HARMONY 



3847 



HARMONY 



No. 1, treble and bass, gives 

 standard pitch. Nos. 2 and 3 are 

 respectively an octave lower and 

 an octave higher. No. 4 is of the 

 same pitch as No. 1, but of reedier 

 quality. There are also forte 

 stops, which increase the power of 

 Nos. 3 and 4 by opening shutters ; 

 voix celeste (treble, 16 ft.), which 

 adds a rank of reeds to No. 2, tuned 

 sharp in order to produce a wavy 

 tone ; tremolo, which shakes the 

 wind before it reaches the reeds ; 

 sourdine (mute), which shuts off 

 half the wind pressure from No. 1, 

 bass, so that it may be soft enough 

 to accompany a melody ; and, 

 most characteristic of all, the ex- 

 pression stop, which cuts off the 



wind reservoir and allows the wind 

 to pass direct from the feeders to 

 the reeds, and consequently leaves 

 the full control of pressure, and 

 with it some measure of securing 

 " expression," to the player's 

 feet. 



Percussion action, in the best 

 instruments, improves the attack 

 of the tone by causing tiny ham- 

 mers to strike the reeds of No. 1 

 set. Grand jeu (or full organ) is 

 a mechanism which gives the full 

 power of the instrument without 

 drawing separate stop knobs. 

 Sometimes there is also a knee or 

 heel swell which opens shutters to 

 increase the tone. See American 

 Organ. 



to hear every note, their presence 

 may be proved. The notes marked 

 X can be arranged thus : 



HARMONY: ITS PLACE IN MUSIC 



W. G. Alcock, Mus. Doc., Organist of Salisbury Cathedral 



The group of articles to which this belongs includes Music and 



Singing. See also Voice ; biographies of the great composers. Bach, 



Mozart, Purcell, and others, and the articles on musical terms, e.g. 



Chord ; Counterpoint ; Fugue 



Harmony may be defined as This is known as the harmonic 

 " the art of combining two or more series, and though it is not possible 

 sounds of definite musical pitch, 

 according to accepted rules." Har- 

 mony is based upon the scale, 

 which, is a succession of eight notes 

 designated alphabetically. The 

 scale is of Greek origin, its intro- 

 duction being about the middle of 

 the 6th century B.C. The Greeks, 

 though aware of the possibility of 

 combined sounds, used their scales 

 for melodic purposes. The Greek 

 scales or modes may, roughly, be 

 represented by any series of eight 

 consecutive white keys upon the 

 pianoforte. The Ionian mode 

 commencing on C represents our 

 major diatonic scale, and upon this 

 and its minor variant our modern 

 musical system is built. The har- 

 monic possibilities of other series 

 may be explored, such scales being 

 the Aeolian (beginning on A), the 

 Locrian (on B, but rejected), the 

 Dorian (on D), the Phrygian (on 

 E), the Lydian (on F)", and the 

 Mixo-Lydian (on G). 



Notes and Harmonics 



Musical sounds are complex. If 

 a low note on the pianoforte be 

 struck and held, notes of higher 

 pitch will be heard, though of less 



augmented or diminished intervals 

 are discords. Intervals one semi- 

 tone more than petiect or major 

 are augmented and one semitone 

 less than perfect or minor are 

 diminished. 



The first recorded attempts at 

 combining musical sounds are those 

 described by Hucbald, a Flemish 

 monk of the 10th century. In his 

 work, " Enchiridion Musicae," an 

 example appears as at (A), being 

 thus translated by Burney. This 

 crude device was known as 

 Organum or Diaphony. Later a 

 drone or holding note was used, 

 over which another part moved 

 freely, as at (B). The note X 

 suggests what is now known as a 

 passing note, or one unessential to 

 the harmony. 



This method was succeeded by 

 Discantus, which at first consisted 

 in the simultaneous performance 

 of two different tunes. This later 

 development led to counterpoint, 

 which may be described as " the 

 art of combining melodies." 



The early rules of harmony were 

 strict and binding, even the 6th 

 being considered a discord. The 



r 



which is the diatonic major scale of 

 C, starting from the 5th note, or 

 dominant ; and thus accounted for 

 on acoustical grounds. 



The study of harmony presup- 

 poses an accurate knowledge of 



gradual developments of the next 

 four centuries led to a great ad- 

 vance, such as may be found in the 

 work of Dufay, a Netherlander, 

 born about 1360. Josquin Despres, 

 born about a century later, has 



(A) TU pa trfs Semp-i -tur-nus es 



<9 -Q- 



fi - // - 



us 



o 



power, simultaneously. These 

 higher notes are called harmonics. 

 Stringed instruments are rich in 

 harmonics, and if the G string of a 

 violoncello be sounded with the 

 bow the harmonics given in addi- 

 tion to the generator (or open 

 string) will be as shown below: 



(B) Te hu mi /es fa mu 

 intervals, or the distance from one been acclaimed as 

 note to another. Intervals are 

 reckoned (1) from the number of 

 names of notes they contain ; (2) in- 

 clusively, i.e. counting both limits ; 

 and (3) upwards, i.e. from the 

 lower to the higher note. Intervals 

 are either concords or discords. 

 Concords are either perfect (4th, 

 5th, and 8th) or imperfect (major 

 and minor 3rd, and major and 

 minor 6th). 2nds, 7ths, and all 

 x 



etc 



etc 



Generator 



(Any other note may be taken as a generato 



- // 



" one of the 



greatest geniuses of any period," 

 and in his work there is abundant 

 evidence of the great advance 

 he achieved in developing the 

 contrapuntal devices of his pre- 

 decessors in the direction of har- 

 mony. Early in the 16th century, 

 Palestrina was born, and it is 

 difficult to overestimate his in- 

 fluence on music. Of his numerous 

 compositions, which are still in 

 general use, the Missa Papae 

 Marcelli is notable as having being 

 written as an attempt to save 

 the art from the degradation to 

 which it had fallen by its ad- 

 mixture with secular tunes of 

 the worst description. 



