This article is intended as a solution to a perceived problem with existing theories of pretonal chromatic music: Many modern theories of this repertoire have made anachronistic uses of models from major/minor tonality, and contemporaneous theories were not broad enough to adequately represent the phenomena that, to my own—and, I believe, many other modern listeners'—ears, gave chromatic music its unique sound. Both groups of theories missed the mark by treating all chromatic events in this repertoire equally. This article therefore begins by suggesting that, just as in tonal music, chromaticism in this period comprises many different phenomena. I therefore provide a model for separating chromatic tones according to their structural function and an analytical method for reducing chromatic works to their diatonic foundations. I present examples of each of the chromatic techniques that I describe and give detailed criteria for identifying each technique. In doing so, I provide a new vocabulary by which scholars and analysts can model the way in which they hear chromatic music from this period.
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Kyle Adams; A New Theory of Chromaticism from the Late Sixteenth to the Early Eighteenth Century. Journal of Music Theory 1 October 2009; 53 (2): 255–304. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00222909-2010-004
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