Why Do More Chromatic Notes Not Erase Tonality?

Many chromatic notes do not automatically make music atonal. Tonality does not require a piece to use only the seven notes of one scale. It gives pitches and chords unequal weight: the tonic acts as a centre, the dominant creates a demand to return, while passing notes, altered chords and brief modulations lengthen the route. Even if all twelve notes appear, those relationships can still tell us where the music begins and where it is trying to resolve.

Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903, pushes this distinction a long way. The fantasia moves through rapid passagework, arpeggiated chords and recitative-like writing, repeatedly touching chromatic and distant harmonies. Its surface can seem close to losing its footing. Yet important arrivals on the dominant still articulate the form, and the closing passage gathers a dense chromatic descent over a D tonic pedal before returning to D minor. Chromaticism has not torn up the map; it has taken detours, obscured landmarks and postponed the destination.

When listening, there is no need to label every altered note. First hear whether the bass is moving towards a cadence, where a tense pitch resolves by semitone, and whether a resting chord behaves like a temporary centre. At the piano, avoid accenting every accidental as a surprise. What matters is the destination of each voice. If every sharp and flat is struck for effect, the structure breaks into disconnected events. Tonality depends on hierarchy among relationships, not on the number of accidentals on the page.

https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001073
https://imslp.org/wiki/Chromatic_Fantasia_and_Fugue%2C_BWV_903_%28Bach%2C_Johann_Sebastian%29
https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/part/chromaticism/