User Contributed Dictionary
Noun
harmonies- Plural of harmony
French
Noun
f|p- Plural of harmonie
Extensive Definition
- This article is about musical harmony and harmonies. For other uses of the term, see Harmony (disambiguation).
In Western
music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously,
and chords,
actual or implied, in music. The study of harmony may
often refer to the study of harmonic
progressions, the movement from one pitch simultaneously to
another, and the structural principles that govern such
progressions. In Western
Music, harmony often refers to the "vertical" aspects of music,
distinguished from ideas of melodic line, or the "horizontal"
aspect. For this reason, considerations of counterpoint or polyphony are often
distinguished from those of harmony, though contrapuntal writing of
the common
practice period of western music is often conceived and defined
in terms of underlying harmonic motion.
Definitions, origin of term, and history of use
The term harmony originates in the Greek ἁρμονία (harmonía), meaning "joint, agreement, concord". In Ancient Greek music, the term was used to define the combination of contrasted elements: a higher and lower note.Nevertheless, the simultaneous sounding of notes
was not part of musical practice in the antiquity, harmonía merely
provided a system of classification for the relationships between
different pitches. In the Middle Ages the term was used to describe
two pitches sounding in combination, and in the Renaissance the
concept was expanded to denote three pitches sounding
together.
It was not until the publication of Rameau's 'Traité de
l'harmonie', in 1722, that any text discussing musical practice
made use of the term in the title. The work is however by no means
considered the earliest record of theoretical discussion of the
topic. This and similar texts tend to survey and codify the musical
relationships that were closely linked to the evolution of tonality from the Renaissance, to
the late Romanic periods.
The underlying principle behind these texts is the notion that
harmony sanctions harmoniousness (sounds that 'please') by
conforming to certain pre-established compositional
principles.
Current dictionary definitions, while attempting
to give concise descriptions often highlight the ambiguity of the
term in modern use. Such ambiguities tend to arise from either
aesthetic considerations (espousing, for example, the view that
only 'pleasing' concords may be harmonious) or from the point of
view of musical texture (distinguishing between harmonic,
simultaneously sounding pitches and contrapuntal, successively
sounding tones). In the words of Arnold Whitall:
While the entire history of
music theory appears to depend on just such a distinction between
harmony and counterpoint, it is no less evident that developments
in the nature of musical composition down the centuries have
presumed the interdependence—at times amounting to integration, at
other times a source of sustained tension—between the vertical and
horizontal dimensions of musical space.}}
The view that modern tonal harmony in Western music
began in about 1600 is commonplace in music theory. This is usually
accounted for by the 'replacement' of horizontal (of contrapuntal) writing,
common in the music of the Renaissance,
with a new emphasis on the 'vertical' element of composed music.
Modern theorists, however, tend to see this as an unsatisfactory
generalisation. As Carl
Dahlhaus puts it:
Yet the evolution of harmonic
practice and language itself, in Western art music, is and was
facilitated by this process of prior composition (which permitted
the study and analysis by theorists and composers alike of
individual pre-constructed works in which pitches (and to some
extent rhythms) remained unchanged regardless of the nature of the
performance).
Historical rules
Some traditions of music performance, composition,
and theory have
specific rules of harmony. These rules are often held to be based
on "natural" properties such as Pythagorean
tuning's low whole number ratios ("harmoniousness" being
inherent in the ratios either perceptually or in themselves) or
harmonics and resonances
("harmoniousness" being inherent in the quality of sound), with the
allowable pitches and harmonies gaining their beauty or simplicity
from their closeness to those properties. While Pythagorean ratios
can provide a rough approximation of perceptual harmonicity, they
cannot account for cultural factors.
Early Western religious music
often features parallel perfect intervals; these intervals would
preserve the clarity of the original plainsong. These works were
created and performed in cathedrals, and made use of the resonant
modes of their respective cathedrals to create harmonies. As
polyphony developed, however, the use of parallel intervals was
slowly replaced by the English style of consonance that used thirds
and sixths. The English style was considered to have a sweeter
sound, and was better suited to polyphony in that it offered
greater linear flexibility in part-writing. Early music also
forbade usage of the tritone, as its dissonance was associated with
the devil, and composers often went to considerable lengths, via
musica ficta, to avoid using it. In the newer triadic harmonic
system, however, the tritone became permissible, as it could form
part of a consonant, yet unstable, dominant seventh
chord.
Although most harmony comes
about as a result of two or more notes being sounded
simultaneously, it is possible to strongly imply harmony with only
one melodic line through the use of arpeggios or hocket. Many pieces from the
baroque
period for solo string
instruments, such as Bach's
Sonatas and partitas for solo violin, convey subtle harmony
through inference rather than full chordal structures; see
below:
Types
Carl
Dahlhaus (1990) distinguishes between coordinate and
subordinate harmony. Subordinate harmony is the hierarchical tonality or tonal harmony well
known today, while coordinate harmony is the older Medieval
and Renaissance
tonalité ancienne, "the term is meant to signify that sonorities
are linked one after the other without giving rise to the
impression of a goal-directed development. A first chord forms a
'progression' with a second chord, and a second with a third. But
the earlier chord progression is independent of the later one and
vice versa." Coordinate harmony follows direct (adjacent)
relationships rather than indirect as in subordinate. Interval
cycles create symmetrical harmonies, such as frequently in the
music of Alban Berg,
George
Perle, Arnold
Schoenberg, Béla
Bartók, and Edgard
Varèse's Density
21.5.