HARMONY
Music may start with a melody, but harmony is what gives it color. Harmony refer to the sounding of two or more different pitches in unison, bur the mechanics of harmony are vast and complicated, and many theorists have spent the better part of their careers analyzing it.
The distance between two notes is referred to as an interval, and intervals are expressed numerically. For example, the distance from A to E is called a fifth The earliest polypnonic music was written in the Middle Ages, and at that point composers favored the hollow-sounsing intervals of the fourth (i.e., C to F or D to G) and the fifth. Therefore, melodies would be followed by a parallel harmonic line one fourth or one fifth below.
By the Renaissance, however, the triad had become the main unit of harmony, remained so for centuries, and still is in many types of music. Triads are chords, or a combination of three or more notes heard simultaneously or in close succession, based on the interval of the third (i.e., E to G or B to D). The precise intervals that make up chords are what give them the quality of being major (bright, happy-sounding) or minor (dark, sad-sounding). The notes that make up a triad can also be tearranged to create an inversion, which is another tool that is used to vary harmony.
Harmony has many functions: to “add clothing” to a piece of music, to give music more depth, to echo or complement a melody line, or just to grounded accompaniment beneath a melody. Harmony that pleases the ear or seems stable or at rest is called consonance, while that which sounds harsh, unfamiliar, or unstable is called dissonance. Without the instability of temporary dissonance, tonal music would be boring; without the stability of consonance, it would be unsatisfying. The idea of what is consonant, or acceptable to our ears, has broadened over the course of music history. Even the question of whether consonance is essential has become debatable.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
1.Johann Sebstian Bach was known to construct masterful harmonies in his choral works, and in the twentieth century. Claude Debussy’s works were often driven by lush, shifting harmonies rather than by their melodies.
2. Sixth-century philosopher Pythagoras believed that the “purest” hamonies were based on mathematical ratios like 2:1, 3:2, and 4:3. He formulated this theory while listening to the sounds produced by blacksmith hammering anvils of various sizes at the same time.
3. The word harmony comes from the Greek harmonia, which means “fastening” or ” to join.”
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