Harmony (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what harmony is, its importance in music and other forms of art. Also, who was the Greek goddess Harmony.

What is harmony?

In music, harmony It is the way in which the sounds (the notes), and how these combinations follow one another in a coherent relationship that satisfies the ear. Furthermore, in music theory, harmony studies the construction of chords, that is, groups of three or more notes that sound at the same time.

Along with rhythm and melody, harmony It is one of the three fundamental elements of Western music. In this sense, it is a recent and geographically limited approach, since harmony, as it has been studied mostly in academies, is a specific form that was developed in the field of Renaissance and Baroque polyphonic music.

The concept of harmony, furthermore, It's not exclusive to music. In its general sense, it refers to the combination of elements that constitute a proportionate or well-coordinated set. In Ancient Greece, it was understood as a concordant relationship, satisfactory for the senses and the spirit, between the different parts of a whole.

This meaning has been maintained over the centuries and is currently applied to other arts, such as painting, sculpture and architecture, in relation to colors, composition, symmetry, the distribution of elements, proportions or integration into an environment.

In other fields of knowledge, harmony is understood as a combination of elements of any kind that is pleasant. For example, a harmonious arrangement of objects implies a balanced and orderly distribution, pleasing to the eye, while a subjective feeling of harmony is what provides existential or personal serenity.

History of harmony

The concept of harmony (and what is harmonious or not) has changed over the centuries. The Greek philosopher Pythagoras (570 BC-490 BC) expressed it through arithmetic proportions or intervals between tones and semitones. In the 9th century, religious music incorporated two-voice melodies, and in the Baroque it was oriented towards major and minor modes. This defined the tonal music we know today, based on the relationships between so-called consonant (or rest) chords and dissonant (or tension) chords.

Tonal music is a system organized around a tonal center, called tonic. All Western music was based on this system until the beginning of the 20th century, when dodecaphonism appeared, a musical technique created by Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) and Josef Matthias Hauer (1883-1959) that broke the rules of the traditional tonal system. to explore new sounds. Dodecaphonism, however, prevailed only in academic circles.

Currently, although other systems are experimented with and various musical forms are known from cultures around the world, the vast majority of music that is composed, disseminated and heard in mass culture is based on the tonal system. Two famous examples of this system in pop music are the songs “Imagine”, by John Lennon (composed in major mode) and “Losing My Religion”, by REM (written in minor mode).

Harmony, the Greek goddess

The term should not be confused harmony with the homophone word Harmony. The latter was the name that designated the Greek goddess of harmony and serenity (baptized Concordia by the Romans), and which in Greek means “adjustment” or “union.”