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General characteristics of harmony and tonality in the Romantic period

• Chromatic harmony was used more frequently than in earlier periods.
• Composers added more notes to their chords to form extended chords.
• Composers used dissonance to make their music more expressive.
• Music was modulated to more distant keys than those used by composers in the Classical period.
• Some music became tonally ambiguous. This was developed further in the 20th century.

Chromatic harmonies

Composers added chromatic notes to their chords and melodies to make their music more expressive. In the slow movement of Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, the opening flute melody contains chromatic notes as well as accompanying chords. These dissonances usually resolve to consonant chords - or diatonic chords - which creates a feeling of tension and release.

Extended chords in Impressionism

Extended chords are chords which have extra notes – through adding thirds on top of the seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth etc. Extended chords were frequently used by Claude Debussy.

The effect of extended chords is a blurred sense of harmonic direction, which suited Impressionist music.