Chromatic fourth

For Chromatic tetrachord, see Chromatic genus.

In music theory, a chromatic fourth, or passus duriusculus,^[2] is a melody or melodic fragment spanning a perfect fourth with all or almost all chromatic intervals filled in (chromatic line). The quintessential example is in D minor with the tonic and dominant notes as boundaries:

Chromatic run from Chopin's Prelude in C Minor, mm.5-6.^[1] Play^ⓘ

The chromatic fourth was first used in the madrigals of the 16th century.^{[citation needed]} The Latin term itself—"harsh" or "difficult" (duriusculus) "step" or "passage" (passus)—originates in Christoph Bernhard's 17th-century Tractatus compositionis augmentatus (1648–49), where it appears to refer to repeated melodic motion by semitone creating consecutive semitones.^[2] The term may also relate to the pianto associated with weeping.^[2] In the Baroque, Johann Sebastian Bach used it in his choral as well as his instrumental music, in the Well-Tempered Clavier, for example (the chromatic fourth is indicated by the red notes):

Lament bass from Vivaldi's motet "O qui coeli terraeque serenitas" RV 631, Aria No. 2^[3] In operas of the Baroque and Classical, the chromatic fourth was often used in the bass and for woeful arias, often being called a "lament bass". In the penultimate pages of the first movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the chromatic fourth appears in the cellos and basses. Play^ⓘ.

This does not mean that the chromatic fourth was always used in a sorrowful or foreboding way, or that the boundaries should always be the tonic and dominant notes. One counterexample comes from the Minuet of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's String Quartet in G major, K. 387 (the chromatic fourths are conveniently bracketed by the slurs and set apart with note-to-note dynamics changes):

Musical works using the chromatic fourth or passus duriusculus

In the organ chorale prelude BWV 614, there are chromatic fourths in the three accompanying voices

• Henry Purcell, "Dido's Lament"^[2]
• Robert de Visée, Suite in C minor : Sarabande
• J. S. Bach, Mass in B minor, Crucifixus, also BWV 12, "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen"
• J. S. Bach, BWV 78: "Jesu, der du meine Seele"
• J. S. Bach, BWV 150: "Nach Dir, Herr, verlanget mich" (in the first choral, and a reverse, whole note upwards melody in the final Chaconne)
• J. S. Bach, Orgelbüchlein, BWV 614: "Das Alte Jahr vergangen ist" (in the three accompanying voices) play^ⓘ
• J. S. Bach, Invention No. 9 in F minor, BWV 795 (second subject)
• J. S. Bach, Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor, BWV 849, second voice in bar 69, soprano in bar 71
• J. S. Bach, Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 855, fugue subject
• J. S. Bach, Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 889, Prelude subject
• J. S. Bach, Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 548, the widening chromatic character of the fugue subject lends the work the subtitle "The Wedge".
• J. S. Bach, Toccata in E minor, BWV 914, fugue subject
• W. A. Mozart, K. 594: "Stück für ein Orgelwerk in einer Uhr"
• Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, ending of first movement
• Frédéric Chopin, No. 20 from 24 Preludes, Op. 28
• Hector Berlioz, Requiem, Op. 5
• César Franck, Prelude, Chorale and Fugue