our instrument plays a diatonic scale, by crossfingering or half-holing it can also be somewhat chromatic. But, apart from cnat on a d-whistle half-holing or x-fingering is hardly necessary.
My question: why does celtic music differ from classical music regarding the the two scales, diatonic and chromatic?
thanks:-)
Amar.
Because Bach (and others in his day) regularized equal temperament (responding to developing trends) and instrument builders and instruments evolved to playing in lots of keys, modulating within tunes which opened up all kinds of intricate possibilities both in counterpoint (different melodies playing simultaneously) and harmony (three, four and even five note chords). The instruments became more and more technical to enhance that, leading to many keyed instruments, steel frets on others and so on. Modern band and orchestra instruments still have bell tones and keys that sound best, but they are designed to be flexible and fluent in many keys, hence, chromatic.
In Bach’s day, different keys were believed to have certain character and to summon various emotions and he explored them in the Well-Tempered Clavier. No accident that he was playing a keyboard which is most easily tempered, compared to a wind instrument. There was kind of irony though, in that the very character was probably diminshed a bit when the scales were mathematically tempered. But hey, tunes in A major still sound a bit happier and broader than Bb for example to me.
Irish music doesn’t really go in for that, except when people pick up an Bb whistle and play a normally in D tune, for example. Tommy Potts was a real exception because he liked to play in different keys ( I am not well-versed enough to know if there were others like him). There are some interesting modal treatments of tunes, but not much true modulating. Wouldn’t sound authentic if it did. Bank of IReland modulates kindasorta from Am to D major (by adding in a C#) and there are a few others.
Irish instruments are basically equal-tempered, well, sorta, but it doesn’t bother my ears if they are not exactly. UPs don’t sound well-tempered on the older recordings at least. Fiddlers can do what they want, lacking frets. Whistlers fool around with Cnat and nobody gets hurt. Only when you add boxes and geetars and bass lines and put it all together does intonation go beyond natural feeling and get regulated. Yes, generalizations but thats basically the answer.
If you were to try and play sustained counterpoint with the instruments played in the traditional way, it might get annoying to the ear. Some of the super-groups, like Solas, probably tune pretty carefully when they engage in their flights of fancy. Scots players sound more tempered to me than Irish on the recordings.
We don’t need stinkin’ chromatic instruments to play trad music, though a magic Fnatural fingering might be nice.
Finally recorders are more chromatic than whistles and they do indeed have the holes to do more in-betweens. But few players that I have heard achieve equal tempering in delivery. Probably why recorders died out in what became orchestral music along with keyless flutes, natural trumpets and so forth. Funny thing is, violin family LOST frets in the transition (from viola da gamba and braccia) so they have to work extra hard to be in tune in complex pieces but gain smoothness from finger action.
Folk musics started on simple–unkeyed–winds. And the tunes come from the available instrument, and what’s playable on them.
Same in classic music! See Beethoven; he didn’t have access to the modern grand piano, only piano forte, so his works had to take this limitation, while he would surely have liked the modern superbasses… <-----OK, wait, I know you guys. This is not a PG website. So read super basses, not superb… (though Ludwig woud have like both I’m sure) :roll:
The limitations of the leading instrument will cut the ability for accidental tones, AND range.
There’s also the modal issue. Modal music can be described, as opposed to “tonal”, as based on:
modes, eh! I.e. a sequence of tones and haftones (or more steps) describing a “scale”. Say, mixolydian: so-la-ti-do-re-mi-fa-so.
I intentionnally use the “relative solfying scale” here, because the starting pitch is unimportant. What counts is the steps, here in semitones: 2-2-1-2-2-1(-2)
How come then we play so often ITM in D, G, or Am? They happen to be the easiest scales to play on D whistles and flutes… Why are they in D, then? Because some base pitch had to be agreed upon if people wanted to play together. In Ireland D, the so-called “A” in Scotland, B-flat in Brittany, G in many continental folklores.
In “classic” music, there’s an idea of a intrinsic “colour” for a given tone. One pretends C-Maj to be “luminous”, open, and F#M “somber”, etc. So you get all this big compilations in the 24 “tones” (12 pitches X the two “classic” modes M & m). And since, say F#M is supposed to be dramatic, well so it will be written in this spirit 
In “classic” music, mastery is often demonstrated by subtle alterations (accidental, i.e. off-scale, notes) and multiple changes of tones within the part.
In modal music, whether ITM or say, Oriental singing, the mode remains generally constant within a tune. It’s the ornamentation which demonstrates nuances and/or virtuosity of the performer. Think of “modulating” a tone…
Classic music has its very special minor, the harmonic, i.e. like Eolian with an augmented 7th. Try B C# D E F# G A# B on your whistle. Or worse (no x-fingering available): E F# G A B C# D# E…
It may be standard, but “classic” music notation hasn’t yet agreed upon a way to write such a basic scale without alterations within the part, and not only at the key signature… Hence some weird F##, etc.
Because of what is stated above (4, 5, 6) an orchestral instrument needs to play all possible alterations, hence their (abusive) name of “chromatic”. This doesn’t mean you’ll force woodwinds to play constantly off their “natural” voice (they all have a bell tone).
A totally chromatic instrument would transpose in any tone with equal ease, not only accidents in a given tone. For this they need be “atonal” (not favouring any scale in particular, as opposed to the piano favouring C major).
Some strings, whether fretted or not, may almost qualify. They’re not that many true to the above definition, beside the harp (and related orchestral instruments: cymbalom, bandura), the chromatic button accordion but not the slide trombone 
PS: a “chromatic scale” remains theoretical music, except of course if you concentrate on playing Alban Berg You will still have to build “your” scale out of the twelve tones available. Now, not only if you play him, or Debussy or any 20th century “classic”, you will find “classic” (or earlier, i.e. baroque) music demanding on “diatonic” instruments.
Jazz, of course, is even worse: not only do you need all accidentals, but will welcome also an ability to strongly bend the pitches up/down to quartertones: we’re getting out of the rigid, semitone by semitone, standard piano tuning.
PPS: I see many of my explanations duplicate Weeks’. Well, I’ll leave mine as is.
Btw, Weeks, one likely explanation to the loss of the viola-de-gamba and/or recorder is their lack of power – in the sense of dB, noise. They were chamber music instruments, while what we tend to call “classic” music for short is a lot of symphonic. What the 19th century changed was a slide from the dominating chamber music to the big modern orchestra. Hey, from private in-home music to bigger theaters, operas, and public (and popular) performance.
This is why you won’t find the guitar either in the big philarmonic thing.
We owe the return of the flute in the big orchestra to Boehm, and he was originally after sheer power in the flute.
Paganini seems to have been among the first to have his violins rebuilt for increased tension–power again. But this is why he was known to break strings. Add a few more strings as on older fretted instruments, with the same tension, and the whole structure will collapse.
Note that the early 19th, while getting rid of the fretted bowed strings, at the same time developed the keys on brass (horn, trumpet), which is apparently a reverse trend. 
oh. I see. thanks.
which is tangential to this question
That’s it? After such learned responses? After such erudite stuff from Weeks & Zoob?
I confess to a stuffed eruction. Blame my second serving of chili con carne with beer.
Also to some convergence of opinion with Weekstar, as long as we’re not on an OT thread.
As for Amar, foget his signature banner: I hate to spell it out, but he’s a closet Swiss. He expressed the Basel equivalent of ravingly enthusiastic gratefulness, complete with flowers.
Some say local love scenes are what inspired Ingmar Bergman’s movies:
[Gunnar] « How was it, Gudrun? ( 
)
…heavy pause…one can hear the gloomy screech of the well pulley, a mile away…
[Gudrun] --it was, was it?
…pause… Off-screen, a fly farts with melancholy…
[Gudrun] --oh. I see. thanks.
Ah yes. I have just remembered my one and only trip to Zurich… 
Hahahaha… hey, what is this, Amar-bashing?
I’m only half Swiss anyway!
