Comparing a modern hymn-tune in this style with some fine setting of an old tune in the diatonic ecclesiastical manner, one might attribute the superiority of the old music entirely to its harmonic system; but I think this would be wrong.
"A Practical Discourse on Some Principles of Hymn-Singing"
Robert Bridges
In chromatic movements his modulation was as easy and sequent as in diatonic.
"Johann Sebastian Bach"
Johann Nikolaus Forkel and Charles Sanford Terry
Our ears are so accustomed to associate melody with a certain diatonic scale, and with accompanying harmony, actual or potential, that it is very difficult for us to comprehend as melody successions which do not conform to that scheme, as, for example, the melodies of Oriental nations, the scales of which are far more complex and difficult to understand than ours.
"Wagner's Tristan und Isolde"
George Ainslie Hight