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diatonicism

   Also found in: Encyclopedia 0.26 sec.
di·a·ton·ic  (d-tnk)
adj. Music
Of or using only the seven tones of a standard scale without chromatic alterations.

[Late Latin diatonicus, from Greek diatonikos : dia-, dia- + tonos, tone; see tone.]

dia·toni·cal·ly adv.
dia·toni·cism (--szm) n.

diatonicism
the use of the diatonic scale of five whole tones and two halftones in the composition of music. Also diatonism. Cf. chromaticism.
See also: Music


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It became customary to employ swifter rhythms, running figures, and diatonicism for joy, and slower rhythms, longer note values, and chromaticism for sorrow.
The Random House Dictionary seems pretty sound, if a bit stuffy, on the subject, suggesting that after originating in New Orleans at the beginning of the twentieth century it developed "through various increasingly complex styles, generally marked by intricate, melodic freedom, and a harmonic idiom ranging from simple diatonicism through chromaticism to, in recent developments, atonality.
 
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