Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov · section 56 of 96

Chromatic modulation

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§ 54. — Chromatic modulation rests on the following:

The transitional chord through which the modulation is made, belonging to a natural mode and immediately altered by the characteristic note (**) of the harmonic modes, thereby leads to the chords of the new key.

The ascending chromatic motion that results:

Example: ascending chromatic motion, G to G♯. — Fig. 219 · See it in the reader

modulates to the minor key; it is represented by the chords of the fifth and seventh degrees.

For chromatic modulation, melodic intervals that are easy to sing in tune, and common notes, are indispensable.

(Chromatic motion counts as a common note.)

During ascending chromatic motion, the bass must proceed either by descending diatonic stepwise motion or by ascending chromatic motion; but it must neither stay in place nor return to the note of the preceding chord.

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