68 THE NATURE OF MUSIC 



30. Distinction between Original Harmony in 

 One Voice and Chord-Harmony 



Music-history everywhere identifies the beginning 

 of harmony with the first use of chords. Every 

 treatise on harmony is a treatise on chords. The 

 concurrence of at least two tones, therefore a chord, is 

 everywhere considered indispensable to the percep- 

 tion, conception and presentation of a consonance and 

 a dissonance. Everywhere the study of harmony and 

 harmonic analysis means the study of chords and 

 chord-analysis, and no other basis having been dis- 

 covered, the chord is everywhere regarded as the basis 

 of harmony. These facts plainly show that the con- 

 ception of harmony as chord is universal. The rea- 

 sons for my dissent from this common view are rooted 

 in the following facts and conclusions. The chord is 

 Si form of harmony, but is not the original form, there- 

 fore the chord is not the basis of harmony. The 

 original form is the basis, it is dissonance (cadence) 

 and consonance (repose) in one voice. The concur- 

 rence of two or more tones, that is, a chord, is not 

 requisite to hearing, feeling, perceiving, conceiving 

 and presenting a dissonance and a consonance. A 

 single tone suflices for all this since, as has been 

 demonstrated, each of a series of single tones is a dis- 

 sonance or a consonance. Harmony is a discovery, 

 not a "modern invention" as Spencer declares. 

 Original harmony in one voice, old as music itself 

 and belonging to all time, is the spontaneous product 

 of feeling; it antedates chord-harmony and belongs 

 to the historic and prehistoric periods of homophony. 



