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tonal characteristics but contain multiple accidentals up to all twelve tones of the chromatic scale such as the opening of henry purcell s thy hand belinda from dido and aeneas 1689 with figured bass which features eleven of twelve pitches while chromatically descending by half steps 1 the missing pitch being sung later melody with figured bass béla bartók music for strings percussion and celesta movement i fugue subject chromatic 2 bartók music movement i fugue subject diatonic variant 2 diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize scales the terms are also applied to musical instruments intervals chords notes musical styles and kinds of harmony they are very often used as a pair especially when applied to contrasting features of the common practice music of the period 1600 1900 a these terms may mean different things in different contexts very often diatonic refers to musical elements derived from the modes and transpositions of the white note scale c d e f g a b b in some usages it includes all forms of heptatonic scale that are in common use in western music the major and all forms of the minor c chromatic most often refers to structures derived from the chromatic scale in 12 tone equal temperament which consists of all semitones historically however it had other senses referring in ancient greek music theory to a particular tuning of the tetrachord and to a rhythmic notational convention in mensural music of the 14th to 16th centuries history edit tetrachord genera of the four string lyre from the history of the arts and sciences of the antients charles rollin 1768 the text gives a typically fanciful account of the term chromatic greek genera edit main article genus music in ancient greece there were three standard tunings known by the latin word genus plural genera d of a lyre 3 these three tunings were called diatonic e chromatic f and enharmonic 4 and the sequences of four notes that they produced were called tetrachords four strings g a diatonic tetrachord comprised in descending order two whole tones and a semitone such as a g f e roughly in the chromatic tetrachord the second string of the lyre was lowered from g to g so that the two lower intervals in the tetrachord were semitones making the pitches a g f e in the enharmonic tetrachord the second string of the lyre was lowered further to g so that the two lower interval in the tetrachord were quarter tones making the pitches a g f e where f is f lowered by a quarter tone for all three tetrachords only the middle two strings varied in their pitch h i medieval coloration edit the term cromatico italian was occasionally used in the medieval and renaissance periods to refer to the coloration latin coloratio of certain notes the details vary widely by period and place but generally the addition of a colour often red to an empty or filled head of a note or the colouring in of an otherwise empty head of a note shortens the duration of the note j in works of the ars nova from the 14th century this was used to indicate a temporary change in metre from triple to duple or vice versa this usage became less common in the 15th century as open white noteheads became the standard notational form for minims half notes and longer notes called white mensural notation 7 8 similarly in the 16th century a form of notating secular music especially madrigals in was referred to as chromatic because of its abundance of coloured in black notes that is semiminims crotchets or quarter notes and shorter notes as opposed to the open white notes in commonly used for the notation of sacred music 9 these uses for the word have no relationship to the modern meaning of chromatic but the sense survives in the current term coloratura 10 renaissance chromaticism edit see also chromaticism the term chromatic began to approach its modern usage in the 16th century for instance orlando lasso s prophetiae sibyllarum opens with a prologue proclaiming these chromatic songs 11 heard in modulation are those in which the mysteries of the sibyls are sung intrepidly which here takes its modern meaning referring to the frequent change of key and use of chromatic intervals in the work the prophetiae belonged to an experimental musical movement of the time called musica reservata this usage comes from a renewed interest in the greek genera especially its chromatic tetrachord notably by the influential theorist nicola vicentino in his treatise on ancient and modern practice 1555 12 diatonic scales edit audio playback is not supported in your browser you can download the audio file diatonic scale on c equal tempered and just main article diatonic scale gamut as defined by george william lemon english etymology 1783 the diatonic scale notes above and the non scale chromatic notes below 13 medieval theorists defined scales in terms of the greek tetrachords the gamut was the series of pitches from which all the medieval scales or modes strictly notionally derive and it may be thought of as constructed in a certain way from diatonic tetrachords the origin of the word gamut is explained in the article guidonian hand here the word is used in one of the available senses the all encompassing gamut as described by guido d arezzo which includes all of the modes the intervals from one note to the next in this medieval gamut are all tones or semitones recurring in a certain pattern with five tones t and two semitones s in any given octave the semitones are separated as much as they can be between alternating groups of three tones and two tones here are the intervals for a string of ascending notes starting with f from the gamut t t t s t t s t t t s t and here are the intervals for an ascending octave the seven intervals separating the eight notes a b c d e f g a from the gamut t s t t s t t five tones and two semitones k the white keys are the modern analog of the gamut in its most strict definition therefore a diatonic scale is one that may be derived from the pitches represented in successive white keys of the piano or a transposition thereof this would include the major scale and the natural minor scale same as the descending form of the melodic minor but not the old ecclesiastical church modes most of which included both versions of the variable note b b modern meanings edit there are specific applications in the music of the common practice period and later music that shares its core features most but not all writers 15 accept the natural minor as diatonic failed verification as for other forms of the minor l exclusive usage some writers consistently classify the other variants of the minor scale the melodic minor ascending form and the harmonic minor as non diatonic since they are not transpositions of the white note pitches of the piano among such theorists there is no agreed general term that encompasses the major and all forms of the minor scale m inclusive usage some writers consistently include the melodic and harmonic minor scales as diatonic also for this group every scale standardly used in common practice music and much similar later music is either diatonic the major and all forms n of the minor or chromatic o mixed usage still other writers mix these two meanings of diatonic and conversely for chromatic and this can lead to confusions and misconceptions sometimes context makes the intended meaning clear some other meanings of the term diatonic scale take the extension to harmonic and melodic minor even further to be even more inclusive 16 in general diatonic is most often used inclusively with respect to music that restricts itself to standard uses of traditional major and minor scales when discussing music that uses a larger variety of scales and modes including much jazz rock and some tonal 20th century concert music writers often adopt the exclusive use to prevent confusion chromatic scale edit main article chromatic scale audio playback is not supported in your browser you can download the audio file chromatic scale on c full octave ascending and descending a chromatic scale consists of an ascending or descending sequence of pitches always proceeding by semitones such a sequence of pitches is produced for example by playing all the black and white keys of a piano in order the structure of a chromatic scale is therefore uniform throughout unlike major and minor scales which have tones and semitones in particular arrangements and an augmented second in the harmonic minor 17 musical instruments edit some instruments such as the violin can play any scale others such as the glockenspiel are restricted to the scale to which they are tuned among this latter class some instruments such as the piano are always tuned to a chromatic scale and can be played in any key while others are restricted to a diatonic scale and therefore to a particular key some instruments such as the harmonica harp and glockenspiel are available in both diatonic and chromatic versions although it is possible to play chromatic notes on a diatonic harmonica they require extended embouchure techniques and some chromatic notes are only usable by advanced players diatonic pixiphone a brand of glockenspiel chromatic pixiphone chromatic rear and diatonic harmonicas intervals edit when one note of an interval is chromatic or when both notes are chromatic the entire interval is called chromatic chromatic intervals arise by raising or lowering one or both notes of a diatonic interval so that the interval is made larger or smaller by the interval of half step altered diatonic intervals allen forte 1979 18 because diatonic scale is itself ambiguous distinguishing intervals is also ambiguous p for example the interval b e a diminished fourth occurring in c harmonic minor is considered diatonic if the harmonic minor scale is considered diatonic 23 but chromatic if the harmonic minor scale is not considered diatonic 24 forte lists the chromatic intervals in major and natural minor as the augmented unison diminished octave augmented fifth diminished fourth augmented third diminished sixth diminished third augmented sixth minor second major seventh major second minor seventh doubly diminished fifth and doubly augmented fourth 25 additionally the label chromatic or diatonic for an interval may depend on context for instance in c major the interval c e could be considered a chromatic interval because it does not appear in the prevailing diatonic key conversely in c minor it would be diatonic this usage is still subject to the categorization of scales above e g in the b e example above classification would still depend on whether the harmonic minor scale is considered diatonic in different systems of tuning edit audio playback is not supported in your browser you can download the audio file pythagorean diatonic and chromatic interval e f and e e compare c e c f c e in cases where intervals are enharmonically equivalent there is no difference in tuning and therefore in sound between them for example in 12 tone equal temperament and its multiples the notes f and e represent the same pitch so the diatonic interval c f a perfect fourth sounds the same as its enharmonic equivalent the chromatic interval c e an augmented third however in the majority of other tunings such as 19 tone and 31 tone equal temperament there is a difference in tuning between notes that are enharmonically equivalent in 12 tone equal temperament in systems based on a cycle of fifths such as pythagorean tuning and meantone temperament these intervals are labelled diatonic or chromatic intervals under a generalized meantone tuning notes such as g and a are not enharmonically equivalent but are instead different by an amount known as a diesis instruments limited to 12 pitches per octave can only produce a chain of 11 fifths resulting in a break at the ends of the chain this causes intervals that cross the break to be written as augmented or diminished chromatic intervals with the most notable example being the wolf fifth which is actually a diminished sixth that occurs when 12 note per octave keyboards are tuned to meantone temperaments whose fifths are flatter than those in 12 tone equal temperament in a generalized meantone temperament chromatic semitones e e are smaller than or equal to diatonic semitones e f in size 26 with consonant intervals such as the major third the nearby interval a diminished fourth in the case of a major third is generally less consonant if the tritone is assumed diatonic the classification of written intervals on this definition is not significantly different from the drawn from the same diatonic scale definition above as long as the harmonic minor and ascending melodic minor scale variants are not included chords edit by chromatic linear chord is meant simply a chord entirely of linear origin which contains one or more chromatic notes a great many of these chords are to be found in the literature allen forte 1979 27 bernhard ziehn s 1907 list of diatonic triads diatonic seventh chords and two examples of diatonic ninth chords the large and small ninth chords all from the c major or the c harmonic minor scale 28 diatonic chords are generally understood as those that are built using only notes from the same diatonic scale all other chords are considered chromatic however given the ambiguity of diatonic scale this definition too is ambiguous and for some theorists chords are only ever diatonic in a relative sense the augmented triad e g b is diatonic to or in c minor clarification needed 29 on this understanding the diminished seventh chord built on the leading note is accepted as diatonic in minor keys 30 if the strictest understanding of the term diatonic scale is adhered to whereby only transposed white note scales are considered diatonic even a major triad on the dominant scale degree in c minor g b d would be chromatic or altered in c minor q some writers weasel words use the phrase diatonic to as a synonym for belonging to therefore a chord is not said to be diatonic in isolation but can be said to be diatonic to a particular key if its notes belong to the underlying diatonic scale of the key harmony edit the chromatic expansion of tonality which characterizes much of nineteenth century music is illustrated in miniature by the substitution of a chromatic harmony for an expected diatonic harmony this technique resembles the deceptive cadence which involves the substitution of another diatonic chord for the expected diatonic goal harmony 32 in the major mode a substitute chromatic consonance often proves to be a triad which has been taken from the parallel minor mode this process assimilation is called mixture of mode or simply mixture four consonant triads from the minor mode may replace their counterparts in the major mode these we call chromatic triads by mixture 33 allen forte 1979 the words diatonic and chromatic are also applied inconsistently to harmony often musicians call diatonic harmony any kind of harmony ...