Accidental? I Think Not!

Another commonality between Ode To The Yellow River and the Overture in Exogenesis is their use of chromaticism.  Although Exogenesis uses chromatic elements more that Ode To The Yellow River, the compositional technique is present in both songs.

In Ode To The Yellow River, chromaticism is evident in measure 50.  The piece is in Bb major.  Common to the folk music of China was use of the Pentatonic scale.  Xian used the Bb pentatonic scale in Ode To The Yellow River which consisted of Bb - C - D - F- G.  In measure 50, the F natural is replaced with F sharp.  This chromatic change noticeably changes the sound of the piece but is quickly resolved in the 51st measure when the F returns to it’s natural state.  

Measure 50: Use of Chromaticism in Ode To The Yellow River

The Overture of Exogenesis heavily uses chromaticism.  The piece was written in A major but uses accidentals throughout the composition.  In the score, there is no key signature stated - all deviations are written in as accidentals.  The composer first wrote the symphony for piano alone and while discussing that piece shared that the piece was in A major.  The most common chromatics used in the Overture are the change from A natural to A sharp followed by the change of D natural to D sharp.  The excerpt shown below also illustrates the use of D sharp and E flat

Use of Chromaticism in the Overture of Exogenesis

These chromatic changes are not as quickly resolved as in Ode To The Yellow River and the effect of the chromatics will be discussed in a separate blog post.