-
,..Q
.,....;
"d
Ex. 39a. Fresccobaldi. Ricercare dopo di Credo (Fiori musicali)
l-
D B ES E f fis G
Es (mi)
113
114 Chromaticism
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116 Chromaticism
familiar modal type (Vicentino's version of the ancient chromatic

tetrachord). It should be noted that such manipulations of the hexa-
chordal syllables are, in fact, indicative of the departure from music
theory of the concept of the chromatic genus. Hence the explanation of
chromaticism in terms of an accumulation of diatonic elements and the
reduction of metabole (as a change of genus) down to mutation (a change
of modal scale). A characteristic example of the determination to ex-
plain even purely chromatic (in the European sense of the word) phe-
nomena akin to the preceding examples by drawing on conventional
melodic models is the interpretation, based on the inganno concept, of
the theme of Frescobaldi's chromatic ricercare (cited here alongside the
fugal theme from Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue) with the cou-
pling of Vicentino's two 'ancient' tetrachords as its implicit basis. The
innovative character of Frescobaldi's theme is indeed unquestionable
(Exs. 40b, c).
The novel meaning of such chromaticism becomes obvious if
we compare Frescobaldi's theme with the celebrated specimen of the
chromatic genus by Vicentino (Ex. 40a).
(a) Chromaticism and musical rhetoric
Several major stages can be identified in the evolution of modern chro-

maticism as a self-contained phenomenon explicable on the basis of
purely musical principles. One such milestone was, of course, the justi-
fication of chromaticism by the text and, in a wider context, by various
non-musical factors. The use of chromaticism to underline word mean-
ing (word painting, madrigalian procedures) became an indispensable
premise for introducing the recently discovered techniques and stock
melodic formulas into instrumental music, the tonal vocabulary of in-
dividual composers and the epoch at large. This trend was also mani-
fested in the use of certain musical rhetorical figures characteristic of
the music of the 17th to the 18th centuries and based on the 'chromatic
ethos' to express various affects. The unconventional character of a large
proportion of such 'emblems', justified only by their relationship to the
text (direct in vocal compositions, and mediated in instrumental arrange-
ments of choral pieces) led contemporary musicians to label them as
'licentious' .
One of the most widely known musical rhetorical figures in-
volving chromaticism is the so called 'hardened progression' (passus
duriusculus). Christoph Bernhard, who was the first to describe this fig-
ure, regards it as an unnatural progression "either in a single voice or in
relation to another voice". In the latter case it involves the distribution
Ex. 40 a. Vincentino chromatic tetrachord, b. Frescobaldi. Chromatic
nicercare, c. Bach. Chromatic fugue
J::
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8"
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118 Chromaticism
of a semitonal or tritonal progression between two voices, which had

been treated as a 'non-harmonic relation' since the times of Zarlino (175,
Vol. 3, pp. 29-30), permissible only as a device to evoke a certain affect,
according to Baroque musical theory (134, p. 774).
Bernhard believed that passus duriusculus emerges when a "voice
rises or falls by a minor (i.e. chromatic) semitone" (128, p. 713), or when
a melodic turn involves an augmented second, a diminished third, a
diminished or augmented fourth or fifth. The most well-known and
common form of passus duriusculus represents the interval of a fourth
filled up by semitones, a musical rhetorical figure capable, according to
contemporary musicians, of producing a strong emotional effect (Ex.
41a).
As a variety of the above figure, Bernhard identifies pathopoiia
(from the Greek; excitation of passions) which in 17th-century compo-
sition teaching meant the introduction of semitones not belonging to
the given mode (rather than whole steps) to convey grief in the appro-
priate sections of the text (129, p. 715). The next example from Schutz
(Sieben Worte) to the words "I'm thirsty" may serve as an illustration of
its use (Ex. 41b).
Another kindred melodic technique is the "hardened leap" (saltus
duriusculus) involving a progression by a wider interval - a sixth, a
seventh, or a diminished or augmented interval (Exs. 41c and 41d).
In the first case its use is determined by the text ("I'm ex-
hausted"), while the latter example demonstrates the use of the saltus
duriusculus in instrumental music.
Other musical rhetorical figures in the music of the 17th and
18th centuries are related to chromaticism in a less direct way. Thus, for
example, the figure antitheton is encountered in compositions where it
is necessary to express contrasting phenomena. In musical terms, this
may be a contrast of a theme and its countersubject, consonance and
dissonance, opposite types of movement, homophonic and polyphonic
writing, major and minor, and as this particular case - diatonicism and
chromaticism (8, p. 43; Ex. 41e).
In the latter example the opposition of diatonicism and chro-
maticism underlines the words "When our eyes are sleeping, our heart
is awake" through the contrast of the two sections of the melody, though
in one's overall perception of the given fragment this contrast is hardly
discernible (all the voices have been preserved in a free derivative com-
bination of the voices obtained through vertical florid counterpoint)
perceived more by the eye than by the ear. Prime importance is still
B
T
A
Ex. 41a. Bach. Cantata No. 12
S
120 Chromaticism
Ex. 41b. Schutz. Sieben Worte
Tesus
P
8 Mich cLPv -stet
Ex.41c. Gesualdo di Venosa. Languisce al fin
chi da la vi - ta
Lan ~~i - \CLLlt 11'1
LlM1 ~&U - 4ct cd. tiM
Ex. 41d. Trabaci. Verso Undecimo Sesto Tono

Ex. 41e. Schutz. Wann unsre Augen schlafen ein
121
122 Chromaticism
attached to the sonic effect of major triads moving in thirds, a type of

progression which entails the unavoidable use of chromaticism.
Non-harmonic relations also included the musical figure parrhesia
(Greek: too free, unrestrained) which consisted of the occasional em-
ployment (in accordance with the appropriate text) of diminished or
augmented intervals (whether in melodic or harmonic dimensions) to
convey the feelings of sorrow (127, p. 706; Ex. 41£).
Ex. 41£. Bach. Cantata No. 60
Under certain conditions the use of chromaticism could involve

the musical rhetorical figure of catachrese (Greek: misuse) and in some
cases the incorrect resolution of dissonance - ellipsis (Greek: omission)
when the expected consonance is followed by a rest and then a disso-
nance (in the views of Johann Scheibe and Johann Forkel, this figure
meant the introduction of a new musical idea, as well as an unexpected
modulation; 45, p. 258).
As a whole, we should emphasize the important role played by
the expressive devices that were discovered in the process of elaborat-
ing the musical rhetorical vocabulary of the 17th to 18th centuries, in
the formation and establishment of the specific chromatic ethos charac-
teristic of the music of the stile moderno, and in outlining the boundaries
of the emotional states that could be expressed by its means. And this is
true equally of vocal and instrumental music.
(b) Chromaticism and tonality
In the classical type of tonality the diatonicisation of one system (tonal-

ity) presupposes the simultaneous presence (potential or actual) of all
possible tonalities, even if in any particular case a complete tonal cycle

is not exhausted in the course of the harmonic development (the mo-
ment of choice becomes part of the composer's conception). Here is one
of the versions of such choice - as simple as it is sound (Ex. 42) which
came to be regarded as a symbol of so-called modulatory chromaticism
in the classical model of tonality based on diatonicism. In this context
the stratification of a chromatic entity appears to be most evident when
modulation places "diatonic elements in irregular locations" (this idea
was explored in detail by Schenker). Since chromaticism in classical to-
nality quite often becomes compound, arising from the progressive ac-
cumulation of diatonic elements, it sometimes loses it characteristic
feature of immediate progression by semitones.
In this way the matter of chromaticism comes to involve the in-
teraction of all tonalities. The process of expanding the boundaries of
tonality serves to reveal the reverse process from a maximal division
into structurally simple elements (diatonicism) and their combinations
towards the synthesis of separate elements from other tonalities within
one system.
The traditional ways for chromaticism to penetrate tonality (sub-
sidiary key areas - mixtures of modes - alteration, leading tones) and
the mechanism underlying the 'density' of tonal relationships follow
the strict hierarchical levels of harmonic structure:
(1) Unifying tonality of a musical work, an aesthetic phenom-
enon described conventionally in theoretical terms of the type "sym-
phony in G minor" or "sonata in C major" (despite a multitude of
harmonic turns involved in establishing and moving away from the
tonic within such a unifying tonality).
(2) Local tonality - an integral system of new pitches attained
through modulation, as a means of building up a musical form. The
modulatory plan of a composition gives tangible form to the unifying
tonality, lending it the singular traits and properties of an individual
artefact (irrespective of numerous conventional schemes discovered here
in the process of musical evolution).
(3) Subsidiary key areas, small-scale, subordinate regions with
their own local tonics, secondary dominants and subdominants, con-
ceivable in terms of a chord extended in time and space (the structure
of tonality is defined by the logical progression of such areas).
(4) Chord, a harmonic step of tonality, its structural unit, a
micromode reduced to the level of a symbol or a sign.
(5) Tone, a melodic step of tonality representing a cross-section
of its mode.
Ex. 42. Clementi. Sonatina in C major (lst movement)
Such a hierarchy reveals the inverse relationship existing be-

tween the expansion of the 'level' of tonality and the degree of chro-
matic 'density'. Chromaticism is most obviously and directly manifested
in a sequence of melodic steps (the conventional chromatic scale be-
coming it symbol) and harmonic steps (through the proportion of unal-
tered tones in the chords). But in the classical model of tonality, as has
been repeatedly outlined, the categories of horizontal (melody) and
vertical (chord) relations intersect. Each of them in its mediated func-
tion - the chord as a micromode, a suspended melody, melody as the
figuration of a chord - incorporates the other, a fact which should be
taken into consideration in analysis (Ex. 43). It is possible to view such
structures as purely horizontal (though the latent two-part writing is
obvious here) based on the sequential development of the interval group-
ing 1.3.1 (in semitones) so often encountered in Bach - suffice it to men-
tion the G-minor fugue theme from Volume One of The Well-Tempered
Clavier or the prelude in A minor from Volume Two. However the use
of all the twelve tones at the level of melodic steps of tonality, as a result
of extended leading-tone chromaticism, may not necessarily penetrate
to the level of the harmonic steps of the tonality which remain within
the diatonic scale. At the same time, within the harmonic space of Bach's
fugue theme, framed by the tonic of its key tonality and the local tonic
f#, there occurs a change in the system of departure, a movement up a
fifth with the assertion of a new tonic and the establishment of a new
Ex. 43. Bach. Fugue in B minor (1)

126 Chromaticism
subsidiary key area, which is paramount to a transition to the next level

of chromatic hierarchy.
At these levels (a subsidiary area, or the more so, a new tonality,
achieved through modulation) in the increasingly rarefied acoustic space
chromatic relationships (as a direct progression of semitones) may sim-
ply be missing in the immediate context often to be revealed only in the
process of analysis as a substratum governing the tonal relationships.
Though analogy cannot be viewed as proof, it seems quite
appropriate to compare (at the macroleveD the phenomenon of the
expanding and narrowing Universe to the correlation (at the micro level)
of diatonicism and chromaticism in acoustic space.
In other words, the strict diatonicism of Bach's fugue theme in
C major (Volume One of The Well-Tempered Clavier) at the level of its
melodic steps (here the tones of the natural hexachord) has been repro-
duced at the level of harmonic steps in the theme of the variations in the
second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata op. 14 No.2 (Exs 44a
and 44b) in which each step forms a subsidiary key area with its own
secondary dominant in such a way that together they complete a twelve-
tone collection made up of diatonic elements expanded in space. This
principle is demonstrated in aphoristic form by Beethoven in mm. 17-
18 of the latter example. Chromaticism acts here as mixed diatonicism
embracing the whole range of functional relationships inherent in dia-
tonic tonality.
Ex. 44a. Bach. Fugue in C major (1)
Re rrti ta Sol Lo.

La
Ex. 44b. Beethoven. Sonata Op. 14, No.2 (2nd movement)
ut Re Yt1i Re Joe La..

Ex. 44b. Beethoven. Sonata Op. 14, No.2 (2nd movement)
(Continued)
Andante (; : 92)
L a prima parte 8eDZa replica ,
J\ 6 4 6 ~ I I i i •
3.
2
~
a !
128 Chromaticism
The expansion of tonality by increasing the number of subsidi-

ary areas (and of the subordinant dominants and subdominants) paved
the way for the formation of harmonic structures based on chains of
dissonant chords not to be resolved onto their own local tonics. As a
rule, such progressions take the form of chains of fifths in which the
"former" secondary dominants and subdominants lose their tonal func-
tions no longer relating to a single step but operating at a more immedi-
ate structural level (Schoenberg's idea). In the chains of intervals (fifths,
thirds, in mixed adjacent intervals) the attendant functions are not re-
solved but replace one another (in succession) following the chosen in-
tervallic model (Ex. 45). In the emerging interfunctional harmonic field
the thread of direct relationships with the tonic breaks off and the laws
of harmonic imitation come into force (the recurrent structure of a chord
and its type of relationship within a progression of intervals; for details,
see 77, pp. 311-319).
The transformation of subsidiary key areas and tonics of sepa-
rate tonalities into steps of a chromatic tonality may also occur through
harmonic sequences with their links composed of major or minor triads
whose accumulation extends far beyond the diatonic scale of tonality.
The overall diatonic effect and the number of diatonic tones in a chord
at each individual moment should not conceal the chromatic relation-
ship existing between chords in such harmonic sequences, regardless
of the fact that surface chromaticism as a progression of semitones even
in the later stages of expanded tonality might be absent (Ex. 46a).
The structure of chromatic tonality is even more obvious in
cadences (Ex. 46b). The last two bars here embrace almost the whole
chromatic scale (11 tones). And though not all the chords here are of
equal status as regards their function (the chord on the second quarter-
note of the penultimate measure is a leading-tone chord) the chromatic
chords in this cadence are treated not as deviations but directly, as equal
steps of the tonality.
It would appear that the next logical stage in expanding tonality
ought to be the employment of all the twelve tones used in European
musical practice as harmonic steps in the realisation of tonal relation-
ships. But between these poles (12-tone and 12-step tonalities) there exist
a large number of intermediate forms, their borderlines coinciding with
the splitting of the diatonic step and giving rise to a chain reaction in
the division of tonal/nuclei', which can hardly be restrained any longer.
One of the most stable and structurally distinct forms at this
stage of expanding tonality are major /minor systems which follow the
Ex. 45. Tchaikovsky. Romeo and juliet
129
130 Chromaticism
V)
a
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principle of mixed diatonicism outlined above but develop it further

beyond the limits of the six harmonic steps of fifths inherent in the
diatonic mode and enter the sphere of the chromatic genus (Ex. 47).
Ex. 47. (Scheme)
nb] minor .s T 1) ,
mQjur tlV
This point in the evolution of expanded tonality can be regarded

as a crossroads of two different types of chromaticism - subsystemic
and mixed, the latter presupposing various mixtures of modes which
theoretically share the same tonic. Subsequently, having acted as a cata-
lyst, it melted down the former modulatory space of European tonality
in the crucible of chromaticism and compressed its tonal substance to a
state of hemitonic.
The major /minor form of expanded tonality, as a matter of fact,
is the complete form of the common European mode (for details, see 77,
pp. 300-305) generally represented by the fifths of tonic, subdominant
and dominant triads (functionally similar to hestotes in the ancient Greek
modal system) and based on the common principle of functional usage
of leading tones. The constituent components of this common mode -
major and minor - act as subdivisions (the ancient Greek chroai) while
the tonal matter which makes up the concrete form of a mode may
change (the ancient Greek function of kinoumenoi) depending on the
frequency of the interchange of tonal steps between major and minor
'flanks' at the different stages in the evolution of expanded tonality. The
margins of the common modal system (lowered second step, raised
fourth step) are thereby attained through a progression in fifths in each
132 Chromaticism
Ex. 47. Brahms. Symphony No.3 (lst movement)
fl
Alle~ro CO~O ~~
Passionato
sf
sf sf
direction which, having used up all the twelve harmonic steps, contin-
ues the process of expanding chordal tonality into the enharmonic sphere
(Ex. 48).
Mixture of modes and the development of subsidiary key areas
in a chromatic relationship to the tonic centre are the key devices with
which chromaticism penetrates tonality. The imitation of definite, em-
pirically discovered, types of chordal progression and functional rela-
tionship at different levels of the tonal system and the increasingly free
disposition of tonal resources in creating an integrated harmonic struc-
ture paved the way for the new concept of 20th-century tonality. In its
initial stages the phenomenon of surface chromaticism as a succession
of semitones had lesser implications, being confined in most cases to
the melodic level. Chromaticism was becoming predominantly com-
pound in character as a result of the chromatic relationship between
fundamental tones and the harmonic steps of tonality.
However the above should not imply an underestimation of the
role of alteration and leading tones in the development of modern chro-
matic systems. The attendant difficulty in solving the diatonic/ chro-
matic problem arises from the aforementioned extension of the concept
of tonality and due consideration for the factors of tonality and tonics.
In the Prelude to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (Ex. 49) the tonic in the key
tonality of A minor is almost invariably a logically inferred rather than
an actual tonic centre (though the cellos' phrase in the first two bars
outlines a fifth on the tonic). The actual tonic centre is represented by
the 'Tristan-chord', which is non-diatonic in its relation to the key to-
nality. This chord constitutes a micro mode which attracts other harmo-
nies to itself. And any explanation of its relationship with the following
chord simply on the basis of leading tones as the prime cause of the
resulting chromatic effect can hardly be considered definitive. Leading
tones reveal the genesis of the chord (a stepwise alteration of a Phrygian
cadence, according to Arnold Schering) but this does not describe the
function of this chord in a new context as an independent (integral),
rather than altered chord. While analysing the 'intensive alteration' style
of harmony in Tristan (the term coined by Ernst Kurth), at this stage in
the evolution of the tonal system one should take into account the com-
pound character of tonality, the dialectics of vertical and horizontal re-
lationships and the possible changes in the functional vectors of tonal-
ity. But even a differentiation between melodic and chordal steps may
serve here a premise for solving the problem under consideration. For
the 'dense' chromaticism of the first 17 bars of the Prelude is melodic in
its nature, and though it affects the chordal structure of the tonality, it
fails to alter its basis in diatonic stepwise progressions.
134 Chromaticism
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Ex. 49. Wagner. Tristan und Isolde (Prelude)
Langsam und schmachtend.
True enough, in the context of chromatic tonality based on the

use of twelve tones in the functional process, the former 'heralds' of
chromaticism, such as leading tones and alteration, are not as obviously
perceptible as in music based on the diatonic concept of tonality. Never-
theless they are still indicative of metabole, a change of the genus. Lead-
ing tones (and alteration as their full manifestation) are used in modern
harmony, with due consideration for the functional mechanism of
tonality, as a device to emphasize, support and assert its structural units.
The range of the leading-tone phenomenon within the tonal sys-
tem must be clearly apprehended for any proper interpretation of its
136 Chromaticism
functional meaning. If the leading tone is used as a purely melodic phe-

nomenon, within one harmony, it remains within the principles of musica
ficta (though in the context of a different system of tonal relationships).
However in tonal functional harmony melodic chromaticism should be
suitably clarified and corroborated in the vertical dimension - leading
tones involved in the process of tonicisation and conducive to the es-
tablishment of a subsidiary key area, as a rule, in this case are supported
by a turn of harmony (the difference between 'local' and 'global' lead-
ing-tone action is illustrated by Ex. 50).
Ex. 50. Beethoven. Sonata No.5 (final movement)
FINALE
Prestissimo (J .12) t I. I I •
••
The functional use of chromaticism in the classical type of tonal-

ity does not preclude its employment as a purely melodic factor as well,
but only as a component of a wider pitch system (Ex. 51).
Here we can identify two mutually complementary levels of
chromaticism - melodic (alteration, leading tones) and the level of tonal
steps (subsidiary areas) out of which in the course of harmonic devel-
opment only the chords of the three main functions of the key tonality
and a subsidiary area on the raised 3rd step acquire structural signifi-
cance, with the rest playing the part of prolongational harmonies. For
all the exotic nature of the melodic line embracing the space from a# to
cb (and ebb in the middle voice) through the use of a ramified system of
surface leading tones and deeper-level leading tones, in its general out-
line the total harmonic structure turns out largely to be a movement
within a prolonged tonic triad.
Leading tones may serve not only as a means of intensifying
tonal gravitational tendencies but also to 'smooth out' a melodic line
Ex. 51. Chopin. Mazurka in F minor
138 Chromaticism
through various kinds of passing tones. This is most pronounced in

cases where alteration is simply the fullest manifestation of the leading-
tone effect, when all three forms of melodic inflection are used: the
basic tone - altered tone-sub-semitone - a goal-oriented tone. In such
cases functionality seems to recede into the background. Nonetheless,
also occurring here is a change of the genus, a chromatic metabole
(Ex. 52).
It is significant how within the relatively simple functional struc-
ture (T-5-D-T) of tonality and its diatonic steps (c-f-g-c) rich chro-
maticism arises as a consequence of combining contrapuntal lines
abounding in chromatic elements. Major/minor tonality, a mixture of
modes, proves to be an additional way of elucidating the given tonal
structure. The borrowing of tones from another mode transcends the
melodic steps of diatonic tonality, which are inherent in the functional
mechanism of tonality.
The process of the expansion of tonality and the multilayered
accumulation of chromatic intervallic relationships have entailed increas-
ingly complex tonal functions and, as a result, have stimulated their
inner reorganisation, which we can observe in the new tonality of the
20th century, in which the redundancy of harmonies subordinated to
the tonal centre makes lit possible to validate any harmony in any
tonality.
Mahler. Das Lied von der Erde (No. 6)
3
~t
LD
><
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4
CHROMATIC SYSTEMS IN
20TH-CENTURY MUSIC
Chromatic intervals - and in a broad sense - the use of chromatic sys-

tems as a principle of pitch organisation has been a fairly consistent
developmental trend in 20th-century music. The increased complexity
of the tonal language, sometimes accompanied by a reappraisal and
novel treatment of simple diatonic modal forms, constitutes a charac-
teristic feature of the music written during our century which is near-
ing its close. The more so, as history provides numerous examples of
the non-linear exploration of acoustic space - the pendulum swings
steadily, the amplitude of its fluctuations remaining wide with the poles
far removed from each other: light and darkness, black and white, con-
sonance and dissonance, diatonicism and chromaticism, and so on. We
may define the extreme states of the tonal fabric in different terms, none-
theless with striking consistency and with each coil of the historical
spirat which occurs in musical development according to some strange
predestination, approximately every three centuries the nature of
musical perception comes to be changed: first in the 14th century, then
in the 17th and most recently in the 20th century. And each change brings
forth a new interpretation of harmony owing, in no small measure, to a
change in the relationship between diatonicism and chromaticism.
Netherlandish diatonicism and Venetian chromaticism, the diatonic
tonality of the Viennese classics and the chromatic harmony of the late
Romantic period, the new diatonicism of the early 20th century and the
chromaticism of the Second Viennese School have approached the
boundaries of acoustic space. Finally, we can observe today the ava-
lanche of absolute chromaticism in post-war avant-garde music gradu-
ally cooling down and crystallising in ever new approaches to modern
sound resources, embracing various trends, compositional styles and
techniques of writing, both well-established and firmly rooted, for all
their novelty, in the soil of the past century and those requiring special
consideration: amidst the incessant changes there emerge the outlines
of a sound world whose formation we are currently witnessing.
1. Expanded tonality
In its socio-cultural and artistic aspects modern European music is a

Chromatic Systems in 20th-Century Music 141
highly original phenomenon. The ideas advanced in the course of re-

cent years and the perception that a person living at the close of this
century has of the world calls for the use (and even the invention) of a
wide range of expressive devices and techniques. In this context the
acoustic breakthroughs made in the 20th century have been creatively
assimilated and the musical principles of the classical period have been
granted a new lease of life in modern interpretations. This concerns
above all the category of tonality which has lost none of its value in our
contemporary music, on the contrary, becoming a vital issue in studies
devoted to the 20th-century musical language. The famous antinomy
'Tonal oder atonal?', though outlining in a very general form the
essence of the problem, is not correct from a logical viewpoint (an argu-
ment which has been repeatedly stressed in the specialist literature)
owing to the ambiguity of the very term 'atonality' which is devoid of
any positive meaning. And this contradiction may be removed not so
much through the clear differentiation of 'tonal' and 'atonal' spheres as
by the identification of new laws underlying tonality in 20th-century
music. And these laws in many respects involve chromatic processes in
tonality, in terms of the further expansion of its harmonic boundaries in
works by modern composers - both in compositions based on the
development of traditional major/minor modal systems, and in new
types of tonal organisation based on different principles that are irre-
ducible to major /minor tonality.
The problem of chromaticism cannot be solved in an abstract
way, for it calls for due consideration of the real functions assigned to
the constituent elements of the system. The differentiation of such cat-
egories as 'tone', 'step', 'tonality', etc. (see above) makes it possible to
establish a hierarchy according to their concrete value, bearing in mind
not the tones themselves but the function they are to perform.
Chromaticism in the 20th century is seldom used in its melodic
form, penetrating more and more to the level of harmonic steps and
involving the deeper-rooted levels of tonality. The celebrated classical
example of 19th-century chromaticism - Chopin's Etude in A minor
which lends artistic meaning to a melodic intervallic cliche (the chro-
matic scale) and uses it as a component of the compositional structure,
represents a kind of opposite pole to the musical structures in which
chromaticism is used not in so obvious and dense a form, the chromatic
universe being explored more rationally and chromaticism acquiring a
different quality and passing onto a new level.
Here arises a rather difficult problem which can be formulated
in the following way: what level of structure - that of a theme, of a large
section of a compositional structure, that of part of a cycle or of the
142 Chromaticism
whole cycle as an entity (Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis, for instance) - must

be viewed as the decisive factor in qualifying a system either as dia-
tonic or chromatic? Perhaps in some cases too broad an interpretation
of chromaticism may lend it an all-embracing character, causing it to be
viewed as the sum of any number of diatonic 'bricks', sometimes quite
large.
In our view, following the tendency of historical tradition to con-
sider chromaticism at the lower structural levels, one should at the same
time take into account the overall dynamics of the harmonic develop-
ment in relation to the ultimate meaning of its individual components.
Otherwise we may fail to see 'the wood for the trees', chromaticism for
diatonicism and that ultimate goal for which it is perpetually striving,
that of setting off the inner relationships of the diatonic elements and
making them more distinct.
The change in the functional character of chromaticism in
modern pitch systems does not imply the mechanical substitution of
one type of chromaticism for another. To our mind, here we can observe
a dialectical process, that of the emergence of a new quality even while
many essential properties of the phenomenon inherent in it during pre-
ceding historical periods are preserved. And today, in many works of
modern composers, chromaticism is often presented in the form of that
same archetype, the chromatic scale, though more seldom fulfilling its
classical role of filling up the intervals between diatonic steps, for in
expanded tonality alteration not infrequently loses its functional mean-
ing. The decline in its usefulness as a concept, which made itself evi-
dent early in this century, reveals the complex and equivocal role of
alteration in 20th-century music. Thus, Scriabin's harmony in his later
compositions is notable for replacing the consonant triad as the tonal
centre of the system by a special chord related in its origins to the
altered dominant harmony but, in contrast to the latter, appearing as a
stable chord which does not call for resolution. Such a chord represents
rather the kind of pitch set whose tone-structure is determined by both
vertical and horizontal relationships (Ex. 53). Here the function of tonal
centre is assigned to an 8-tone complex (the tone-semitone or octatonic
scale as an entity in itself) treated as the source of both horizontal and
vertical relationships.
The eradication of former tonal functions through alteration is
apparent from the use of 'extraneous' tones in this composition. The
system proper is non-diatonic in its nature (the octatonic scale), there-
fore the role of transitional chords is ultimately reduced to filling up the
intervals between the various transpositions of the piece's one basic
chord and complementing it with respect to the twelve tones. Though
Ex. 53. Scriabin. Prelude, Op. 74, No.3

144 Chromaticism
some melodic progressions here are analogous to alteration in classical

tonality, the inverse sequence of tones in the 'formula' of alteration
(the so-called 'desalteration' formula) shows that such inflections no
longer involve intensified gravitation to individual tones. The princi-
pal function of alteration has therefore been discarded, a fact that is also
evident from the notation. A tonal system of this type should be quali-
fied as chromatic, though it is devoid of alteration. All the chromatic
elements here are integral, rather than resulting from alteration (despite
their historical relatedness to altered degrees). The intervallic relations
of two immediate semitones are usually missing while alteration has
lost its function of gravitation, remaining merely as a layer of 'decora-
tion' in an integral self-contained chromatic system with its basically
mixed scale, its non-triadic centre and its changed inner functional
relationships.
Another essentially different instance of regeneration as regards
the classical functions of alteration and leading tones (Ex. 54) demon-
strates how they change their original meaning within a different pitch
system. The leading tone, or to be more precise, its clearly discernible
vestiges become local, involving individual tones. In the given frag-
ment the dominant role of the tonic is underscored rather through its
statistical predominance and its appearance at the principal junctures
of the form. The logical unfolding of this compositional structure is based
mainly on a regular sequence of twelve tones. For this purpose Bartok
uses not a chord, a conventional structural unit of the classical tonal
system, but a motive, an intervallic figure and its transpositions (har-
monic imitations) on various steps of the common tonal system based
now not on seven but twelve tones (the cadence at Bar 5 immediately
following the twelfth tone). To avoid the imitation of intervallic figures,
the composer assigns them to the different instruments, which is in full
conformity with the generic conventions of a string quartet.
In this case one should take into consideration new approaches
to the exposition of tonal resources in 20th-century music. In the given
fragment from Bartok's string quartet the structural cells consist of in-
tervallic figures comprising I, 5, 2 and 6 semitones respectively whose
harmonic development eventually forms a 12-tone aggregate (or an
approximation of it as the upper limit of sonority) flowing into another
similar aggregate. Such transitions usually occur at certain levels at the
junctures of a musical form (this procedure is sometimes classified as
the technique of semitone-based harmonic fields). Hence the interval of
a semitone commonly associated with a leading tone here loses its func-
tion of directed motion and its accustomed place in the hierarchical scale
of functional relationships of pitches with the tonic. Nor would it be
Ex. 54. Bartok. String Quartet No.5
1 2 3 5
4
-
7 8 9 10
6
146 Chromaticism
relevant to speak in this case of chordal and non-chordal tones or of

melodic chromaticism involving leading tones in the classical tonal sense.
Bartok's harmonic style took shape on a different basis, through his mul-
tifarious contacts, both direct and mediated, with national Hungarian
and Romanian folklore in the course of his study and assimilation of
folk and especially peasant music. It is in his compositions that the an-
cient scales neglected by composers for a long time formed the basis of
absolutely new harmonic combinations: "It is natural that almost si-
multaneously many other composers through analysis or by intuition
arrived at similar results, though they had never turned to folk music.
This way is also possible, but the chief point in these various approaches
lies in the fact that in our creative work we draw on a folk source, since
folk music is a natural phenomenon" (40, p. 191).
The dynamics of introducing chromatic elements into tonality
can be quite clearly outlined today, with historical hindsight. Of major
importance on this road were the principles and techniques discovered
in the music of past historical epochs, in particular the oft-cited princi-
ple of mixing diatonic elements. In its simplest manifestations this
usually takes the characteristic form of building up harmonic structures
in major/minor or minor/major tonalities.
Undoubtedly, the constant interchange of chords of different
modal origin in such systems was historically prefigured by the use of
chords from different, tonally opposite spheres (conventionally speak-
ing, those of 'sharps' and 'flats') as the local tonic centres arising from
any tonal deviations (subsidiary key areas). The process of turning lo-
cal tonics into tonal steps has reached its conclusion in 20th-century
music and has been codified in theoretical musicology in terms of ma-
jor/minor or minor/major, the systems based on shared tonics or on
the common thirds of triads, and the like. In the evolutionary develop-
ment of the tonal system its inner relationships became increasingly
complex, calling for more sophisticated methods of description in cases
where its initial premise was based on the strictly diatonic concept of
tonality. The treatment of the modern tonal system essentially as twelve-
step tonality and the crystallisation of this concept have resulted from a
substantive leap forward in the development of the phenomenon itself.
The principle of mixture underlying the organisation of chro-
matic tonal systems in 20th-century music may manifest itself in quite
simple forms (Ex. 55). The principle of tonal organisation here can be
characterized as an enrichment of a conventional major key by all
the steps chromatically related to the tonic. The harmonic material of
Prokofiev's chromatic tonality and its elaboration unambiguously
reveal its genesis: the 'density' of diatonic elements, absorbing diatonic
Ex. 55 Prokofiev. Visions fugitives, No.5
UrpIlBO [Molto giocoso] 8
1915
al Fine
briose
8 >- :
I
,
11032
148 Chromaticism
degrees of different tonalities in a certain compound entity, results in a

new quality of tonality and transforms the means of creating external
relationships into part of a unified harmonic complex.
The expansion of the harmonic range and treatment of chords
on steps chromatically related to the tonal centre in a way similar to
conventional diatonic chords predetermine the singular coloring of
Prokofiev's tonal language. The composer's consistent employment of
this principle leads eventually to his use, for instance, in the first two
bars of the Piano Sonata No.8, of all twelve tones within a prolonged
tonic triad, with none of the voices resorting to an immediate progres-
sion of two semi tones, i.e., strictly speaking, without a metabole. Such
chromaticism in most cases is due to its 'position' rather than 'essence',
arising from a mixture of diatonic elements, thickening within one sys-
tem of structural units formerly belonging to different systems. So-called
polytonality is undoubtedly a phenomenon belonging to the same cat-
egory. The celebrated episode from Stravinsky's Les Noces is a graphic
illustration of such a reduction to a common denominator, since it is
structurally based on the major triad, an entity fully capable of repre-
senting its own separate diatonic scale. In the given fragment (Ex. 56)
use has been made of eleven major triads, in the upper layer of the
musical fabric - as the harmonisation of each tone in the diatonic E-
major scale, and in the lower layer, filling up a chromatic segment and
harmonising a bass motion in major thirds.
Though not all of the twelve minor triads used in the coda of
Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No.3 (Ex. 57) are of equal status in their func-
tional implications (only the chord progression in minor thirds is of struc-
tural significance here, while the rest of the chords perform the func-
tion of prolongation), nonetheless the decisive and direct manner of
their introduction shows that all the '12 types of intervallic relations'
(the term coined by Boleslav Yavorsky) have once and for all come to
establish themselves in the style of Prokofiev and his contemporaries.
The same idea is realised, more than half a century later, in Sofia
Gubaidulina's composition In croce for cello and organ (Ex. 58), which
in its final section contains a descending progression of twelve minor
triads with their subsequent variation: the intervallic formula becomes
a component of the varied treatment of the idea of intersecting tonal
lines and layers. The falling series of minor triads in the organ colored
by free fanciful eighth-note motion gets more and more gloomy as it is
gradually submerged in the lower registers in contrast to the obstinate
ascent, by means of the steps of the chromatic scale, outlined in the
cello part. Their eventual intersection signifies not only the triumph of
Ex. 56. Stravinsky. Les Noces

150 Chromaticism
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152 Chromaticism
Euclidian geometry but also a highly original, vivid and dramatically

accurate musical rendering of the confrontation of two diametrically
opposed principles.
An essentially similar approach may be illustrated by the use of
twelve major triads on all the steps of the chromatic scale in The Poet and
the Tsar from Shostakovich's song-cycle to six poems by Marina
Tsvetayeva (Ex. 59) within the twelve-tone procedure with its 'in-built'
chromatic tonal language, which was so characteristic of the compos-
er's later works. Such instances reveal in a graphic and simple way the
process by which expanded tonality logically exhausts the number of
its constituent elements in a triadic partitioning of the chosen tone-
structure. But in real artistic practice such progressions of chords are
exceptionally rare, being always conditioned by the composer's specifc
intention. The structural cell of the tonal language, owing to the eman-
cipation of the dissonance in 20th-century music may vary the progres-
sion along the chromatic scale, often synthesising melodic and chordal
chromaticism, may be based on seventh chords (which is typical of jazz
harmony), chords structured without thirds, or on chords of virtually
any structure. The main principle which still prevails is to present chro-
matic tonality by means of identically structured chords (Ex. 60). For
Ex. 60. (Scheme)
this purpose, however, it is sometimes quite sufficient to use just two

albeit characteristic chords (Ex. 61) chosen so as to imply the possibility
of using all the rest on the same grounds. Such a distinctive element
emphasises even more the individual character of the harmonic struc-
ture. And the tendency to harmonic individualisation not only within
national schools or compositional styles, but often within the frame-
work of a single musical piece and even within part of it, is inherent in
Ex. 59. Shostakovich. Six settings of Marina Tsvetayeva (The Poet and the Tsar)
~~t, (,\ ~ 1~4)
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154 Chromaticism
Ex. 60. Schoenberg. Fiint Orchesterstiickc Op. 16 (Farbell)

Reprinted with permission of c.F. Peters, Frankfurt,
London, New York.
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H.... '.
mlv
I.D.
Trp.1a I.
m
I.D. i
Poa.
m.lV.
•. BIM
1Iar(.
• Celeet&
Viol. I.
VloJ.D.
Viol&.
LD
Veello.
m.1V
Solo n.
(runls.it.,
E.lIUon
Ex. 60. Schoenberg. Fiillf Orchesterstiicke Op. 16 (Farben) (Contillued)
.1
ID.I'I.LD.
Or.n.I.D.
IJI
~.
m
~I.H.
111. ....
KJ.
IILIaD
au.....
.... I.IL
m.
II~
LIL
1h.1a P.
lILlY
.lD.
Ttf.1a •. ~
m.
v..... I.
YloI.U.
160 Chromaticism
20th-century music (for analysis of this problem in its general form and
its concrete manifestations in some composers' work, see References
Nos 80, 82, 83 and 87).
The notion of creating tonality using any chords and the possi-
bility of their construction on any tone of the chromatic scale arises from
the twelve-step nature of modern music. The possibility in principle of
using any tonal element within a system expands the range of tonal
harmonies, but at the same time blurs the limits of the very concept of
tonality. The sensation of a certain centre which could be implied through
harmony, rhythm or timbre (Ex. 62) may serve as the most general crite-
rion of classifying a tonal system.
The key tonality of Rodion Shchedrin's prelude is explicitly clear,
for this composition is part of his cycle of preludes and fugues in all the
major and minor keys within a circle of fifths. It is characterised by the
statistical predominance of the tone b and chords based on this tone at
the principal junctures of the form and their emphasis in the metre and
rhythm. Moreover, the upper voice does not depart from the diatonic
scale in B minor. But the abundance of sharply dissonant chords in the
harmony, inherent in Shchedrin's starkly-colored music, is disorient-
ing, blurring the functional relationships in this type of tonality. The
logic of the tonal development is realised through the articulation of
structural chords, and prolongation chords linear in their origin, which
follow the complementation principle and strive for the twelve-tone
aggregate as their ultimate goal. The additional structural interval - a
seventh (major and minor) lends the chords a uniform character and
ensures a singularly bold tonal character.
The gradual change in techniques of employing the harmonic
material of tonality and the transformation of 'triadic' tonality into
merely one possible means of creating a harmonic language entail sub-
stantial changes in the structural procedures of chromaticism. Every so
often the principles of complementation and symmetry are used as an
additional structural device. But the principle of transposition gains
greater importance, in contrast to its role in the classical type of tonality
where its 'life' was perceived only in the process of consecutive modu-
lations. This can be explained by the following considerations. Since
the entire harmonic material (generated through twelve-tone com-
position in European music) is directly and immediately at hand, inde-
pendently of modulation, the latter seems to be redundant, and the
'modulatory' space is often exhausted as early as in the exposition of
the tonal space whose articulation now calls for different devices. The
more so as modern tonal systems have little in common with their
.
......
.
Ex. 61. Prokofiev. Peter and the Wolf
N
¢
162
Ex. 62. Rodion Shchedrin. Twenty-four preludes and fugues

(Prelude VI)
- "..
~
-..J
Chromaticism
major and minor prototypes, and virtually any chord can become a tonic.
Thus, the concepts of tonality and chromaticism in modern pitch sys-
tems in most cases turn out to be inseparably linked and inconceivable
without each other.
2. Modal systems
The revival of certain modes characteristic of folk music against the

background of emerging national musical cultures and their develop-
ment within the framework of major/minor tonalities in the 19th cen-
tury paved the way for the restoration of the modal principles in
20th-century music (modality is treated here as a melodic technique
based on particular modal scales different from the classical major and
minor; 14, p. 8). What first appeared merely as a symptom in works by
Chopin, Grieg, Liszt and Mussorgsky has turned into a system in some
compositional styles that have emerged in the course of this century.
The reasons for this lie in the linear, melodic principle and its enhanced
role in 20th-century music. It was the response of musical thinking to
the functional mechanism of tonality which had allowed the penetra-
tion within its boundaries, especially at the later stages of its develop-
ment, of virtually any chordal representatives of individual functions
(in particular, as a result of the emancipation of the dissonance and the
chromaticisation of tonality).
The difference between 'chromaticised major', 'chromaticised
minor' and 'chromaticised tonalities' in general in view of the individual
characteristics of their constituent tonal elements is gradually wiped
out. In this respect Hindemith's style is most revealing, for the harmonic
system evolved by him (Ex. 63) with its original conception of a 'chro-
matic cycle' involving all tonalities (Ludus tonalis) implies a reduction
of the 24 major and minor tonalities down to 12 characteristically or-
ganised tone-structures, with each of them representing a 'resume' of
the entire history of tonality moulded into a unified sound object. Even
the title of the piece under analysis - Fugue in B - carries no indication
of major or minor. The concluding chord in the composition (the B-ma-
jor triad) seems more like a courtesy to traditional perception, the com-
poser's ultimate reluctance 'to tease the geese', than the real tonic cen-
tre. The tonality of B still retains some vestiges of its actual existence,
e.g. the ordered pitch organisation of a two-part T-D-D-T form and bass
movement in fifths in the cadences, but the essence of this tonality has
already changed: the tonal groundplan and the dominants are implied,
rather than actual. Its tonal structure is guided by different principles
164 Chromaticism
Ex. 63. Hindemith. Ludus tonalis (Fugue in B)
Lento J ca 54
XI
Canon Pespressivo
Ex. 63. Hindemith. Ludus tonalis (Fugue in B) (Continued)

166 Chromaticism
Ex. 63. (Scheme)

based on a specially structured 12-step chromatic tonality with its tonal

centre of B, unfolding in the horizontal plane. Its structural unit is not a
chord but the group of intervals 1.5, its inversion and the numerous
intervallic groups generated from it, which lends individuality to the
chromatic scale naturally devoid as it is of any characteristic features.
The dramatic proliferation of related intervallic formulas underlies the
tonal message of this composition. The effect is further enhanced by the
procedure of continuous canonic imitation.
Modal methods of pitch organisation, the emergence of new
modes, the establishment of a 'new diatonicism' and the rise of specific
chromatic modes all reveal the striving of 20th-century composers to
institute characteristic systems of pitch organisation and a unique struc-
tural treatment of the twelve-tone resources at the disposal of Euro-
pean musical culture.
Current musical practice is distinguished by an abundance of
new modal formations and diverse interpretations of the conventional
ones. These include the modes that arose in historical practice - penta-
tonic (anhemitonic, hemitonic), 'medieval' diatonic (Ionian, Dorian,
Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian), hemiolic (with an
augmented second), mixodiatonic (Lydian-Mixolydian, major/minor),
and chromatic (the symmetrical modes of Messiaen, Scriabin,
Shostakovich and Tcherepnin).
It is extremely difficult to classify the most common types of
modal system used in 20th-century music. Nevertheless such classifi-
cation is all the more indispensable as modality by its very nature pre-
supposes the stability of a modal scale and its invariant character, in
contrast to tonality which allows for the variability of the functions
assigned to particular steps, and the mobility of the tone-structure it-
self. For the purposes of our study it seems expedient to draw on the
most general classification of modal scales in conformity with their
generic affinity, i.e. to differentiate between anhemitonic, diatonic,
mixodiatonic, hemiolic, chromatic, hemitonic and micro chromatic
modes. The ekmelic as a genus which excludes the possibility of a fixed
intonation for each step cannot be considered here as basis for the for-
mation of modal scales. In fact, the most essential differences arise be-
tween diatonic (mixodiatonic) and chromatic (symmetrical) scales.
Close attention to national cultural legacies and the continuity
of their spiritual values as well as the apprehension of this aesthetic
tradition is imperative for understanding the phenomena in modern
compositional practice which, reviving the principles of past modal sys-
tems and turning to folklore and natural harmony, can be treated in
168 Chromaticism
modal terms. 20th-century music in all its national diversity provides

ample evidence of the fruitfulness inherent in such a historico-cultural
synthesis.
The use by modern composers of individualised modes with a
fixed scale, which have taken shape in the course of historical evolu-
tion, does not amount to a mere repetition of the past. Except for the
cases when such a restoration is determined by the composer's inten-
tion to symbolise a return to stable aesthetic values or when it repre-
sents a harmonic citation, these modes are placed in the context of
modern 12-step systems to be used as components of polymodal struc-
tures or in some other way to reveal their association with 20th-century
music. In Alfred Schnittke's Symphony No.4, with its summing up of
the most essential modal systems of the past (which here form part of
the composer's conception), the old Russian obikhodny mode seems to
be prolonged into infinity (the climax coincides with the moment when
the twelve-tone threshold natural for European music is reached). The
interweaving together of 'concords', the structural units of the obikhodny
scale, each with the same structure of intervals (tone, tone, semitone),
led to the emergence, in the old Russian chants, of cross-relations in
different octaves (as a rule, this concerned a single tone in the next oc-
tave and, only as an exception, could such cross-relations arise between
two tones in adjacent octaves). In his composition Schnittke consist-
ently follows the principle of 'concord' interweaving, which brings the
number of possible cross relations to their maximal limit:
G-A-B-c-d-e-f-g-a-b~-C' -d' -e~' -I' -g'-a~'-b~'-c" -d~" -e~" -I" (g~").

The functioning of modal systems within the framework of the
twelve-tone chromaticism of modern pitch structures does not run coun-
ter to their nature, but calls for the composer's special effort to retain
the coloring of the mode and its basic constructional principles. Even
within the twelve-tone context 'alien' to it modal harmony preserves its
coloring and individual characteristics. Chromaticism in modal systems
based on the diatonic scales arises, as a rule, from a summation of sim-
pler structures, which can be perceived in retrospect, rather than at each
separate moment in the harmonic development. In those cases where
the initial mode departs, even to the smallest degree, from diatonicism
such summation is more explicit and direct.
A special type of modal material standing apart in 20th-century
music are the symmetrical modes which gained wide currency owing
to their convincing artistic employment by Messiaen in his music (who
also provided their theoretical codification). In fact, these modes came
into existence at a far earlier stage in musical evolution, in particular, in

Russian music (Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin as explained by
Boleslav Yavorsky in his theory).The main trait which distinguishes their
usage in modern music is their treatment as an integral structure, rather
than a sum total of intervallic cells reducible to a mode only in the final
analysis.
One of the most detailed classifications of symmetrical modes
has been offered by Yuri Kholopov (77, pp. 209-210):
1. Whole-tone (12:6=2.2.2.2.2.2), Messiaen's first mode.

2. Diminished (12:4=2.1.2.1.2.1.2.1),
"the Rimsky-Korsakov mode", "the Chopin scale",
Messiaen's second mode.
Augmented:
3. (12:3=3.1.3.1.3.1)
4. (12:3=2.1.1.2.1.1.2.1.1), Messiaen's third mode.
Tritonal:
5. (12:2=5.1.5.1)
6. (12:2=4.1.1.4.1.1), Messiaen's fifth mode.
7. (12:2=3.2.1.3.2.1), "the Petrushka mode", "double major".
8. (12:2=1.2.3.1.2.3), "double minor".
9. (12:2=3.1.1.1.3.1.1.1), Messiaen's fourth mode.
10. (12:2=2.2.1.1.2.2.1.1), Messiaen's sixth mode.
11. (12:2=2.1.1.1.1.2.1.1.1.1), Messiaen's seventh mode.
The semitonal mode (12:12=1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1) stands apart,

for it has no structure all of its own and becomes a mode only due to
serial sequences of tones. But this factor takes it beyond the framework
of strict modal systems.
The specific nature of symmetrical modes based on equal divi-
sion of the octave is due to their location between two poles: they are
not diatonic because of their irreducibility to a chain of fifths, which
entails a radical disruption of the acoustic affinity of fifths within a sys-
tem (which is the essential characteristic of the diatonic scale; for this
reason even a harmonic minor where such disruption is minimal is con-
ventionally referred to modified diatonicism); to classify these modes
as chromatic seems to be more natural but such a designation is not
always appropriate since some modes of this type lack one of the prin-
cipal characteristics of chromaticism - the immediate succession of two
semitones (chromaticism in this case appears to be 'scattered', divided
into quasi-diatonic groups, and mixed in various combinations).
170 Chromaticism
The principles of harmonic structures in symmetrical modes have

been thoroughly explored by Messiaen and need no additional com-
mentary. Here we provide only two examples based on the modes that
are not found in Messiaen's classification.
The tonal complex which forms the basis of the Prologue of
LutosYawski's Musique funebre represents a series of special structure
comprising four isomorphic intervallic groups (6.1) which complement
each other to form the twelve-tone aggregate (Ex. 64). The basic inter-
vallic group can be treated as a 'microseries', for the logical progression
within this series follows the conventional polyphonic procedure: P(f)-
RI(e)-P(a!»-RI(g). But the continuous canonic imitation at the tritone of
a motivic series results with each statement in a symmetrical mode struc-
tured 5.1.5.1 and thereby modal principles prevail over dodecaphonic
ones, with the microstructure becoming more significant than the
macrostructure.
The piece by the Armenian composer Gagik Hovunts (from his
cycle Ten Invention Pieces for brass instruments, Op. 9; Ex. 65) has a very
explicit title - Symmetrical Mode. It is based on a tone-complex arising
from the division of the octave into three equal parts (3.1.3.1.3.1). The
structure of the mode determines the work's form and the presence of
an augmented second lends it sort of Oriental coloring, producing
thereby an interesting combination of 'artificiality' and national charac-
ter. Such a modal structure allows only four transpositions before the
tone-structure repeats itself, the last transposition closing up the form.
The logical progression of the transpositions is determined by a
latent cipher: the initial tones of the four sequences f-e- g-f# played by
the French horn (the composition is written for French horn and piano)
make up the monogram BACH. It is no accident that the entire cycle
should be called 'invention pieces': from the word inventio, since the
very genre is associated with Bach's analogous pieces. Besides, the ex-
position follows the principle of complementation: each new statement
of the mode adds three new tones to the initial six-tone complex. The
transition from one pitch position to another is based on the presence of
shared pitches (any two neighbouring statements contain three com-
mon tones which form the same augmented triad) or on the identity
between the initial tone in each statement and the final tone of the pre-
ceding statement.
While analysing modal systems one should seek to identify the
diatonic elements which make them up, for such chromaticism is often
compound in origin, arising from transposition or polymodality. The
so-called 'new modality' involving modes of chromatic structure em-
Ex. 64. LutosYawski. Musique funebre (Prologue)
5
1 Violoncello I
2
88
3
solo
1 Violoncello I
solo
3 5 1 Val II
sola
5
1 Vc.l
1010
1 Vc.II
11010
t VI.. I
3 5 10
sola
1 Val II
sola
1 Ve.!
solo
lVe.l
I Ve. D
8010
p RI p RI
" 1 5 5 1 5 5 1 5" . p~ 5 PO .'"to5

1
poS 1 5
172 Chromaticism
Ex. 65. Gagik Hovunts. Symmetrical Mode
- ~1l.l. - - - - -
~ ,.....;;-, -=i=I
bodies twelve-tone composition in a more direct way, often following

the principle of complementation.
3. Free 12-tone systems
Never before, during any historical period, has chromaticism been as

widespread as in the 20th century. A major principle underlying the
music written in this century is 12-step composition, a free disposal of
each separate tone of the chromatic system. Therefore, along with the
conventional procedures of chromatic metabole and their modifications
(as is evidenced from the above mentioned examples which illustrate
the reinterpretation of alteration, leading tones and mixture of modes),
in many 20th-century musical styles chromaticism is used as a pitch
system unrelated in principle to diatonicism. One of these is Webern's
style, for in his compositions we observe chromaticism employed pre-
cisely in this consistent way (Ex. 66).
The musical texture is divided here into harmonic fields, each
containing at least one semi tonal relationship. Logically, the form of the
composition is predetermined by its gradual and logical exposition of
12-tone sequences. Graphically, this could be represented in the shape
of an unfolding fan. According to Webern himself, when he composed
these pieces he used to draw a chromatic scale in his rough notebook
crossing out in it the tones as they appeared: " . .. I felt that as soon as all
twelve tones have gone by, the piece is over" (169, p. 51). Chromaticism
of this type is based on principles different from the ones mentioned
above, for this is integral chromaticism already devoid of any percepti-
ble genetic links with diatonic writing. The harmonic development in
Webern's piece is virtually reducible to two statements of the 12-tone
aggregate, presented each time in a different way. The intrinsic neutral-
ity and measured intervals of the chromatic scale as a kind of cliche
make the composer structure it every time in a new way so as to lend
individuality to the chosen tonal material. In so doing, Webern assigns
a major role to non-harmonic factors (dynamics, timbre, articulation)
involving them in the process of harmonic development. A certain simi-
larity, as regards harmony, can be observed between this example and
the fragment of the slow movement from Bartok's string quartet dis-
cussed earlier, but at the same time such a comparison reveals the fun-
damental difference between them.
The use of the 12-tone universe as the material basis of a compo-
sition is an essential feature of the current stage in the evolution of the
European musical system. However the establishment of this fact calls
for judicious appraisal of the future implications it may entail. On the
174 Chromaticism
Ex. 66. Webern. Sechs Bagatellen Op. 9 (No.5)
~ufoU31 eQftIS~h1 (p ~elt 'to)

,j
...
i , 'I. "bUtor!ur,
__ 2. --1iU, ~ 1f erc.oS" , ~ 41't1 si~
f fi-.z.3 9 I'l. If 12. ..h 41'"
pp :::::=-- rrr
one hand, the expansion of tonal relationships provides great opportu-

nities for a composer, widening the range of expressive means at his
disposal. On the other hand, it involves some challenging tasks. To over-
come the tonal neutrality of the chromatic scale, a composer has to
exert special effort to lend it an individual profile ('modality'). As a mat-
ter of fact, the potentialities of such individualisation are inherent in the
very structure of the chromatic scale. Progression by semitones in its
own right constitutes the most characteristic genus of melodic move-
ment, identified as an absolutely singular domain of intervallic struc-
ture and clearly represented in musical consciousness in immediate
auditory perception and in the process of analysis. For precisely this
reason the contrast of musical genera as integrated entities in their own
right often constitutes a major device of dramatic development, pro-
ducing a clash of opposing spheres and manifesting its own resources
in this confrontation. Music history has provided us with numerous
examples of such a contrast of various genera, beginning with the ex-
amples of ancient Greek monody (though, on different premises, see
above), the music written during the Renaissance, the stile moderno and,
of course, by our contemporaries. In the opening theme of the Concerto
for Piano and Chamber Orchestra by Sofia Gubaidulina the basic inter-
vallic model based on three adjacent tones presents itself in the process
of development in the form of four different types of relationships (as
regards their genus): (1) microchromatic, to embody the sensory im-
agery; (2) chromatic, to symbolise the wealth of colors inherent in hu-
man existence; (3) diatonic, in a singular way to outline the world of
musica humana; (4) pentatonic, to define the spiritual sphere (Ex. 67). Of
particular interest are the phenomena of tonal individualisation through
a contrast in the compositions endowed with vivid national coloring,
which in most cases reflects the integration of national and general
European characteristics in the musical language, a synthesis of artistic
cultures.
Ex. 67. Sofia Gubaidulina. Introitus (scheme)

176 Chromaticism
In the course of musical development forms of chromatic ar-

ticulation have become more and more individual. Along with the above
discussed tonal and modal techniques of construction, certain specific
procedures in the organisation of 12-tone systems have come into exist-
ence. 20th-century musical practice offers a wide spectrum of such pos-
sibilities. These include the 12-step procedure based on a keyboard-like
principle, combining the diatonicism of the white and the pentatonicism
of the black keys, the interweaving of four augmented triads (the idea
introduced by Liszt in his Faust Symphony), symmetrically organised
12-tone fields (Nikolay Obukhov), the complementary harmony of
tropes (Josef Matthias Hauer), the dodecaphonic technique introduced
by the Second Viennese School, Shostakovich's 12-tone rows, and even
12-tone chords as the underlying basis of a whole composition (Ex. 68).
The latter case is indeed the apogee of chromaticism (in full conformity
with the title of this extract from LutosYawski's Musique funebre) in which
the 12-tone aggregate disposed in three layers of diminished seventh
chords resonates throughout the entire sound gamut accessible to hu-
man perception, revealing at each separate moment in its movement
only one of its facets (as in the movement of a kaleidoscope). And the
whole mass of these incredible sounds, gradually thinned down under
the burden of trying to get to the essence of things and find the princi-
pal voice in the chorus of musica mundana, retains in its final sonority a
semitone, its prime cell- the emblem of chromaticism.
Ex. 68. (Scheme)
"
On the other hand, individualistic approaches to chromatic

articulation, especially in music written during the latter part of this
Ex. 68. LutosYawski. Musique funebre (Apogee)
(nwlto appassionato ~i rubato)
32 (J.J) ~ [
8 ... ------------------------------ -
~.
[I
Vni
Vni
Vie
I
VI.
Ve.
Ve.
Ch.
Ch.
~ f' ..
< e: tTJ
><
t=l
'" s '"
0'-
~ ~ 00
r'
>=
,...,.
o
[fJ
11
~
[fJ
~
~.
$:
~
.l3'
:;::
r:;
?
r;::,
C!"
~
s:
"g
!X:;
r:;,
r:;
'-'
n§
:::-.
;::
:::::
r:;
~
0;
~
- -'"
~
- -
~
- .,
~
-
13
<
=-
-
1
\
c.n
century, are fraught with a lack of stability, the need each time, even
within the scope of one musical piece, to select or even invent anew a
compositional technique. This primarily concerns the so-called free 12-
tone systems characterised by a great diversity of concrete methods in
pitch organisation. In a small piece, Down the Scale, from Rodion
Shchedrin's Concertino for mixed a cappella chorus, the idea behind
the pitch structure is realized through the etymological implications of
its title (stairs=scala=scale, in this case the chromatic scale). Both at the
level of the entire pitch structure and in its separate sections the compo-
sition represents the movement down the chromatic scale in the differ-
ent voices (in different 'stair-wells') - sometimes by 'steps' uneven in
their size, now 'jumping over more than one stair at a time' or 'shifting
from one foot to the other' (the chords at the junctures of the form are
not structural in the strict meaning of the word but merely the pauses
in this motion, the braking points on the 'steps of the stairs'). The com-
pletion of the twelve-note aggregate is realised within the first five meas-
ures, but the vertical relationships (the chords of quasi-structural and
prolongation significance) arise here from combination of lines, as a con-
sequence of chromatic linearity. Moreover, the idea of the 'scale' is borne
out in several parameters: (a) at the level of pitches; (b) rhythm ('brak-
ing' at the close, the augmentation of metre in the development sec-
tion); (c) dynamics (fff-dim.-ppp; see Ex. 69).
Ex. 69. Rodion Shchedrin. Concertino for mixed chorus (Down the
Scale)
Analysis of structural devices used to develop free 12-tone sys-

tems in artistic practice reveals that there are some general compositional
devices which provide for logical and coherent harmonic development
180
Ex. 69. Rodion Shchedrin. Concertino for mixed chrus (Down the Scale) (Continued)
~
~
~
IS
3
~
Q..
Q..
.~
Chromaticism
under such conditions and turn harmony into an effective factor in

creating a comprehensible artistic entity.
The principle of chromatic connection is one of the most com-
mon structural devices among such compositional procedures. Its
essence is to embrace all the twelve tones within an octave through
identical groups of intervals, with each group containing at least one
semi tonal relationship. This principle may either complement other
forms of musical organisation or underlie the entire composition
(for analysis of this idea as applied to Webern's style, see References
No. 90).
The principle of chromatic connection may become a major de-
vice in characterising a hemitonic structure. In 12-tone structures, semi-
tone-based groups often appear as types of modal formulas, chromatic
melodic lines, which predetermine the life of a chromatic mode, unify
vertical and horizontal relationships and establish an inner order in the
progression of tones in the process of harmonic development. And the
use of this principle is not merely the fruit of abstract theorising de-
tached from actual artistic phenomena. The part played by leading-tone
phenomena in the history of European music, the role of the semitone
as one of the most characteristic intervals (remaining for a long span of
time the smallest interval in the musical system), selected by musical
consciousness as a result of musical evolution over centuries, is a mat-
ter of common knowledge. In 20th-century music these trends reach
their logical conclusion, crystallized in new forms of tonal relationships,
neither renouncing their past nor reliving it literally. Their 'communi-
cability' manifests itself, among other things, in the easy and natural
way in which semitone-based structures are combined with other meth-
ods of pitch organisation, being incorporated into the latter as one of
their constituent components.
If we look at Stockhausen's Klavierstiick No.2 (Ex. 70) from this
standpoint, we can see that the inner logic of its movement and the
change of its intervallic groups structured according to the principle of
semi tone + any other interval is governed by the idea of revealing the
functional relationships within the chromatic mode c-d~d-e~f-f#-g
a~a-b 0.1.1.2.-1-1.1.1.2). Its structure, representing one of the types of
tritonal symmetrical mode (see above), is quite characteristic and sug-
gests a multitude of possibilities for its realisation. The composer uses
the semitonal groups 2.1 and 1.1 (mm. 1-8), whole-tone scales 2.2.2.2.2
and 2 ... 2 in two possible positions, with due consideration for the
tone-structure of the basic chromatic mode (mm. 9-6), and the dimin-
ished mode 2.1.2.1.2.1.2.1 with passing tones within the same
basic mode (mm. 17-24). The concluding section (mm. 25-34) combines
Ex. 70. Stockhausen. Klavierstiick No.2 Reprinted by permission of
Stockhausen of Verlag .
.·····8······.
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Ex. 70. Stockhausen. Klavierstiick No.2 (Continued)
.---7: 5---,
4
8
1I1f f.f mf
!.
~$ ,,!/,f.f
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184 Chromaticism
all the forms of intervallic organisation, summing up the entire process

of harmonic development - both logical and consistent and therefore
having no grounds to be classified among examples of 'atonal' music.
In fact, it represents a new tonality whose principles tan be discerned
by analysis. The 'cadence' in this composition (m. 35) merits special
attention. It is a dyad, the tritone e-bb which, complementing the basic
chromatic mode to form the twelve-tone aggregate, has been carefully
avoided by the composer throughout the piece. It is its absence that has
so far preserved the individual characteristics of the basic chromatic
mode and its appearance in the concluding bar points out that a com-
poser of the 20th century, especially one belonging to its latter half,
always proceeds in his musical thinking from the potentialities in-
herent in the 12-tone chromatic system, a tendency which is symbol-
ised in this closing cadence. Moreover, it signifies that the principles
inherent in the structure and progression of chords in modern music
are governed mainly by the chromatic complementation principle.
Acting at various levels (of a theme, a section of a composition, part of
a cycle), this principle becomes another method of articulating chro-
matic pitch-structures, a major device in building up a musical entity
(for the role of the complementation principle in Bartok's music, see 17,
p.205).
The fairly widespread use of such methods in the organisation
of 12-tone structures can be explained not only in terms of formal logic
but also by the psychology of perception. The notorious upper limit
(fixed somewhere within the domain of seven tones) which specifies
the number of tones immediately accessible to musical consciousness is
likely to dictate in many cases, often subconsciously, the composer's
tactics in organising the twelve-tone set and dividing it into simpler
tonal layers. And such a division of a complex structure into its compo-
nents may be realised in various forms - both strict systems in which
the final aggregate of all the twelve tones results from the schematic
arrangement of its components, and free systems in which an explicit
ordering of the chromatic total does not occur, the twelve tones appear-
ing to continuously flow into new sequences.
For purely experimental purposes let us take an example of a
musical composition which combines different technical procedures (Ex.
71). Schoenberg'S Klavierstiick Op. 33a may be defined as a dodecaphonic
structure based on Hauer's principle of tropes and imitating certain
devices of post-Romantic tonality. The initial two bars, a kind of motto,
contain the seeds of the entire tonal development which follows. The
series governing the tone-structure is divided into three chordal seg-
ments which complement one another to produce the 12-tone set. These
Ex. 71. Schoenberg. Klavierstuck Op. 33a
MiifJig J=120
4 2 I
3 "
'I
sfP ,A.
a tempo
10
12 13 14
15
15 15
15
14
18
15 16 17
186 Chromaticism
chords are then repeated with inverted interval structure, with the un-
derlying series in RI form transposed a fourth up. The subsequent har-
monic development is based wholly on the repetition and transposition
of this initial set, which involves none other than the assertion of the
complementation principle. The musical fabric is divided into clearly
discernible harmonic field-layers, with each succeeding development
being in principle predictable. Hence the contemplative and inwardly-
balanced character of the musical imagery, for the musical palette of the
composition is based on a combination of blocks of color, as in certain
formalised techniques of abstract painting. Its harmony is rather static,
the required dynamism being achieved through other expressive means
(rhythm, gradations of volume, articulation).
A more complicated case, based on the interaction of the prin-
ciples of chromatic connection and of complementation, is presented in
the third movement of the Piano Sonata No.3 by Boris Tishchenko
(Ex. 72). The exposition section consists of a type of variations based on
a cantus firmus. The musical material is organised in free voices in full
conformity with the principle of chromatic connection. The intervallic
group of 1.1 structure predominates, its transpositions forming 12-tone
fields. Their logical succession creates the dynamics of harmonic devel-
opment. The structure of the cantus firmus carries the imprint of
dodecaphonic technique: its four sections are organised as P-I-RI-R of
the initial microseries, representing a kind of model theme.
The structure of the entity is based on the complementation prin-
ciple. The prime form of the microseries and its inversion forms a se-
quence of ten tones, whose pitch-content (except for two remaining
tones) is repeated in symmetrical arrangement by the corresponding
retrograde inversion and retrograde forms of the microseries. Another
statement in retrograde of the entire cantus finnus (as a higher-order
retrograde form) closes up the structure and completes the realisation
of the chosen musical idea. The additional structural principle behind
the construction of the microsets is the fact that the initial tones of all
the statements are located along the steps of the symmetrical dimin-
ished mode (2.1.2.1.2.1.2.1). The interaction of the semi tonal and
complementation principles is determined by the structure of the
micro series (the group of intervals 1.5.1) which completes the twelve
tone aggregate in three transpositions.
The analysis of the above mentioned principles makes it possi-
ble to identify structural forms of chromaticism in modern music in
relation to various types of compositional procedures. At the same time
such analysis reveals that these principles are rarely employed in artis-
tic practice in their pure form, more often becoming part of the entire
Ex. 72. Boris Tishchenko. Sonata No.3 (3rd movement)
.I::: fJjp
o T RI R o I RI
188 Chromaticism
store of expressive means at the disposal of the composer who uses

them, together with harmony, polyphony, rhythm, timbre, and form in
the broadest sense of the word, to produce an artistically unified entity.
As regards harmony proper, such conventions may be viewed as a con-
crete manifestation of the more general tendency that can be character-
ised as the principle of progression. In many modern compositions you
can feel that dynamic energy directed towards the final mastery of the
twelve-tone universe. Becoming sometimes an end in itself, more often
a means, acquiring clear-cut structural forms of merely outlining a gen-
eral direction in harmonic development, this principle of progression
overrides other factors of pitch organisation, employing the latter merely
as internal components. This dynamic urge to attain and conquer the
twelve-tone summit is a characteristic feature of the music written dur-
ing this century, which does not renounce the simpler modal forms that
have taken shape in the course of musical evolution but imparts a new
quality to modern harmonic thinking.
4. Strict 12-tone systems
Compositional techniques of this type presuppose the most immediate

and thoroughgoing envelopment of all the twelve tones. Strictly speak-
ing, it would suffice to use the following syllogism to cover this section:
"All classical series (note-rows, tropes) are chromatic; if a certain com-
position is based on a series (note-row, trope), its tonal system should
be characterised as chromatic."
In such cases the neutral and seemingly irreducible chromatic
scale, a kind of symbol of similar tone-structures, is individualised
through the order brought into the progression of tones and the repeated
statement of the chosen order in the process of unfolding the harmonic
structure. A definite relationship is established between, say, the tech-
nique of tropes, note-rows and series, on the one hand, and modal pro-
cedure, on the other. Under this approach both a note-row and a series
can be regarded as an extremely chromatic melodic line, a modal for-
mula, which is an indispensable component of each mode predeter-
mining its singularity and its actual existence. Such a treatment of strict
12-tone systems is explained by the modern understanding of the twelve-
tone complex as a consequence of modal density, the concentration of
modal formulas, rather than just pitches, within the restricted confines
of acoustic space. Shostakovich who used the serial technique in his
later compositions made it simply one of a number of means of attain-
ing supreme artistic goals, a device to embody the idea of constancy,
integrity and stability, without at the same time going beyond his own
long-established harmonic style (see Ex. 59).
The twelve-tone serial technique is often used alongside other
devices of pitch organisation, and is more suited in its nature to short,
less extended musical forms. Special semantic weight is attached in such
forms to additional means of musical expression to lend color to the
intervallic model which remains unvaried in the course of repetition.
Maximal integrity of harmonic structure is achieved by its establish-
ment on a definite pitch (following the analogy to tonality) and the use
of characteristic intervallic groupings in the episodes that are freer in
their structure. Despite the differences in their internal organisation, all
set-forms have one property in common - the prevalence of intervallic
groups of definite structure in the process of harmonic development.
These groups govern the vertical relationships and determine the
nature of the key motivic formulas, the dynamics in the formation of
such motives.
The technique of tropes turned out to be rather a one-off in 20th-
century music owing to the fact that Hauer's compositional method
occupies a far more modest place in the history of European music than
the technique evolved by Arnold Schoenberg, his contemporary (leav-
ing aside the relative aesthetic value of their compositions). Besides in
actual artistic practice the technique of tropes, especially in its non-
orthodox form, often amounts merely to a branch of dodecaphony, a
version of twelve-tone serial structure. Thus, the structure of the series
in the first movement of Alfred Schnittke's Sonata for Violin and Piano
No.1 is divided into two hexachords, the second of which represents
the retrograde inversion of the first. The composer's relatively free treat-
ment of dodecaphonic principles, particularly in building up vertical
relationships from the serial segments brings these two compositional
techniques closer to each other, leading to "the birth of tropes from the
spirit of a series" (Ex. 73).
Ex. 73. Alfred Schnittke. Sonata for Violin and Piano (1st movement,
scheme)
190 Chromaticism
The concept of strict 12-tone systems is mainly associated with

the serial technique, which has been thoroughly explored in the
specialist literature. The present study therefore requires only a few
additional remarks.
As indicated above, use of the serial technique by definition en-
tails the presence of chromaticism, with the 12-tone set arranged from
the very start in the single ordering selected for the composition in ques-
tion. However, Ernst Krenek in an analysis of his own Lamentatio /eremiae
Prophetae speaks of the rotation of tones within a series, differentiating
between the diatonic model (obtained by order rotation within the two
hexachords, hence preserving their pitch content) and the chromatic
model (obtained by transposing each hexachord generated according
to the diatonic model so that they each begin on the same tone, hence
changing their pitch content). Calling such techniques serial is surely
only a matter of inadequate terminology (see Extents and Limits of
Serial Techniques/ / Problems of Modern Music. New York, 1960, p. 74).
A series assumes the function of a logical centre directing the
process of harmonic development, sometimes also the function of a chro-
matic mode. Combined with other compositional procedures, it may
also become an effective device for bringing order into pitch organisa-
tion and may at the same time possess a wide range of expressive
potentialities, which make it possible to convey in music the most
diverse imagery and emotional states. The most frequently used form
of synthesis is the combination of tonal and dodecaphonic principles in
differing proportions, depending in each case on genre, instrumenta-
tion, and ultimately on the composer's intention.
Such a synthesis may be illustrated by Schnittke's Concerto for
Piano and Chamber Orchestra (Ex. 74), with its two dramatic spheres
represented through harmonic means. The quasi-tonal progression of
four chords, the principal tones of which outline the intervallic formula
BACH, a kind of chordal microseries (c-O-d-Oi» forming the basis of
the key stages in the development of the composition's imagery, repre-
sents the first dramatic sphere. Its boundaries are outlined in the solo-
ist's initial piano cadenza which demonstrates the principle of chro-
matic intensification - from individual tones making up major and mi-
nor triads (and eventually the microseries) to a chromatic cluster com-
bining all twelve tones in a unified sonority.
The second dramatic sphere is based on a series in pure form,
designed by the composer as a trope in two symmetrical parts, which
in the process of development is invariably stated simultaneously with
its inversion (the basic set-type and its inversion transposed a semitone
Ex. 74a, b, c. Alfred Schnittke. Concerto for Piano and Chamber

Orchestra
~t~ ~t~ ~t~

Ex. 74a, b, c. Alfred Schnittke. Concerto for Piano and ChamberOrchestra (Continued)
~ klUfo di valse
up fully coincide in their pitch structure). The statements of the series

built up as a trope and structured as tonal music logically ascend in
fourths (c#-F#-b-e-a-d-g ... ). At one moment in its development the
series takes the form of genre music (waltz) and, combined with the
elements of the first theme, brings the opposite poles closer to each other.
At the moment of dramatic climax, when according to the logic of the
harmonic development you expect a sequence starting on c, this is re-
placed significantly by the sounds of the initial theme (the chordal
micro series pitches) which assert the first dramatic sphere and confirm
the rights of C-tonality which, as it turns out, has been latently govern-
ing the entire harmonic development of the composition and has been
in some way or another lurking 'behind' all the elements of the pitch
structure.
As the most general characteristic of the serial technique as em-
ployed during the post-Schoenbergian period, we should point to its.
non-orthodox character, its treatment as an intervallic complex, often
motivated by its mode. Pure forms of dodecaphony have no exclusive
place even in the works written by the composers of the Second Vien-
nese School (except perhaps for Webern). The history of 20th-century
music and the practical utilisation of serial techniques by the greatest
composers of our century (for instance, by Stravinsky) show that in each
case the concrete method of composition "with twelve tones which are
related only with one another" depends in large measure on individual
style, current trends in musical culture, and so on. It is precisely this
factor that makes all the difference between the twelve-tone composi-
tions written by Stockhausen and Boulez, Nono and Denisov, Ligeti and
Pousseur, and for the same reason there emerge varying chromatic sys-
tems, differing both' en face' and 'in profile'.
It is hardly possible to encapsulate the multifaceted world of
20th-century music in every detail under the single rubric of chromatic
pitch systems, which has been the subject of the present study. An at-
tempt has been made to draw attention only to certain specific trends in
the works by modern composers. Their continual development involves
the emergence of new musical phenomena in anticipation of the future.
In contemporary music we can observe chromatic not only in
pitch organization but also in many other parameters of musical
language, such as the total organization of rhythm (Messiaen's 'chro-
matic scale of durations'), dynamics, timbre, register, tempo, texture,
the density of acoustic space, etc. Thus, Stockhausen has come to admit:
"I'm constantly occupied with the enlargement of the traditional
parameters" (31, p. 89). And we can discern this in his music, entering
into the multidimensional, highly 'chromatic' and truly multi-
194 Chromaticism
colored world of 20th-century artistic culture, extending between the

infinitesimally small and infinitely large dimensions in which a unified
principle of relationship between micro- and macrocosmos is currently
being established.
5. The domains adjacent to chromatism
The principle of equal temperament that has been used as the basis of
the European musical system for nearly three centuries, determining
the character of its inner tonal relationships, seems to impose a natural
limit on chromatic expansion. Any thirteenth step in fifths, taking us
into the domains of 'ultra-chromaticism', constitutes, within the given
system, almost a step towards 'diatonicism in an irregular location'. The
outward proliferation of the tonal system has proved impossible. Does
this natural limitation of the material basis mean that there might exist
a certain borderline in musical thinking provided by nature itself?
The history of musical development and current musical prac-
tice show that, along with the known potentialities (still far from ex-
hausted) inherent in the inner restructuring of the 12-step chromatic
system itself and the discovery of new principles underlying the rela-
tionship of its constituent elements, musical consciousness is ever look-
ing for ways to penetrate other domains of tonal relationship. One such
promising path is the introduction of microintervals. The Eurocentric
bias (involuntary in most cases) of 20th-century music theory is to a
large measure countered by the artistic phenomena now arising in mu-
sical practice, the current extensive exchange of cultural values, and
integration of artistic principles. From an evolutionary standpoint these
trends are manifested in the synthesis of certain singular features char-
acteristic of musical thinking in Western and Eastern musical cultures.
Microintervals as an essential trait of Asian traditional music are nowa-
days providing a major impetus for the further development of Euro-
pean music. At the same time rapid technological progress in the
second half of the 20th century and the current widespread use of elec-
tronic synthesisers in musical practice are producing a counter-trend in
European musical culture which is penetrating the microscopic dimen-
sion of sounds and passing into another system of coordinates, onto
other levels in apprehending the phenomenon of musical sound.
Microchromaticism as a special intervallic genus whose assimi-
lation by Western culture actually began more than two thousand years
ago (the ancient Greek enharmonic genus) is becoming in many mod-
ern compositions a major device of dramatic contrast, highlighting the
nature of the relationships within chromatic systems (the mutual rela-

tionship of chromatic and microchromatic genera being analogous to
that between diatonic and chromatic). Its use to subtly underline chro-
matic steps underscores the melodic nature of microchromaticism and
strengthens the self-sufficient status of the chromatic steps used as the
basis of such systems (Ex. 75).
Also in a domain adjacent to chromaticism are the textural sys-
tems which represent a movement in the opposite direction (the
extreme differentiation of micro chromaticism - the maximal non-dif-
ferentiation of texture). In this type of pitch organisation the arrange-
ment of the equal-tempered 12 tones seems not to be structured, at least
in the usual sense of the word. A set of timbre blocks changes the tone-
color palette, outlining in succession various facets of a stationary
musical object (Ex. 76). The use of textural systems and procedures in
modern music is motivated, as well as by the joint influences naturally
exerted by Western and Eastern artistic thinking, by the idea of treating
musical timbre as a means of expressing a concrete aesthetic idea. Herein
lie the limits of chromaticism which we have now reached in our study.
196 Chromaticism
-
.s
U
( j)
0
"0
rJl
;.,
0
'-H
(j)
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u
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m
6
0;.,
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(/J
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rJl
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ill
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Ex. 76. Edison Denisov. Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
23~~#~' l.u. """

""
:hil.
: ::::pp
01
mf l.!l.
a.mp~
pp l.l!.
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p
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c. solo
01
10-'11
=
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;2.38
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CONCLUSION
A historical approach to musicological concepts and terms, both con-

ventional and newly-emerging ones, is becoming increasingly impera-
tive. This research study pertaining to the historical evolution of the
concept of chromaticism (or to be more precise, the system of concepts
it embraces), which identifies the main stages in its formation and the
periods during which it changed its meaning, has been determined pri-
marily by the very nature of the problem under consideration and the
current requirements of the modern science of music. The following
findings have turned out to be most significant in this study:
(1) Non-diatonic phenomena in ancient Greek music were of a
diverse but fundamentally different nature, rooted in monody, a source
which left its imprint on their theoretical interpretation. The key
essence of ancient Greek chromaticism lay not in any increased number
of steps in its opposition to diatonicism, but in the intermediate status
the chromatic genus occupied between the two extreme states of pitched
texture (the 'macrointervals' of the diatonic and the 'microintervals' of
the enharmonic genera). This idea seems full of potential regarding the
classification of chromatic pitch structures in 20th-century music.
(2) Medieval pitch systems realize the leading-tone principle
which primarily involves the resolution of imperfect consonances into
perfect ones. In contrast to the leading-tone chromaticism of the 17th to
18th centuries, the subsemitonium in the context of modality carried no
explicit tonal function. Only the rise of harmonic tonality changed the
essence of leading tones, turning them from modal decorations into
tonally regulated phenomena.
(3) At the turn of the 16th century and in the early part of 17th
century two concepts of chromaticism came into conflict: the concept of
the chromatic genus as a kind of melodic writing in the Greek sense
(passed down from one treatise to another, from teacher to pupil) and
the new European-style chromaticism, which initially manifested itself
in the filling-up by semitones of small sections of intervals, a fourth in
most cases. This phenomenon, whose roots can be found in Marchetto's
examples of 'permutation' and in the madrigals written during that
period, acquired a completely different meaning in the context of emerg-
ing harmonic tonality. Nevertheless contemporary music theory was
still trying to explain tonal-harmonic phenomena in modal terms, even
200 Chromaticism
when the matter involved the ancient tetra chord used in a modern tonal
context.
(4) One of the first to offer a truly harmonic (rather than me-
lodic) explanation of chromaticism was Rameau who believed that chro-
maticism arose from the relationship of chords by thirds, i.e. directly,
not as an enrichment of the diatonicism. This idea was developed fur-
ther by Ernst Kurth who called the Romantic period in music 'the
epoch of thirds', which was for him synonymous to chromaticism
(according to Kurth, the use of a major third as a leading tone produced
a moment of tension and therefore forced out the tone inherent in the
diatonic scale).
(5) The study of chromatic phenomena in the music of the stile
moderno has revealed their dependence on the general processes of ex-
panding tonality, which in some cases was due to the development and
differentiation of such types of chromaticism as alteration, leading tones,
subsidiary key areas, and mixtures of modes. The evolution of all of
these phenomena in their various forms seems to span the entire his-
tory of the expansion of the boundaries of tonality and the change in
the concept of chromaticism in 20th-century music - when it becomes
integral, i.e. not a combination of separate elements, but a principle of
thinking in a unified system in which each sound has its own intrinsic
significance.
Drawing on current theories and interpretations of the problem
under consideration, this book offers a summary account of chromati-
cism, which defines its place as an intervallic genus within a system of
other genera - ekmelic, anhemitonic, diatonic, mixodiatonic, hemiolic,
and microchromatic. The natural relationship of chromatic phenomena
to tonal functions and form-building is also taken into account. The prin-
ciples underlying the classification of chromaticism have reflected the
need to specify criteria and provide clearer distinctions between me-
lodic and chordal chromaticism, alteration and leading tones, altera-
tion and chromaticism, diatonicism and integral chromaticism, modal-
ity and tonality. The number of chromatic types has increased, and the
way they are distinguished has changed somewhat and become more
precise. The differentiation of these concepts at the most detailed level
has called for a new systematisation of chromatic types to take into ac-
count the dynamics in the growth of their specific degree of 'density' of
harmonic tonal relationships - from modulatory chromaticism on the
one pole (when a limited proportion of chromatic elements added to
diatonic tonalities are most rarefied) to integral (hemitonic) chromati-
cism which symbolises that domain of the chromatic genus in which
the diatonic substratum is no longer perceptible and chromaticism is at
Conclusion 201
its densest. Numerous case studies have proved that this classification
helps in some instances to clarify certain intricate phenomena involved
in the interaction of non-diatonic and diatonic elements in tonal rela-
tionships.
This survey of historical types of chromaticism elucidates theo-
retical propositions and demonstrates the possibilities of their practical
application. This section furnishes information about little-known phe-
nomena, in particular, drawing on historical documents, theoretical
sources and surviving musical fragments, a specific study has been
made of the modal principles which characterized Byzantine music in
view of the evolution of chromaticism as a phenomenon. The final solu-
tion of the problem pertaining to the use of chromaticism in Byzantine
music (mainly it would appear in its ancient Greek sense) calls for fur-
ther clarification of a whole number of relevant circumstances. Such
clarification would rely on the study of Byzantine theoretical sources
and especially the principles of Byzantine notation. It would also in-
volve an explanation, in as consistent a manner as possible, of the prin-
ciples of transcribing the existing specimens of the musical practice of
the time. Another matter, still open to discussion, concerns the struc-
ture of modal scales, chromatic scales in particular, and the principles
of building up an integral tonal system. Generally speaking, one should
admit that the complete disappearance of chromaticism (even in its an-
cient Greek sense) from musical practice would have seemed illogical,
to say the least. There have never been periods of purely diatonic or
purely chromatic music. In some form or another chromaticism has al-
ways been in existence.
A broad panorama of chromaticism - from its inception in an-
cient times to our century - provides a basis for a study of the principles
underlying chromatic pitch systems in 20th-century music. For it is pre-
cisely this property of the present-day harmonic language that makes
it unique and singular.
A diversity of musical trends and compositional styles is a char-
acteristic feature of modern music. At the same time the current musi-
cal situation suggests that it can be perceived as an artistic phenom-
enon unified in its principal manifestations. This is mainly due to the
new tonal vocabulary that is now gradually emerging. Any concrete
inferences and generalisations have called, however, for a number of
qualifications and have prompted a study of the determinants of such
unity.
Theoretical explanation of the laws governing musical develop-
ment during recent decades, as especially regards precise details of its
pitch organisation, is a challenging task primarily due to the fact that
202 Chromaticism
the study material is relatively recent in origin. Too many phenomena

have not as yet stood the test of time, having been considered only on
the basis of first impressions and resisting any generalisations. Besides,
the matter concerns an evolutionary development, which presupposes
that large proportion of elements are still in the process of being formed,
rather than already crystallized. Nonetheless, amid this incessant change
and development one can still discern some of the essential features of
the modern musical language - the universal artistic instrument in our
perception of the world.
REFERENCES
1. Aaron P. Toscanello in musica. Kassel etc.: Barenreiter, 1970, 76 S.

2. Abraham L. Bemerkungen zu Wagners "chromatischer" Harmonik / / R Wagner:
Werk und Wirkung / Herausg. von C. Dahlhaus. Regensburg: Bosse, 1971, S. 199-
205.
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174. Yusfin A Wanted the "Periodic System" of Modal Forms / / SOl'etskaya Muzyka,
1970, No.1, pp. 105-107.
175. Zarlino G. Le istitutioni harmoniche. Ridgewood: Gregg Press, 1966,347 pp.
176. Zender H. Betrachtung der Zwolftonleiter des alten China / / Neue Zeitschrift fiir
Musik, 1981, No.4, S. 353-357.
INDEX
Aaron, Pietro 15, 22, 39 Forkel, Johann 122

Achilles x Frescobaldi, Girolamo 113, 116-117
Afflighemensis, Johannes 15, 19 (f.)
Amargianakis, G. 68, 70 Gafurius, Franchinus 16
Aristotle 2 (f.), 38-39, 44 Garlandia, Johannes de 16
Aristoxenus 4-9, 39, 60 Gertzman, Yevgeny 64
Aristides, Quintilianus 43 Gesualdo di Venosa viii, 45, 99, 105-111,
Artusi 112 115, 120
Asafyev, Boris 46 (f.), 77 (f.) Gevaert, Fran<;ois 47
Glareanus 9
Bach,J.5.116, 117, 119, 122, 125-126 Glinka, Mikhail 46 (f.)
Bartok, Bela 32-33, 47 (f.), 144-146, 173, Goldman, Richard Franco 32,169
184 Gonzaga, Lodovico ix
Beethoven, Ludvig van 126-127, 136 Gregory the Protopsalt 61
Bermudo, Juan 103 Grieg, Edvard 163
Bernhard, Christoph 116, 118 Grocheio, Johannes de 16 (f.)
Boethius 10, 11 Gruber, Roman 19, 70
Boulez, Pierre 193 Gubaidulina, Sofia 148, 151, 175
Brahms, Johann 132 Guido d' Arezzo 12, 20 (f.), 24, 80
Burney, Charles 107
Hiba, Alois 47 (f.)
Catoire, Georgy 47, 51 Hauer, Josef Matthias 176, 189
Chopin, Fryderyk 137, 141, 163, 169 Hauptmann, Moritz 27, 30 (f.)
Chourmouzios the Archivist 61 Hegel, G.P' 45
Chrysanthos of Madytos 60-62, 67 Helmholtz, H. 7
Clementi, Muzio 123 Hieronymus de Moravia 20
Cleonides 9 Hindemith, Paul 30, 33,142,163-166
Costeley 90 Hothby, John 16, 21, 90
Hovunts, Gagik 170, 172
Dahlhaus, Carl 12, 20, 88, 97, 99 (f.)
Denisov, Edison 193, 197-198 Jacobsthal, Gustave 13, 15
Jeppesen, Knud 77
Eichmann, Peter 21 (f.) Josquin de Pre 89 (f.)
Engelbert of Admont 20 (f.)
Erpf, Hermann 50 Kholopov, Yuri v. 43, 50, 74, 169
Euripides 58-59 Khominski, Jozef 77, 94 (f.)
Krenek, Ernst 190
Fedotov, Georgy ix Kroyer, Theodor 103
Ferrabosco, Alfonso 90, 93 Kurth, Ernst 49,77 (f.), 133,200
Fibonacci 33
Ficker, Rudolf 12 Laroche, Hermann xii
Firca, Gheorghe 34 Lasso Orlando di 102-103
Fogliani, Lodovico 22, 38 Legrant, Guillaume 87
Index 211
Lendvai, Ernb 32-33 Salinas, Francisco 22

Ligeti, Gybrgy 193 Saponov, Mikhail 21
Liszt, Ferenz 163, 176 Scheibe, Johann 122
Lowinsky, Edward 23 (f.), 89, 97 Schenker, Heinrich 29-30, 32-33, 51-52,
LutosYawski, Witold 170-171, 176-178 123
Schnittke, Alfred 168, 189-192
Machaut, Guillaume de 82, 84-85 Schoenberg, Arnold xi, 31, 128, 154-159,
Macque, Giovanni 104 184-185,189,193
Mahler, Gustav 139 Schubert, Franz 134
Maltezos, Constantine 62 Schutz, Heinrich 118, 120-121
Marchetto da Padua vii, 17-19,21,82, Scriabin, Alexander 50, 142-143, 167, 169
199 Sechter, Simon 30 (f.)
Marenzio, Luca 89 (f.), 100-101 Sessions, Roger 32
Marpurg, Friedrich Wilhelm 30 (f.) Sextus Empiricus 5
Mayrhofer, Robert 31 (f.),50 Shchedrin, Rodion 160, 162, 179-180
Mendelssohn, Felix 46 (f.) Shering, Arnold 133
Mersenne, Marin 24, 38-39 Shostakovich, Dmitry 51,152-153,167,
Meshchaninov, Pyotr 35 (f.) 38 176, 188
Messiaen, Olivier 167-170, 193 Slonimsky, Sergei 196
Micheli, Romano 90-92 Sol age 86
Moliere, J.-B. xi Spataro, Giovanni 15
Mussorgsky, Modest 163 Stockhausen, Karlheinz 181-183, 193
Strauss, Richard 130
Nono, Luigi 193 Stravinsky, Igor 111 (f.), 148-149, 193
Strunk, Oliver 63
Obukhov, Nikolay 176
Odington, Walter 17 (f.) Taneyev, Sergei 31, 47 (f.)
Odo of Cluny 14 (f.) Tchaikovsky, Pyotr 31,129
Ogolevets, Alexei 43, 47 Tcherepnin, Nikolay 167
Olympus 4, 6,10 Terpander 10
Oramo, Ikka 33 Thodberg, Christian 63
Tillyard, Henry 63
Pachymeres 5 Timotheos of Miletos 23 (f.)
Persichetti, Vincent 32 Tischler, H. 32
Philippe de Vitry 21 Tishchenko, Boris 186-187
Plato xi, 3, 38 Trabaci 112, 114, 120
Plutarch de Cheronea 3,10 Tsvetayeva, Marina 152-153
Polymnestus of Colophon 6 Tunstede, Simon 20 (f.)
Pousseur, Henri 34, 193
Prokofiev, Sergei 146-148, 150, 161 Vicentino, Nicola 22-24, 39, 94-98, 100,
Prosdocimus de Beldemandis 17 (f.), 21, 103, 105, 112, 116-117
90 Vincent, John 32
Ptolemy 10, 39 Vogler 27
Rameau, Jean-Philippe 24-29, 38, 40, 45, Wagner, Richard, 77 (f.), 133, 135
103,200 Webern, Anton 34, 43,173-174,181,193
Reese, Gustave 13, 19 Wellesz, Egon 63, 70
Regino of Prum 20 (f.) Werckmeister, Andreas 38
Riemann, Hugo 2, 9-10,19-20,29-30 (f.), West, M.L. 58 (f.)
52 Willaert, Adrian 89
Rimsky-Karsakov, Nikolay 169
Rare, Cipriano de 23, 89 (f.) Yarkho, V. 58 (f.)
Yavorsky, Boleslav 148, 169
Sachs, Curt 3, 37
Saint-Exupery, Antoine de 40 Zarlino, Gioseffo 23, 38-39, 99-100, 118

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Chromaticism

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Translated fram the Russian by

Publ ished 20 14 by Routledge

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright © 1996 by OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) Amsterdam B.V. Published

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Barsky, Vlad imir

Chapter 1 EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT OF

Chapter 2 CHROMATICISM AS A CATEGORY OF

2.4 Systematisation and differentiation of concepts 48

Chapter 3 HISTORICAL TYPES OF CHROMATICISM 55

Chapter 4 CHROMATIC SYSTEMS IN 20th-CENTURY

It would be appropriate to begin this book with a parable which is also

The range of problems tackled in this book concerns chromat-

catching the sound of voices coming from a neighbouring house. They

is governed by the chromatic scale" (Schoenberg).

In broad outline the following two approaches to the

1. Formation of the concept. The pyknon principle

more precise, a certain placement of two mean (movable) tones of a

dependence on movable notes (kinoumenoi). "Of the notes enumerated

themselves. Thus, for instance, Plutarch de Cheronea (in his treatise De

Maiorr° Minor-Atonic niC

Division Division Division Division

Theoretically the enharmonic genus signifies the 'splitting' of

The facts concerning the historical evolution of the enharmonic

certain definite emotions rendered by available means of a given

2. The Aristoxenian Theory

Aristoxenus, one of the earliest Greek writers on music, gave a lot of

barypyknoi mesopyknoi oxypyknoi

The credit for turning Olympus's simplified scale into the

narrow-stepwise genera once more underscore the similarity between

Ex. lb. The Aristoxenian scales of mixed melos

combination of scales with various microintervallic structures, as well

Any survey of non-diatonic phenomena in ancient Greek music (and

(a-bf,-bq-c-d). This also explains Plutarch's indication that kithara chro-

4. Chromaticism in the system of medieval categories.

The system of music - theoretical tenets prevailing in the Middle Ages

Medieval Modes Ancient Greek Modes

5. The dialectics of concept and phenomenon

Medieval music theory had no developed system of the concepts of

(the Latin definition of the Greek concept synemmenan), which is "the

The author of the treatise, however, does not recognise semi-

The text contains two kinds of signs for indicating semitonal

7. Mutation and chromaticism

* Johannes de Grocheio writes: "Contemporary musicians in notating chords

8. Marchetto da Padua. The premises for the rise of the modern

Ex.2a. Marchetto's permutation procedure

Marchetto's ideas about designations of permutatio are note-

chromatic. This runs contrary to present-day procedures" (143, p. 115): G-g# =

obviously" (53, Vol. 3, p. 75; 143, p. 115)****.

than a semitone by no means constitute the foundations of a mode but

* Johannes Afflighemensis testifies to such errors on the part of singers: in

Ex. 3. Fragment from the Montpellier antiphonary (transcribed by

the use of microtones in the Middle Ages (Ex. 3).

The truth is likely to be found somewhere in between. On the

9. Classification of intervallic systems in the Middle Ages

Judging by treatises and fragmentary theoretical evidence dating back

One of the earliest milestones in the theoretical interpretations

* Lack of 'onward progress' in the development of modal structures is borne

10. Development of the concept of chromaticism

Ferrari and other notables)*. In his book (1555) Vincentino substanti-