Elements of Music – Harmony
introduction to the basics of music
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/chords-sheet-on-piano-tiles-210764/
NOVEMBER 11TH, 2022
Harmony is the third element of music that we will discuss. When you first think of music, the first thing that might pop in your head is the melody, which we discussed in a previous post (link here to read about melody).
However, harmony is equally important to melody. It’s the key to unlocking a song’s secret ingredient. Without it, music could be boring! Harmony can add happiness or sadness to music. It can create an atmosphere or a vibe. If music was a photo, harmony would be the depth seen within it as you explore through the beauty of a landscape.
In this post, we'll look at what harmony is, and some basic concepts related to it. We'll also explore how harmonies are used and how a harmonic structure can affect the mood and feel of a piece of music.
Topics
What is harmony?
"If only the whole world could feel the power of harmony.” ― Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Harmony, in music, is the use of simultaneous pitches, or tones.
Harmony is important in music for a variety of reasons. Harmony provides structure and depth to the melody. It adds color that helps with movement, creating moments of tension and moments of blissful liberation. Harmony can influence the mood of a piece, making it happy, sad, triumphant, horrifying, dreamy, exotic, mysterious, and more. Harmony can create a sense of unity within the music, creating a sense of focus and cohesion. It can add balance and proportion to music. It can help to create a sense of closure. It can give the music a feeling of "weight" or "lightness."
You can almost call harmony the backbone to music.
Harmony has a huge impact on the sound of music. Harmonious music can have a “pleasing” or “relaxing” quality on listeners, stemming from harmonic intervals that tend to sound stable. In contrast, music with more disharmonious sounds can induce feelings of stress, anxiety, and tension, created from harmonic intervals that sound unstable.
With melody, your focus is more horizontal, following the line as it passes from one note to the next. Harmony, in contrast, is looking up and down, seeing how the notes vertically interact to create a soundscape.
“Melody and harmony are like lines and colors in pictures. A simple linear picture may be completely beautiful; the introduction of color may make it vague and insignificant. Yet color may, by combination with lines, create great pictures, so long as it does not smother and destroy their value.” – Rabindranath Tagore
Intervals
Intervals are the building blocks of harmony. The interval describes the distance between two notes, and they can be either melodic (occurring in succession) or harmonic (occurring simultaneously).
Intervals can be classified according to their size, which is determined by the number of semitones between the two notes. For example, a major third interval spans four semitones, while a minor third interval spans only three. The size of an interval also affects its quality, which can be described as either perfect, major, or minor. Perfect intervals are either unison (no distance between the two notes) or octaves (spanning twelve semitones). Major and minor intervals, on the other hand, have a slightly different flavor; major intervals sound bright and happy, while minor intervals sound sad and unsettled.
One of the most unsettling intervals is the tritones (described as a distance of six semitones); the sound was so unsettling that in the past music scholars called it the “devil’s interval” or “diabolus in music” in centuries past. If you feel very unsettled when hearing a harmony, most likely there is an interval of a tritone involved (not all the time but a lot of times).
“You don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note” – Doug Floyd
Chords and Triads
As mentioned, harmony is created when multiple notes are played together. Chords and triads are two common ways in which we describe harmony in music. You’ve already heard many chords and triads in your lifetime, even if you don’t know how exactly it works or how its classified.
Chord: A chord is simply three or more notes played together at the same time. If you have a piano nearby, you can try it out for yourself. Play three different notes at the exact time, and you will have a chord, whether it sounds harmonious or disharmonious. Each note in a chord contributes to the overall harmonic of the sound. In traditional western music, chords are built off the combination of different notes from the major or minor scale (generally built on intervals of the third, major or minor). The specific combination of notes determines the type of chord that is produced.
Triad: A triad is a specific type of chord that is made up of three notes. It is the most basic of harmonic chords. The most basic of the triad is built on the third and fifth of the bottom note, creating a happy, bright quality with major or sad, depressed quality with minor or tense, unsettled quality with a diminished triad (and what usually creates that tense feeling – the tritone).
When multiple chords are played in succession, this is known as a chord progression. Chord progressions can create various harmonic effects, such as tension and release, which can add interest and emotion to a piece of music. In general, a harmonic progression centering and focusing on major triads will traditionally sound more cheery, happy while progressions focusing on minor triad will most likely sound solemn. Many songs will focus on one quality, keeping you within a certain frame/mood throughout, and more complex music will use an assortment of different chords to create interest throughout the piece to keep you invested in listening and at times take you on a roller coaster of emotions.
Scales – Major, Minor, and More!
We spoke briefly about major and minor tonality and how the harmonic progression can dictate how a song can sound. But how are these harmonic progressions organized and how do we center our focus?
This is where scales come in. Scales are a crucial part of music, and they often dictate the harmony. A scale is simply a set or note that's played in order typically following some specific pattern (for example major). The most basic scales contain seven notes; these can be ascending/descending depending on what you want to do with them.
If you have access to a keyboard or piano, you can play your first major scale now. Starting on the note C (which you can find in the photo below), play all the white keys going up to the next C. Congratulations! You have played your first scale, if you haven’t already done so.
Photo by Karyme França: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-piano-keys-1516903/
The first note (that first C you played) is the root note, and the other six notes are intervals above the root. Scales can be ascending or descending, and they can be played in any key. We may talk about different keys in another post.
Now, how is this important to harmony? In traditional styles, music harmony is built using these scales degrees, determining the center focus usually the root of the scale (that first C) and the dominant harmonies that will be used to support that focal center. The starting scale will create the framework for the harmony, dictating the overall sound of the piece. If we choose a major scale, the strong and dominant harmonies will mainly be major, thus creating a cheerier song in general, and the same is true with minor scales.
There are many more scales that musicians and composers use, but we’ll save that for another time.
Dissonance and Consonance
The combination of notes will produce either a consonance or a dissonance. A consonance is when the notes blend nicely and create a pleasant sound, while a dissonance is when the notes clash and create an unpleasant sound. Dissonance is often used to create tension in music, while consonance is used to create resolution.
The right mix of both consonance and dissonance can create forward momentum. Motion in music isn’t necessarily dictated by rhythm. Other elements can help push the music forward. Tension and stress will naturally push a music toward a resolution and a more consonant climax or release, and after a good long use of consonance, dissonance can create excitement, emotion, and passion.
When it comes to harmony, there is a fine balance between consonance and dissonance that can make or break a piece of music. Too much of either can spoil the composition, but the right mix of both can creates a beautiful and moving work of art.
Examples
“Harmony is an obscure and difficult musical science…“– Marcu V. Pollio
There are many ways to create a unique sound, mood, ambiance or vibe to music with different types of harmonies. Here are a few music examples to help you get a better understanding of what we reviewed in this post.
There is so much emotion, passion, and momentum created by the harmonies in Richard Wagner - "Tristan und Isolde", Prelude.
Can you create a sound space to fit the style of a country? Copland created a style and harmonic sound that encapsulated the country of the USA. It’s in full display in his Appalachian Spring.
Unique use of harmony to create the feeling and sensation of being underwater in Debussy’s La cathédrale engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral).
Somber sounding harmony in the Funeral March of Beethoven’s Third Symphony.
The use of harmony to create a grand regal atmosphere in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition "La grande porte de Kiev" (orchestrated by Ravel).
Final Note
So, there you have it, an introduction to harmony and its elements: intervals, chords, and scales. We hope this has whet your appetite for learning more about music – if so, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, follow us on Instagram, and sign up for our emails! In future blog posts, we’ll delve deeper into music, give our thoughts on music performances we watch, and create more lists on classical music. And finally, a word of caution: don’t get too bogged down in the details! At the end of the day music is supposed to be fun, so continue listening to music and experimenting with creating your own music. Thanks for reading!
