Harmony

Traité de l’harmonie by Jean-Philippe Rameau.

The harmony or harmonía is the study of the technique to link chords (simultaneous notes), it also encompasses concepts such as harmonic rhythm. From a general perspective, harmony is the balance of proportions between the different parts of a whole, and its result always connotes beauty. In music, the study of harmony involves chords and their construction, as well as chord progressions and the connecting principles that govern them. Harmony is generally understood to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music (simultaneous notes, which in the score are written one over the other), which is distinguished from the "horizontal" aspect (the melody, formed by the succession of notes, which are written one after the other). Sometimes the harmony can be displayed melodically.

Etymology

The word «harmony» derives from the Greek ἁρμονία (the goddess Harmonía), which means 'agreement, concordance' and this from the verb ἁρμόζω (beautiful): ' adjust, connect'. However, the term was not used in its current meaning of polyphonic harmony (ordered relationship between several superimposed melodies, forming a whole that maintains a certain autonomy with respect to each of the parts), since the simultaneous execution of different notes (except for eighths, which the human ear perceives as identical) did not form part of Western musical practice until well into the Middle Ages.

Definitions

The usual definitions of harmony usually describe it as the “science that teaches to form chords and that suggests the way to combine them in the most balanced way, thus achieving sensations of relaxation, calm (consonant harmony), or tension and hurtful vibrations (dissonant or arranged harmony)”.

This difference between «consonant» and «dissonant» sounds has an acoustic basis: every sound includes within itself several sounds that sound less loud (the original would be the «fundamental» note and the minor ones, their «harmonics»). When the combination of different sounds includes several notes that are harmonics of the same fundamental, such combinations will be perceived as "consonant". This interest in relating the concepts of consonance and dissonance with nature comes, in its academic codification, from the XX century, and from the cultural framework of positivism. Positivist authors, such as Helmholtz, tried to explain these concepts of consonance and dissonance — which are essential for the study of musical style — from the physics of sound with the same assumptions as biologists, physicists, and other scientists of their time.: the idea that there was a scientific basis in nature that could be discovered and used for the benefit and progress of humanity.

Now, in human perception not only physical factors intervene, but also (and above all) cultural factors. What a man of the 15th century perceived as a consonant, may sound shrill to one of the XXI, and a sound combination that suggests a feeling of rest to a Japanese may not to a Mexican. Starting in the 1980s, a considerable corpus of studies focused on the human perception of music began to appear, not from the point of psychological perception — as Janet Wydom Butler presents in her manual —, but from the point of view of its interpretation by a subject belonging to a certain culture. Such is the field of study of the current psychosociology of music.

In this way, the study in the West of harmony that tries to present it based on acoustic elements, trying to bring its analysis closer to scientific analysis, is only an attempt to legitimize a specific musical practice as universally valid. This attempt is characteristic of musicology in its beginnings in the XIX century, which had a marked Eurocentric bias.

History

In ancient Greek music, the word was used more as a classification system for the relationship between a low and a high tone. In the Middle Ages, the term was used to describe two tones that sounded in combination, and in the Renaissance the concept was expanded to denote three tones sounding together.

The Traité de l’harmonie (1722), by Rameau, was the first text on musical practice to include the word «harmony» in the title. However, it does not mean that this was the first theoretical discussion on this subject. Like all theoretical texts (particularly from this time), it is based on the observation of practice; Rameau observes the musical practice of his time and elaborates some rules, granting it a supposed universal validity. The phenomenon of harmonic resonance has special importance in its development for the justification of the different elements. This and other similar texts tend to reveal and codify the musical relationships that were intimately linked with the evolution of tonality from the Renaissance to the end of the romantic period.

The principle underlying these texts is the notion that harmony sanctions harmoniosity (the sounds that please) if it conforms to certain pre-established compositional principles.

Study of harmony

Like other human disciplines, the study of harmony presents two versions: the descriptive study (ie: observations of musical practice) and the prescriptive study (ie: the transformation of this musical practice into a set of rules of supposed universal validity).

The study of harmony is only justified in relation to Western music, since the Western is the only culture that has a "polyphonic" music, that is, a music in which different musical notes are usually played in the same way. simultaneous and coordinated. So, despite the fact that the study of harmony may have some scientific basis (for example the Harmonic Series), the norms or descriptions of harmony have a relative scope, conditioned culturally. It also occurs in aspects of musical rhythm and melody.

In Western music, harmony is the subdiscipline that studies the chaining of various superimposed notes; that is to say: the organization of the chords. A "chord" is the combination of three or more different notes that sound simultaneously (or that are perceived as simultaneous, even though they are successive, as in an arpeggio). When the combination is only two notes, it is called "Double Notes" or Harmonic Interval.

The idea of vertical and horizontal is an explanatory metaphor, related to the arrangement of musical notes in a score: vertically the notes that are interpreted at the same time are written, and horizontally those that are interpreted in succession. However, horizontal chord successions and their effect on the general flow of music are also part of the study of harmony.

In musical scholasticism, counterpoint is a complementary discipline to harmony (and one that is confused with it), but which focuses more on the development of melodies that can be combined simultaneously than on the chords resulting from such a combination. That is to say: it focuses more on the perception of the parts than on the whole. As a creative discipline (and not as an academic discipline), counterpoint had its heyday during the Baroque, particularly with the figure of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Development

Melody, counterpoint and harmony are totally interrelated. Traditionally, harmony functions as an accompaniment, framework, and base for one or more melodies. The melody (horizontal dimension of music) is a succession (in time) of sounds. To accompany it, they are made to belong to chords, which enrich it with other sounds that embellish and soften, or else generate tension, that is, they produce expressive effects, complementing the melody thanks to the subtle relationships they establish with each other (integrating perfectly the melody with the chords, that is, with the harmony).

Tonal or functional harmony

The greater harmonious triad is composed of three tones, which follows this frequency ratio: 6:5:4.

-When we talk about melody we refer to the horizontal aspect of the music. -When we talk about harmony we refer to the vertical aspect of music, that is, to the simultaneous sounds that we call intervals and chords. -When we talk about tonality, we refer to a set of harmonic materials that responds to the gravitational attraction of a tonal center. - When we talk about harmonic functions, we refer to the way in which these harmonic materials are related to each other and with respect to their tonal center. -When we talk about functional harmony we refer to the study of the different types of harmonic materials, the different systems in which they can be grouped and their functional behavior within them.

Although it is uncomfortable to attempt a definition of tonality, we can say that it is a system of organizing the pitches (notes) of sounds, a system that prevailed for about three centuries as a single system, being used by baroque, classical and romantic styles.

This doesn't quite tell us what tonality is: what fundamentally characterizes it is that in this system the pitches of the sounds are subject to a hierarchy, in which there is a main sound on which all the others depend, which in turn have no special significance except for their relationship with the principal.

But there is something important, and that is that the main sound can be in principle any. That is, a given pitch can correspond to a main sound in one work, and that same pitch can be a subordinate sound to another main sound in another work. For the same reason, the main sound is not so much a sound, but a function that falls on a sound.

For this reason, the name functional harmony (of the function that each sound fulfills) is more appropriate than that of tonal harmony (a name that began to be used when the composers of the 20th century began to experiment with the opposite system, atonality).

A chord is three or more simultaneous sounds overlapping at a distance of a third, according to Rameau's theory. To know if it is major or minor, you have to analyze the third that is on the fundamental note. If that note, the chord generator, is in the lowest part, the chord is in the root state; if not, it is reversed.

Degrees

Every tonality has seven degrees, whose names are:

• I (Tonicthe fundamental note, which gives the tone)
• II (supertonic)
• III (modal, if it's two tones of the tonic - greater tone - or throughif it is tone and a half of the tonic - minor tone-)
• IV (Subdominant)
• V (dominant dominantthe one that appears most recurrently in the melody)
• VI (superdominant, although the designation is more effective for structural purposes submediate)
• VII (sensitive, if it is to a semiton of the tonic - greater tone - or subtonif it's a tone of the tone - minor tone-

Functions

Each of these degrees will fulfill a tonal function, determined by its relationship and gravity with the center. The classical functions are those of Tonic -represented by the I degree -, Dominant - represented by the V degree - and Subdominant - represented by the IV grade-. The others have a relationship with these functions depending on the theorist who classifies them.

Classification

Chords can be classified as:

• perfect older, when they present a greater third interval (two tones on the tonic) and just fifth (three tones and a semitone on the same tonic),
• perfect minors, who have a third minor (a tone and a semitone) and a fair fifth,
• diminished, having a third minor and a fifth diminished (two tones, two semitones) and
• increased, having a third largest and a fifth increased (three tones and two semitones).

In a major mode scale, the I, IV, and V degrees are major perfect chords, the II, III, and VI minor perfect chords, and the VII a diminished chord.

In a minor mode scale, the I and IV degrees are perfect minor chords, the II and VII are diminished chords (since, in the harmonic minor scale, the VII degree is increased by a half tone) and the III is increased (by the same). The remaining degrees are omitted, as they would be higher.

The best degrees or tonal degrees are I, IV and V. The least important or weak degrees are II and VI. The very weak grades are III and VII.

The basic thing to link chords is to do it in the root state, without worrying about musicality. One way to link chords is by keeping common notes, that is, a note from the first chord is repeated in the second (you can lengthen the note from the first, keeping it by means of a slur). The rest of the notes that form the chord must move towards an interval as close as possible. Another way to link chords is to not store common notes, in which case the movement of the main note will ideally be opposite to the movement of the rest of the notes in the chord. More musicality is achieved by having a dynamism (opposite movements) in the movement of the notes of the chord, that is, if some ascend, the others descend, and vice versa. The main note of the chord corresponds to the voice of the bass, and the rest does not have a fixed hierarchy. Being 4 voices (which from bottom to top will be called bass, tenor, alto and soprano), the chords can be linked in different ways depending on the use you want to make of them.

• A parallel movement are two voices that follow the same direction or sense (both ascend, or both descend) using the same interval.
• An oblique movement is made by a voice that repeats the note (or elarga) and another voice that ascends or descends.
• A direct movement is two voices moving in the same sense, but with different intervals (which differentiates the parallel movement).
• An opposite movement are two voices that move in different sense (no one repeats or lengthens, rather one ascends and another descends, no matter which).

In movements such as the parallel or the opposite, harmonic problems can arise, such as having two consecutive eighths or two consecutive perfect fifths, formed by the same voices (parallel eighths or parallel fifths, considered the worst violation of the rules of harmony), although there is an exception in the case of fifths, as long as it does not occur on extreme voices (bass and soprano): the second fifth must be increased or decreased.

Direct motion also presents harmonic problems. If it occurs between extreme voices (mentioned above), the soprano's voice must move by joint degree (ascend or descend only one degree). In intermediate parts (central voices or one central voice and one extreme), one of these two voices must move by joint degrees, or that link will be considered wrong. In the case of fifths there is an exception: if in the second chord, between the voices involved, a note common to the previous chord appears.

Between contiguous voices, the direct octave should be avoided.

Tension and rest

Several centuries ago it was discovered that some chord combinations produce a sensation of tension while others produce rest. Some chords, in a certain context, have a conclusive sense and others a transitory sense (although in reality this is relative and depends on its relationship with the composition as a whole). In European academic music (from the end of the 17th century to the beginning of the XX), even the least cultivated ear can distinguish when the end of a musical phrase is close or distant.

The traditional harmony of the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Romantic styles is known as tonal harmony, since it is based on the tonal system, having a strong structural function, being decisive in the musical form of a certain composition.

Starting in the Romantic period (XIX century), the colorist value of harmony began to be used more forcefully, gradually weakening the structural function of tonal harmony, and introducing more and more modalisms, a process that culminated in the appearance of impressionist, nationalist and experimentalist composers (atonality, dodecaphonism, etc.) who used a more free and modal harmony.

In popular music

The most widespread urban popular music today has, for the most part, a tonal construction. This can vary in complexity, and in many cases it has modal overtones. For example, there is the case of the chacarera, which sometimes uses the Doric mode, or that of flamenco, which uses the Phrygian mode (Andalusian cadence).