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chromaticism

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.02 sec.

chromaticism

In music, the use of all 12 tones, especially for heightened expressivity. A standard key or mode principally employs 7 tones, leaving 5 tones for discretionary use. Use of all 12 tones in a given piece increased in the 18th and 19th centuries. Strictly controlled chromaticism, as in the ornamentation of Frédéric Chopin, did not threaten the perception of tonality. However, from the mid-19th century on, complaints were heard with ever greater frequency that it was difficult to perceive what a given piece's tonal centre was, the chromaticism in the works of Richard Wagner being the most notorious. The virtual breakdown in tonality in the works of advanced composers led to the free atonality of Arnold Schoenberg and his followers in the early 20th century.



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This nostalgic-feeling rag features lots of syncopation and chromaticism.
However, most jazz, including modal jazz, is diatonic music; that is, within the structure of the jazz standard, as well as the blues, there is almost always a return to the tonic, even in the chromaticism of bebop (Kofsky 262-64, 280, 317; Heble 32-33).
Indeed, his work, despite its vital chromaticism and fiery tonalities, is visually cold, as the paintings are based on photographs of television screens whose images have been optically distorted.
 
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