{"id":651,"date":"2015-02-07T11:30:28","date_gmt":"2015-02-07T11:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/microsites.ifagiolini.com\/betrayal\/?p=651"},"modified":"2015-03-31T09:48:09","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T09:48:09","slug":"sharp-objects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.ifagiolini.com\/betrayal\/sharp-objects\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharp objects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thoughts on Gesualdo and his music: part two<\/strong><\/p>\n

Robert Hollingworth<\/em><\/p>\n

Chromatic music can be harmonic or melodic in character. In a chromatic melodic phrase, the melody may move by semitone in one direction: e.g A Bb B C Db. In chromatic harmony, the chords themselves shift by intervals to chords outside the regular mode, leaving the listener (and singer) feeling as the sands are shifting underneath them. The classic example of this is (for example) C major to A major which are connected by a single pivoting note (e).<\/p>\n

Such harmonic shifts circumvent the more gradual way of changing key and the effect is suddenly to increase or to decrease musical tension. The more sharps you add to the texture the more tense the music seems to become: the more flats, the more it seems to deflate.<\/p>\n

Gesualdo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s late madrigals are full of harmonic shifting and the exaggerated depiction of images from poetry which is full of extremes. There is sometimes a pattern of slow moving chromaticism followed by busy fast counterpoint. The chromatic shifts, despite exploring keys not otherwise seen in Renaissance music (c# major, for example) are nearly always perfectly logical with a pivot note connecting any two chords. Occasionally, though, there is no pivot and the following chord is particularly hard to find!<\/p>\n

\"tenor<\/a><\/p>\n

Other posts on this subject from Robert can be found here: 1<\/a>, 2<\/a>, 3<\/a>, 4<\/a>, 5<\/a><\/em>, 6<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Share<\/a>