# In Praise of Harmony



## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

Watching with pleasure the Danish National Symphony Orchestra's New Year's 2022 concert, while recovering from an illness. Familiar waltz, galop, tango, and or other typical light 19th/early 20th century pieces. Played expertly and with touches of humor by the orchestra, enjoyed thoroughly by the audience. For some reason I'm focused on chords and the succession of chords -- i.e. the harmony. Not analytically, but simply noticing how with each chord comes tone color, a feeling, a sense of narrative (story-telling), expectation and gratitude, and intuition of larger design. True whether or not the tune is familiar, and whether or not I know the words.

What a debt we owe to harmony in music! I think it is the reason that European music caught on in other parts of the world.

May I wish everyone on TalkClassical a harmonious and peaceful festive season, to whatever extent is possible in these difficult times. Let us hope for a Happy 2023!


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Very nice post given the season! Get well soon.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Seconded.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Isn't it amazing how a subtle change in harmony can make such a big difference? Just last night I was playing a midnight mass and at the end we played a new arrangement of Silent Night written by the church's organist. Rather than follow the simple I-IV-V sequence of the original he made some harmonic changes that really tweaked the emotional flavor, One of those things music can express where words fail. Harmony, or lack of it, is one of the things that so many 20th composers poo-pooed and look what we got? Then there some composers whose harmony is so rich and seductive and always seems just right: the only way it could be done. Like Victor Herbert.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

I have been fascinated by harmonies my whole life, ever since my first memories. When I was a toddler I tried to sing chords and couldn´t figure out how people were able to sing three to four notes at the same time on recordings.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

One composer who’s exploring new ways with harmonies, I think exciting new ways, is Mark R Taylor, on the CD called Aftermaths on Another Timbre.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

mbhaub said:


> Harmony, or lack of it, is one of the things that so many 20th composers poo-pooed and look what we got?


Or perhaps they were thinking outside the box, like how Berlioz was doing in the previous century. Is harmony everything to music?


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## Knorf (Jan 16, 2020)

Witold Lutosławski, "whether tonal or atonal, the harmony must always _move."_


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I wonder what Lutoslawski would say about Feldman’s harmonies in, for example, For Samuel Beckett.


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