Literary notes about Chromatic (AI summary)
The term “chromatic” in literature stretches across diverse fields, evoking both musical nuance and vivid visual imagery. In musical contexts, it often describes passages marked by semitonal shifts or non-diatonic progressions that enhance practical playability without sacrificing tonal purity ([1], [2], [3]); it can denote smooth transitions in even the most extreme modulations ([4], [5]) and is celebrated for its expressive, almost tangible, quality in compositions ([6], [7]). Outside music, “chromatic” lends itself to visual and metaphorical applications—illustrating vibrant color gradations in photography or art ([8], [9], [10]) and even representing intricate, layered descriptions in rhetoric that suggest both harmony and complexity ([11], [12], [13]). This multifaceted use underscores how the word bridges auditory precision with visual richness, offering writers a powerful tool to evoke sensory detail and emotional depth.
- Like the trumpet, the "natural" horn was conducive to purity of tone, the chromatic horn to greater practicability without material loss of purity.
— from The Evolution of Modern Orchestration by Louis Adolphe Coerne - This latter style possessed a diatonic character, out of which the chromatic element of modern music could gradually be developed.
— from Famous Composers and Their Works, Vol. 1 - “Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue,” by Bach, p.
— from The Journal of Leo Tolstoi (First Volume—1895-1899) by Tolstoy, Leo, graf - Even in his chromatic passages his progressions are so smooth and easy that we are hardly conscious of them, however extreme they may be.
— from Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work by Johann Nikolaus Forkel - Intervals bigger than fourths in quick succession and chromatic scales are extremely difficult.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Cool, restrained, and satisfying, the composition has all the elements of chromatic perfection.
— from Arts and Crafts in the Middle AgesA Description of Mediaeval Workmanship in Several of the Departments of Applied Art, Together with Some Account of Special Artisans in the Early Renaissance by Julia de Wolf Gibbs Addison - The allegro ma non troppo fugue which follows it, on a twisting chromatic theme, is of the same sombre colour.
— from Handel by Romain Rolland - Chromatic photography will overcome the former difficulty.
— from A Hundred Years Hence: The Expectations of an Optimist by T. Baron Russell - A drop-curtain were here a vain simile; the chromatic glories of colored postal-cards might suggest the scene, but then again they might overdo it.
— from Roman Holidays, and Others by William Dean Howells - It is well known that the waters of oceans and seas exhibit similar gradations of chromatic hues in certain regions.
— from The Lake of the SkyLake Tahoe in the High Sierras of California and Nevada, its History, Indians, Discovery by Frémont, Legendary Lore, Various Namings, Physical Characteristics, Glacial Phenomena, Geology, Single Outlet, Automobile Routes, Historic Towns, Early Mining Excitements, Steamer Ride, Mineral Springs, Mountain and Lake Resorts, Trail and Camping Out Trips, Summer Residences, Fishing, Hunting, Flowers, Birds, Animals, Trees, and Chaparral, with a Full Account of the Tahoe National Forest, the Public Use of the Water of Lake Tahoe and Much Other Interesting Matter by George Wharton James - To combine in a chromatic scheme so much brilliance and colour without even a suspicion of gaudiness, or the bizarre , was a triumph of art.
— from The Mark of the Beast by Sidney Watson - His style is a sort of chromatic architecture and sculpture, and possesses the attractive and the repellent qualities of both.
— from Eminent Authors of the Nineteenth Century: Literary Portraits by Georg Brandes - He will halt in a stern chase or in the height of an argument to describe a sunset with the most chromatic language at his command.
— from Six Major Prophets by Edwin E. (Edwin Emery) Slosson
