Concept in Definition ABC
Miscellanea / / July 04, 2021
By Florencia Ucha, in May. 2009
The term harmony it has various meanings and uses according to the context in which it is used.
For example, broadly speaking, with harmony one refers to the convenient proportion Y correspondence of some things with others, generally connoting beauty. For example, when we dress, generally, all people try to find the best harmony between the colors we choose, that is, they are beautiful to look at.
On the other hand, for the music, harmony is the discipline which deals with studying the best union and combination of sounds, whether simultaneous and different, but chords.
Harmony is in charge of doing two types of studies regarding its metier, the descriptive study on the one hand and the prescriptive study on the other. The first will focus exclusively on what inherent to observation of musical practice and the second, what he will do is to achieve from that musical practice, a set of norms that will have universal validity.
Harmony as a discipline of study only has reason to exist in Western music, since this is the only culture that it shows a polyphonic music, that is, a music in which different musical notes are executed simultaneously and coordinated. Basically, harmony will deal with the organization of chords, a chord is the combination of three or more different musical notes that are executed simultaneously.
So, to musicians or to all those people who feel a special fondness for music, although not practice, harmony will teach you how to build chords and suggest the best way to combine them accordingly to sensation that you want to produce and transmit: relaxation and calm (consonant harmony) or a sense of tension (dissonant harmony).
On the other hand, on the literature, the term harmony also has a special participation and meaning since it is used to refer to the pleasant variety of sounds, pauses and measures, that are evidenced either in prose or in verse by the correct combination of syllables, voices and clauses.
Themes in Harmony