Polymodal chromaticism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In music polymodal chromaticism is the use of any and all musical modes sharing the same finale simultaneously or in succession and thus creating a texture involving all twelve notes of the chromatic scale (total chromatic). Alternately it is the free alteration of the other notes in a mode once its finale has been established. (Wilson 1992, p.8-9)
The concept was indicated by Bartók's folk-music-derived view of each note of the chromatic scale as being "of equal value" and thus to be used "freely and independently" (autobiography) and supported by references to the conception below in his Harvard Lectures (1943). The concept may be extended to the construction of non-diatonic modes from the pitches of more than one diatonic mode such as distance models including 1:3, the alternation of semitones and minor thirds, for example C-Eb-E-G-Ab-B-C which includes both the tonic and dominant as well as "'two of the most typical degrees from both major and minor' (E and B, Eb and Ab, respectively) ([Kárpáti 1975] p.132)". (ibid)
[edit] Source
- Wilson, Paul (1992). The Music of Béla Bartók. ISBN 0-300-05111-5.
- Kárpáti, János (1975). Bartók's String Quartets. Translated by Fred MacNicol. Budapest: Corvina Press.
