Scan 65
the american history and encyclopedia of music, 1910
6 lines. Read by computer on 10 September 2026. Printed page 43. See the scan on archive.org.
1a flexible instrument such as the violin or the trombone. The vocalist and the performer upon these instruments have the power to determine the pitch of each note which is given, while the pitch of other instruments is previously determined by the tuner. The violinist decries equal temperament as improper, and objects to the piano, declaring that it is discordant. Nevertheless, as far as the piano and a host of other instruments are concerned, equal temperament is a necessary evil and the violin, the voice, or the trombone, must follow the newer tuning when used with the other instruments.
3The divisions of half tones were noted by the Greeks, and because of their value in embellishing the diatonic scale were likened to coloring, and called chromatic tones. In church music the use of the chromatic tones was left to the dictates of tradition or to the taste of the singers until the Sixteenth Century, when the chromatic scale in its entirety was adopted.
5Chromatic notes can be used to embellish melody without changing the key or can be introduced in the production of new diatonic scales by modulation. In the latter case variety is secured by adopting various notes of the diatonic scale as keynotes. It has been seen that in the diatonic scale the intervals of tones and semitones are arranged in ascending succession as follows: Tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. When C is the keynote and in the arrangement of the keyboards of the piano and organ, the semitones occur between E and F and between B and C. The intervals of tones and semitones must always follow the same sequence, and in order that this may be so when the keynote is changed it has been found necessary to add more notes to the scale, which can be done only by introducing chromatic tones. If G is determined upon for the keynote, it will be found that F, as it appears as a fourth in the key of C, is out of place and a new tone situated a semitone higher must be found to act as a seventh in the new scale so that the intervals may have the correct magnitude.
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