Color chords: tension that doesn't need to resolve

Some chromatic chords push (applied dominants), some borrow (modal interchange) — and some just glow. Augmented triads, sharpened degrees, altered sevenths: color chords raise the temperature of a bar without demanding a destination. Our corpus holds 283 of them across 48 pieces — and it's no accident that Liszt's Liebestraum tops the list.

Practice with the pieces that use it →

The census

Reducing every piece in our corpus to its harmony and counting the augmented and altered chords:

chord	count	the color
III+7	35	augmented
#viio7	32	altered degree
#iv	19	altered degree
#iii7	14	altered degree
#vi	12	altered degree
#vii	12	altered degree
#vii7	11	altered degree
VI+7	10	augmented

The augmented mediant seventh (III+7) and the sharpened leading-tone diminished (#viio7) tie for the corpus's favorite tint — the first is late-Romantic warmth, the second is Bach turning the screw.

Hear them in real pieces

Each link opens the piece in the harmony player, with every chord labeled — the color chords read as III+7, #iv, VI+ above the staff. Bar numbers below point at the first few.

Liebestraum No. 3 F. Liszt 26 color chords bar 17: #i · bar 18: #V · bar 19: #iii (E)
Clair de Lune C. Debussy 19 color chords bar 33: IV+7 (D) · bar 34: IV+ (D) · bar 34: V+
Prelude 18 in G-sharp minor (BWV 887) J. S. Bach 16 color chords bar 5: #viiø7 (C#) · bar 10: #vi · bar 10: #iii (A#)
Prelude 8 in D-sharp minor (BWV 877) J. S. Bach 15 color chords bar 13: VII+7 (B#) · bar 14: #vi7 (F##) · bar 14: #i
Prelude 12 in F minor (BWV 881) J. S. Bach 15 color chords bar 1: III+7 (C) · bar 3: #iv · bar 15: #vi
Prelude 20 in A minor (BWV 889) J. S. Bach 12 color chords bar 3: #iii7 (B) · bar 3: #iv7 (C#) · bar 6: #vii7 (F#)
Arabesque No. 2 C. Debussy 12 color chords bar 27: V+ · bar 32: #i7 · bar 50: #i (B)
Prelude 8 in E-flat minor (BWV 853) J. S. Bach 10 color chords bar 9: #viio7 · bar 15: VII+7 (F) · bar 18: #iiio (Bb)
Prelude 7 in E-flat major (BWV 876) J. S. Bach 9 color chords bar 20: #v (Ab) · bar 23: #ii · bar 39: #iv (C)
Prelude 10 in E minor (BWV 879) J. S. Bach 9 color chords bar 4: III+ (D#) · bar 10: VII+7 · bar 42: VII+ (F#)
Prelude 2 in C minor (BWV 847) J. S. Bach 8 color chords bar 25: #viio7 · bar 28: #vi (G) · bar 30: III+7 (G)
Prelude 21 in B-flat major (BWV 890) J. S. Bach 8 color chords bar 19: #iv · bar 47: I+ · bar 55: IV+7 (G)

Go deeper

Hear the colors by ear → Same root, five colors — major, minor, sus, augmented, added tones — drilled until each tint is instant.
The theory: chromatic harmony → Where altered sonorities come from and how composers wield them.
Learn the Liebestraum → The corpus's color-chord champion, section by section on the practice ladder.