Chromatic Chords in Theory and Practice

Gotham, Mark

Abstract

"Chromatic harmony" is seen as a fundamental part of (extended) tonal music in the Western classical tradition (c.1700–1900). It routinely features in core curricula. Yet even in this globalised and data-driven age, 1) there are significant gaps between how different national "schools" identify important chords and progressions, label them, and shape the corresponding curricula; 2) even many common terms lack robust definition; and 3) empirical evidence rarely features, even in in discussions about "typical", "representative" practice. This paper addresses those three considerations by: 1) comparing English- and German-speaking traditions as an example of this divergence; 2) proposing a framework for defining common terms where that is lacking; and 3) surveying the actual usage of these chromatic chord categories using a computational corpus study of human harmonic analyses.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (Published)
• Conference Name: 24th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference
• Start Date: Nov 5, 2023
• End Date: Nov 9, 2023
• Acceptance Date: Jun 20, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Nov 4, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: Dec 15, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 18, 2023
• Pages: 272-278
• Book Title: Proceedings of the 24th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference
• ISBN: 9781732729933
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10265275
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2027455
• Publisher URL: https://ismir.net/conferences/ismir2023.html