817 



HARMONY. 



HARP. 



61S 



the end of the vibrator is required in so short a tongue to produce the 

 depth of tone. 



HARMONY (in Music), musical sounds simultaneously produced 

 according to certain rules, forming a chord, or a succession of chords. 

 The simplest harmony, namely the triad, or common chord, is the 

 result of the vibration of all sonorous bodies, and the foundation on 

 which much artificial harmony is built. Under the word CHORD the 

 reader will find this matter further explained. M. Catel, a modern 

 French theorist of great authority, has divided harmony into natural 

 and artificial, including in the former all chords not requiring pre- 

 paration ; in the latter, all that are formed by retardation, suspension, 

 &c. But we cannot acquiesce in this arrangement, for it places the 

 chord of the seventh, which is the source of the three real chords of 

 dissonance, in the same category as the triad, or the chord of nature, 

 which of course cannot be admitted. It is true that the chord of the 

 seventh requires no preparation that is, the dissonant note need not 

 be heard as a concord in the immediately preceding chord [DISCORD] ; 

 nevertheless this privilege cannot make natural that which is essentially 

 artificial. 



Harmony and Counterpoint are now practically considered as synony- 

 mous terms, and for some rules concerning the latter, as well as for 

 examples, we refer to that word. [COUNTERPOINT.] To what has 

 been said under the head CHORD, we also again call attention. Chords 

 are the language in which harmony expresses itself, and the laws by 

 which the one is governed regulate the other also. Besides the rules 

 given under different heads in this work, we here add the few 

 following : 



1. No two perfect concords, namely two 5ths or two Sths, are 

 allowed to succeed each other in the same progression, but are per- 

 mitted in contrary motion ; that is, when the one rises and the other 

 falls. Examples : 



Similar motion, 

 bad. 



Contrary motion, 

 good. 



2. Most discords require to be prepared, and all must be raolred ; 

 that is, the dissonant note is to be first heard a a concord, and after 

 ptrcuuiun, or being sounded, must pass into a concord, generally by 

 falling a tone or semitone. But sometimes the resolution is brought 

 about by the base, as in the instance of the discord of the 2nd. 

 Examples : 



ES^EEi 



^ 



7 3 



3. It is in the nature of sharpened intervals to rise, and of flattened 

 ones to fall ; but extreme sharp intervals almost invariably must rise, 

 and extreme flat ones as invariably must fall. Example : 



J6 



S3 



ar 



These examples will also show a reason for giving two names and 

 appearances to that which is, practically speaking, one and the 

 same note; though, theoretically, A sharp and B flat are different 

 sounds. 



4. In music in four or more parts, the parts should be dispersed, or 

 separated, in a manner as nearly equal as possible : thus a more perfect 

 symmetry is obtained, and a richer harmony produced. But with a 

 view to some particular effect, a very different distribution of the parts 

 is occasionally made. 



5. As a general rule, every composition, whatever its kind, is to 

 commence in its key; but as regards the termination, the rule is 

 without exception, and peremptory : though sometimes the third is 

 changed, from minor to major. 



To enter fully into the subject of harmony would be to give a 

 treatise on musical composition. The symbols of harmony or certain 

 figures,8om written, some implied will be explained underTHORouon- 

 BASK, an inadequate and unmeaning term, but so firmly fixed that it 

 could not now be changed for a better. For the accompaniment of 

 the scale La Riyle de C0ctare,ta the French call it a very important 

 study when properly carried out, see ACCOMPANIMENT. 



That the term harmony was not used in the same sense by the 



ancients as by the moderns, seems now to be generally admitted, but 

 admitted without at all affecting the long-disputed and, we believe, 

 undecidable question, as to the knowledge of counterpoint possessed 

 by the Greeks and Romans, or compromising any opinion delivered or 

 entertained on that obscure and perplexing subject. By Harmduia 

 (oftyuu'ia) the Greeks meant simply to express the proper relationship 

 of one sound to another, the pleasing_ agreement of intervals in a 

 melody, and nothing beyond. Though, however, they employed the 

 word harmony in a very different sense from that given to it in later 

 ages, it does not thence necessarily follow that they were ignorant of 

 the high branch of the science to which we apply the term. That they 

 played and sung in octaves is undeniable ; and it is almost equally 

 certain that they occasionally used simultaneous thirds, instrumentally 

 and vocally. It seems unlikely, then, that so active, so ingenious, and 

 musical a people, furnished with an abundance of many-stringed lyres, 

 of double flutes, as well as other instruments, should not have dis- 

 covered, even by mere accident, something of harmony, and have been 

 led to investigate its nature and cultivate its practice. But on the 

 other hand, if they were acquainted with the effect of combined sounds, 

 and, as a sure consequence, had converted their knowledge to some 

 useful purpose, they would almost certainly have left, amoug the 

 numerous disquisitions and lengthened conversations on the subject of 

 music which have reached us, some undeniable evidence of so im- 

 portant a fact. 



HARP (heanp, hearp, Saxon), a musical instrument which, under 

 different forms and denominations, may be traced to the remotest 

 ages. According to Holy Writ, Jubal, seventh only in descent from 

 Adam, was its inventor ; he " was the father of all such as handle the 

 harp and organ," as Moses tells us. Notwithstanding the wonders 

 related of Amphion's lyre, or harp, we we compelled to believe, judging 

 from representations in sculpture and on coins, that the Greeks them- 

 selves did not so much improve the instrument as their writings would 

 lead us to conjecture. But there now seems to be little doubt that 

 the Egyptians brought the harp to a comparatively high degree of 

 perfection : the fresco painting discovered by Bruce near the ruins of 

 Thebes, which he thinks was executed by order of Sesostris, who 

 reigned between fourteen and fifteen hundred years before the Christian 

 era, exhibits a harp so much resembling that of the present day, in 

 form, dimensions, and ornament, that it might, upon a hasty in- 

 spection, be mistaken for one of modern manufacture. He describes 

 it as wanting the pillar, an omission, most likely, of the painter. " The 

 back part," he says, " is the sounding-board, composed of four thin 

 pieces of wood, joined together in form of a cone, that is, growing wider 



towards the bottom. Besides that the principles on which 



the harp is constructed are rational and ingenious, the ornamental 

 parts are likewise executed in the best manner. The bottom and sides 

 of the frame seem to be veneered, or inlaid, probably with ivory, 

 tortoise-shell, and mother-of-pearl, the ordinary produce of the neigh- 

 bouring seas and deserts. It would be now impossible to finish an 

 instrument with more taste and elegance." This account, among 

 others by the same, was at first received with some suspicion ; but 

 later travellers in Egypt, among whom , is Denon, have vindicated 

 Bruce and confirmed his statements. Rosellini too, one of the best 

 authorities, in his work, ' I Monument! dell' Egitto,' &c., Pisa, 1832, 

 has given coloured engravings of harps corresponding in nearly all 

 respects with the instrument designed and described by Bruce, thus 

 proving the great superiority of the Egyptian harp over every instru- 

 ment of the kind known to have been in use among the Greeks or 

 Romans. 



Many learned persons, observes M. Ginguene', are of opinion that the 

 Europeans are not indebted to the Egyptians for the harp, notwith- 

 standing the resemblance of the instruments used by both the former 

 and the latter ; they believe that it originated in the north, that it was 

 introduced into England, and subsequently into Ireland, by the Saxons 

 and other piratical hordes from the Baltic. Martianus Capella found 

 it among the northern tribes which overran the Roman empire in the 

 fifth century. Jones, the Welsh bard, claims for his country the 

 possession of a harp of twenty-six diatonic notes, BO early as the 

 beginning of the sixth century, and moreover adds that musical com- 

 positions proving the validity of his claim were extant in his time. 

 But he offers no authority for the statement. The Irish were well 

 acquainted with the harp from a very early period, and it appears 

 probable that harps of the Egyptian kind were known in Ireland long 

 before our sera. In Bunting's ' Historical and Critical Dissertation on 

 the Harp ' is an engraving and description of an ancient Irish one still 

 in being, though in an imperfect state. It had in a row forty-five 

 strings, and an additional seven in the centre, as unisons. Its form 

 is not unlike that of the modern instrument, but the pillar is curved 

 outwards, and in point of workmanship the whole is remarkable " both 

 for the elegance of its crowded ornaments and for the general execution 

 of those parts on which the correctness of a musical instrument 

 depends." Its height is 3 feet 10 inches, and the longest string is 

 3 feet 4 inches. 



The Welsh triple-stringed harp of the present day extends from o an 

 octave below the first line in the base, to o or A in ultissimo on the 

 riyht side ; and from a, the first line in the base, to the same upper 

 notes on the left hand ; the middle row consists of the semitones of 

 the outward rows. Hence, if the outside rows be tuned in the diatonic 



