CHROMATIC • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Chromatic

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adjective

Chromatic adj.

Relating to color, or to colors.

(Mus.) Proceeding by the smaller intervals (half steps or semitones) of the scale, instead of the regular intervals of the diatonic scale. Note: The intermediate tones were formerly written and printed in colors.

Chromatic aberration. (Opt.) See Aberration, 4.

Chromatic printing, printing from type or blocks covered with inks of various colors.

Chromatic scale (Mus.), the scale consisting of thirteen tones, including the eight scale tones and the five intermediate tones.

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Etymology of 'Chromatic'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Chromatic" Quotes from Famous Books

... It is astonishing how often some pupils are deceived in this matter. Until you have insured absolute accuracy in the matter of the notes you are not in condition to regard the other details. The failure to repeat an accidental chromatic alteration in the same bar, the neglect of a tie, or an enharmonic interval with a tie are all common faults which mark careless performances. After the piece has been read as a whole and you have determined upon the notes so that there is no opportunity for inaccuracy ...

— Great Pianists on Piano Playing • James Francis Cooke

... operas in the daily papers of these times will be surprised at the absurdity of the comments on the performances of the noted musicians. Ritter, for instance, quotes a criticism of a pianoforte recital where the critic was much pleased by a "double run on the chromatic scale, in which the semitones were distinctly heard." With singers the chief point was whether the singer of this season could sing louder than the singer of last season. John S. Dwight was the pioneer of musical criticism in America,—an intellectual man, one of the noted band of idealists who ...

— Annals of Music in America - A Chronological Record of Significant Musical Events • Henry Charles Lahee

... dim echo of the rustle and bustle of Paris, which drifts down the valley of the Loire from Orleans to the sea, was left behind; a whole new chromatic scale was being built up. No one hurried or rushed about, and one drank a "tilleuil" after dejeuner, instead of coffee, with the result that he ...

— The Automobilist Abroad • M. F. (Milburg Francisco) Mansfield

... the Grecian lyre. To make it capable of supporting the human voice in their symphonies, they filled up the intervals of the fifths and thirds in each scale, and increased the number of strings from eighteen to twenty-eight, retaining all the original chromatic tones, but reducing the capacity of the instrument; for, instead of commencing in the lower E in the bass, it commenced in C, a sixth above, and terminated in G in the octave below; and, in consequence, the instrument became much more melodious and capable of accompanying the human voice. ...

— Irish Race in the Past and the Present • Aug. J. Thebaud

... those natural laws of the vibrating string upon which arm-chair theorists have sought to build a very top-heavy edifice. Of course, the vibrating string ultimately gives—mostly out of tune—all the notes of the chromatic scale, but composers employ them on ...

— Recent Developments in European Thought • Various

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