Diatonic and chromatic
（重定向自Diatonic harmony）
![Melodies may be based on a diatonic scale and maintain its tonal characteristics but contain many accidentals up to all twelve tones of the chromatic scale, such as the opening of Henry Purcell's](/Images/godic/202501/08/Purcell_diatonic_chromaticism5918.png")
![Tetrachord genera of the four-string lyre, from The History of the Arts and Sciences of the Antients, Charles Rollin (1768). The text gives a typically fanciful account of the term chromatic.](/Images/godic/202501/08/Tetrachord_Genera_17685918.png")
![Gamut as defined by George William Lemon, English Etymology, 1783.](/Images/godic/202501/08/Gammut_etymology_Lemon_17835918.png")
![](/Images/godic/202501/08/Pixiphone_diatonic5918.jpg")
Diatonic (Greek:διατονική) and chromatic (Greek:χρωματική) are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, especially when applied to contrasting features of the common practice music of the period 1600–1900.