In fact, in 1555, he designed and built a 31-note-per-octave keyboard, known as an Archicembalo, and published a treatise and music to go with it: L'antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica (ancient music adapted to modern practice). Although Lusitano was judged to be the winner of the debate, this didn't keep Vicentino from advocating for chromatic and microtonal music. The later argued that music could be understood through the application of only the diatonic genus, while the former was attempting to revive the importance of the chromatic and enharmonic genera. In Rome, 1551, there was a major music theory debate between him and Vicente Lusitano. This can be seen especially clearly in the works of Nicola Vicentino. The modern usage of the term can be traced back to this ancient usage through the Renaissance, and its interest in reviving ancient Greek culture. This is different than the modern usage of the term, to be sure, but the similarity should be evident. In the enharmonic genus, even smaller, microtonal intervals were used, such as E-E½♯-F-A.Īs you can see, the diatonic genus primarily used whole steps, with half steps only to fill in the gap, which the chromatic genus used primarily half-steps (with a rather large gap). In the chromatic genus, the distribution was roughly Half-step, Half-step, Minor third (HHm3). In the diatonic genus, the notes were distributed roughly as Half-step, Whole-step, Whole-step (HWW). Note: the following explanations are only approximate, because the tuning system was considerably freer than what we have. The three genera were Diatonic, Chromatic, and Enharmonic. Tetrachords were classified as belonging to a genus, depending on which of three distributions they had. While the two outer notes had to be a fourth apart, the two inner notes could move around. In Ancient Greek music theory, full scales were built by combining smaller tetrachords - 4-note scales that spanned an interval of a perfect fourth. They add interest or excitement by using improper notes that are usually considered offensive (by virtue of being outside the scale).Īs for the origins of the term. He's been known to use some colorful language when he starts talking about politics.Įither of these definitions could easily be applied to the case of chromatic notes in music. If you use colorful language you use words that are usually considered rude or offensive. interesting or exciting He gave a colorful account of his travels. More on that in a moment, but first, its worth noting that "color" has idiomatic meanings as well, such as these definitions for "colorful" in the Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary:Ģ. It is impossible to say for sure, since the term chromatic has had a musical meaning since at least ancient Greek times (hence the use of a Greek word).
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