Chromatic Mediant
A chord a third away whose colour breaks the key
Related
A chromatic mediant is a chord whose root lies a third from another chord, with at least one outside the key. In C major, E major, A♭ major and E♭ major relate this way to the tonic: each shares a note with it, yet the changed third shifts the colour.
It differs from the diatonic mediant and submediant: vi and iii stay within the scale, while a chromatic mediant crosses the mode. Romantic music and film scores use it for sudden shifts of light and shade; a common tone often lets the voices move smoothly.
It is not a borrowed chord. Borrowing has a definite modal source, whereas a chromatic mediant only requires the third relation and the colour gap; the same chord may sound like borrowing in one context and pure colour in another.
Sources
- 半音中音的和弦关系与色彩，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Chromaticism"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.