Chromantic Music - Praise Chromanticism!

[opus10no2]

I've coined this term, Not sure if others have used it before. 
 
Toward the end of the Romantic era, we had composers that *bent* the bounds of tonality. Then there were those who sought to break it.

I'm passionate about the sound world explored by those composers who firmly believed in TONALITY and the infinite possibilities within.

Scriabin, Debussy, Ravel - these composers worked within tonality but bent it - in very different ways.
Jazz influences, extended harmonies, using so many new *colours* - yet all the while retaining that *gravity* of tonality.

Of course the firmness and looseness of this gravity can and must vary - some moments in Music are so firmly grounded, feel solid, and yet others feel lost in space - yet all the more beautiful for being so!

I'm all for going against 'black and white' thinking in Music - the keys of a Piano are black and white - yet they form the CHROMATIC scale - a scale of COLOURS.

Music didn't just suddenly go from lush romanticism to stark modernism. There is a world of colour and expression to be explored in the 'grey' area.

Berg's Piano Sonata is a great listen for anyone unfamiliar with it - Incredibly romantic, melodic, expressive - and yet so harmonically innovative - taking the harmonic innovations of Wagner and Liszt to another level - suspension upon suspension - leaving earth and floating in space...yet returning at points to remind us of home.

Chromantic Music to me is fiercely warm - not cold at all, it is lush and can be opulent.

The greatest music isn't made by breaking the rules, but by bending them!

[visitor]

Well said
 Yes. I totally agree. Well said

[vaniii]

The greatest music isn't made by breaking the rules, but by bending them!

Yet we love extremism; life is about give and take, and a wonderful grey area.

I think human beings like dichotomies; we can quantify and qualify it if they look and sound starkly different.

Music is a form of expression; people can express in whatever, which, way they like; but it does not mean everybody has to like it.

Individualism.

We remember the first, we remember the last, but the middle is always forgotten.

We know what we love, we know what we hate, but again the topics that we feel indifference towards are not considered until they are mentioned.

I like grey.

+1 for chromaticism.

[themeandvariation]

well then, it must be asked, as there seems to be a clear line drawn here - and it is where this reductionist term, 'atonality' - is applied - As the extreme.. So, it seems, there is a definite 'black and white' perspective when push comes to shove, i guess. So the question: - are there no grey areas within your term of atonality?  or is it all black?..    (consider: Ligeti,  E. Carter, Subotnik, Takemitsu, among many others )  And to think that Stravinsky is 'jarring'?  My goodness, let me grab my handkerchief.. i feel faint

[themeandvariation]

i now see that opus10 has deleted his disparaging reference to Stravinsky, so we must be making some progress.. or perhaps - just to modify an appearance.. (vanity be damned)

[opus10no2]

My reference to Stravinsky was in another thread. The use of the word 'jarring' had no negative connotation - I was expressing the difference between subtle innovation, having a voice - and forging an entirely new path in Music. As Stravinsky did, he is a genius!
Medtner explored new paths in existing sound worlds, Stravinsky invented new ones. They're both genius, different kinds.

When it comes to tonality and atonality - it is all relative! It's like gravity. Tonality is Musical gravity - some is very earthbound, and some veers off into space.

What I'm expressing is that there is a universe to be explore in the 'in-between' and that I would think it of great value to express to people that there is very accessible, romantic, expressive Music to be found if you expand your listening to the further reaches of our galaxy, and don't have to entirely leave the milky way! haha.

This is aimed to people who think there is Rachmaninov...and there's Stravinsky. If Stravinsky is a touch too much, maybe try middle-period Scriabin and go from there. It's all about a gradual expansion of aural vocabulary via exploring the grey area, and not seeing things as black and white.

Any extreme shift is jarring, but gradually opening one's ears is wonderful.

[themeandvariation]

(you still haven't answered my question: " are there no grey areas within your term of atonality?  or is it all black?)

Stravinsky's 'rite' was a hundred years ago.. geez.

[opus10no2]

Yeah that's what I was getting at - tonality and atonality are arbitrary terms and all Music is really on a spectrum. When we hear Music deemed 'atonal' we still hear intervallic relations and fleetingly grasp 'gravity'.