Dictionary of Music - Birding America

176 harmonyharmony 1 The pattern of intervals and chords ina composition, both those that are actually soundedand those that are merely implied by the melody.2 The study of chords and intervals, of the ways inwhich chords and intervals are related to oneanother, and the ways in which one interval or chordcan be connected to another. Because harmony concernsnotes sounded together (intervals and chords),which are written in up-and-down columns on themusical staff, it is sometimes called the “vertical”(up-and-down) aspect of music, as opposed tomelody, written as notes following one anotheracross the staff and termed the “horizontal” aspectof music. These terms are somewhat misleading,however, because harmony also involves horizontalmovement from one chord to another.The modern view of diatonic harmony datesfrom the early eighteenth century, when it was firstset forth by the French composer Jean-PhilippeRameau. The building block of harmony is thechord. Each chord is regarded in terms of its positionin a given key, particularly in relation to the tonalcenter (tonic) of that key (see KEY, def. 3). The basicinterval on which chords are built is the third, themost important kind of chord being the triad, whichis made up of two thirds (C–E–G, for example). Allchords, in Rameau’s view—that of so-called classicalharmony, which dominated music from about1600 to 1900—derive their harmonic function fromtriads in root position (with the main note in thebass; see CHORD for a fuller explanation). All otherchords are regarded as inversions of chords in rootposition. (Also see HARMONIC ANALYSIS;INVERSION, def. 1.)One of the most important aspects of harmony isMODULATION (def. 1), the logical change from onekey to another within the course of a composition. Inmost cases, such a change is made possible by thefact that a single chord has different harmonic functionsin different keys. For example, G–B–D is thetonic triad (I) in the key of G major and the dominanttriad (V) in the key of C major.The rules of classical harmony are based on thepremise of a tonal center, or tonic. Toward the end ofthe nineteenth century, as composers becameincreasingly free in their use of dissonance, in thecombining of many keys in a single piece, and in theblending of major and minor, the older concept oftonality—and with it, classical harmony—began tobe abandoned. As a result, most compositions writtensince about 1900 cannot be analyzed or judgedin terms of the harmonic concepts that governed themusic of the baroque, classic, and romantic periods.harp A large stringed instrument, in a triangularframe, whose strings are plucked with the player’sthumbs and fingers (all but the little finger of eachhand). The curved, top part of this frame is called theneck, and the straight upright part is called the pillar.The lower part connecting the pillar and the neckcontains the soundboard of the instrument. The modernharp is about sixty-eight inches high and isleaned back against the player’s right shoulder; theright hand plays mainly the higher strings, usuallymade of nylon, and the left hand the lower ones,made of gut (the lowest ones are wound with wire togive them more weight). There are forty-six strings,which provide a total range of six and one-halffig. 125 p/u from p. 181octaves, almost as great as the piano’s, from the C-flat three octaves below middle C to the G-flat threeand one-half octaves above middle C. The strings aretuned in the key of C-flat major, with seven stringsfor each octave; thus each group of seven strings canplay the scale of C-flat major. To make available