----- Original Message -----
From: "Matt Seattle"
Also, I wonder whether the keywork added by Dunn was 'chromatic' at
this stage, but others will know more about this than I do.
No it was not chromatic, being just the four keys for low D, E, Fsharp and
high A, which just extended the range of the diatonic scale of G.
Notes are only "chromatic" when they do not form part of the major or minor
scale in which the music is played. Strictly speaking, I suppose one could
say that when playing a C natural in a tune which is otherwise in the key of
D major, a C natural would be a "chromatic alteration" - but that's rather
stretching the point.
If, as on the Dunn chanter, there is no C#, so that ALL the C's have to be
natural even in a tune whose tonic is D, then it's just a modal tune with a
flattened 7th, I think. However, an occasional C natural in a D major tune
with mostly C sharps, would be chromatic, while the C sharp key (when it was
added later) would not be chromatic as long as the tune is in D - but in a G
major tune it would be!
"Chromatic" also means a scale moving by semitones, and you couldn't play
any part of a chromatic scale on a 4-key Dunn chanter, like the B, C, C#, D,
D#, E scale which is possible on a 7-key chanter.
Still - in common parlance, "chromatic" generally just means the black notes
on the piano, so perhaps Wiki may be just using conventional terminology to
mean Dunn started the process of adding extra keys, which is fair enough and
clearly conveys what most readers will quickly understand.
Still, all praise to Matthew for putting up the article and bringing another
small bit of the highly specialist Northumbrian pipe world into the wider
public domain - and isn't that engraving wonderful? Must be Bewick's
workshop, surely.
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