Harmony

Liberation of Integration, Universality and Concord (Part #23)

Musical sound is usefully regarded as having horizontal and vertical dimensions. The horizontal aspects are those considered so far, namely those that proceed in time. The vertical aspect is the sum total of what is happening at any given moment. This includes the result of notes that sound against each other in counterpoint. In the case of melody and accompaniment, it includes the underpinning of chords that the composer gives to the principal notes of the melody.

In music, harmony can be broadly defined as the sound of two or more notes heard simultaneously. In practice this can include notes sounded one after the other in cases when the ear creates its own simultaneity and perceives the harmony that would have resulted had the notes been sounded together. It is also the succession of harmonies that gives a piece of music its distinctive personality.

It should be understood that harmony is an optional additional form of organization or integration. Rhythm and melody can exist without harmony and in fact most of the world's music is nonharmonic, using unharmonized melodic lines often with a sophisticated rhythmic organization.

The concept of harmony and harmonic relationships is not an arbitrary creation. It is based on certain relationship among musical tones that the ear accepts almost reflexively, and that are also expressible through elementary scientific investigation. A stretched string divided by simple arithmetical ratios (1/2, 2/3..) and plucked can demonstrate that the intervals (or distances between tones) sounded before and after the division are the most fundamental that the ear perceives. Occurring in the music of nearly all cultures, whether in melody or harmony, these intervals are the octave, the fifth, and the fourth.

Returning to the considerations of the previous section, the question now becomes one of whether there are natural or fundamental harmonies between psycho-social functions? In other words when considering the expression of a particular function, should advantage be taken of the possibility of accompanying it by a function 'harmonic' to create a 'chord' which imbues the lifestyle with greater quality -- or, at least, increases the quality of the moment? The quality of the moment rta has remained a prime concern in the development of sanskrit- based culture.