Chapter Nine Outline: “Harmony and Texture”

 

Key Terms:

Harmony: the combination of notes to produce chords and also a way of understanding chord progression throughout a piece

Texture: the number of pitches or melodies that sound at the same time and also the way they interact

Tonic: The central note (pitch class) of a section or piece

Chord: two or more notes sounded simultaneously; help explain what is happening harmonically

Counterpoint: Method of creating separate melodies that are complementary when played together

 

The Middle Ages: Texture

            Much early music can be better understood in terms of level of complexity rather than chords

            Monophonic texture: one note sounds at a time without harmony or accompaniment—the simplest musical texture. Does not imply a single voice: unison singing is monophonic.

 

Focus on Gregorian Chant

            Conventionally applied to a style of plainchant that dominated the Western world in the medieval period

            Traditionally sung without instrumental accompaniment, although modern chant often uses instruments

            The first music to be notated

 

Polyphonic Texture: developed during the Middle Ages, more than one note sounds at a time—covers both a single melody plus accompaniment and multiple independent melodies

            Provides opportunities for both dissonance, when harmonically incompatible notes sound together, and consonance, when harmonically compatible notes form chords

            Dissonant harmonies can sound incomplete, leaving a listener yearning for a consonant resolution

 

The Renaissance: Counterpoint Comes to the Fore

            The art of combining melodic lines is a key feature of a musical education

            Josquin’s Missa L’homme Armé: combines a cantus firmus with independent vocal lines

The Kyrie: staggered voice entries and emphasis on prominent intervals of the melody make the cantus firmus stand out

The Agnus Dei: densely contrapuntal sections in which the voices move at different speeds

 

Focus on Josquin des Prez: masterful Renaissance man

            One of the greatest Renaissance composers; his compositions span the styles of both the Middle Ages and the High Renaissance

            Worked primarily in Italy for various aristocratic patrons for whom he wrote both secular and sacred music

 

The Baroque: Counterpoint Yields to Harmony

            Not until the Baroque period did musicians begin to understand harmony as a form of accompaniment to the melody

            Homophonic texture: two or more parts that form chords with their movements; typically, a single melodic line with accompaniment

            Functional harmony: a set of patterns in which chords follow one another to create larger units

                        The tonic chord begins and ends a complete harmonic pattern, but almost any number and combination of chords may intervene

                        This view of harmony is a key feature of the common practice period, which stretches from approximately 1680 and 1875 and is itself marked by a common style for European art music

            Fugal texture: polyphonic texture that develops a single melody in successive voices; a technique of imitation and development rather than a genre

 

Focus on Johann Sebastian Bach

            Bach is now seen as a linchpin of Western classical music, but after his death his music was considered old-fashioned and was rarely performed

            The “Bach revival” instigated by Felix Mendelssohn was a major event in the Romantic period and placed Bach at the apex of music prior to 1800. Bach was rediscovered again in the early 20th century and remains a source of inspiration for musicians and composers today.

 

The Classical Period: Functional Harmony Reigns

            Homophony, or melody plus accompaniment, is the most common texture

            Major and minor: contrast between these types of keys was a crucial area of contrast in the Classical era

                        Major keys are generally thought of as bright or happy, while minor keys tend to be considered serious or sad; modulations between major and minor keys are often audible signposts for new sections

            Polyphony in the development: The addition of new melodies or countersubjects intensifies the texture

            Recapitulation: The key of the second theme is shifted from major in the exposition to the tonic, minor key in the recapitulation

 

The Romantic Period: Harmony Begins to Change

            Harmonic enrichment: Romantic composers like Chopin tend to use richly chromatic harmonies throughout their works

            Harmonic revolution: Wagner uses chromatic harmonies almost exclusively in the opera Tristan und Isolde—to the point where functional harmony begins to break down from the profusion of dissonance

 

Focus on Richard Wagner: German composer remembered for his artistic reforms in the field of opera. Anticipated the disintegration of functional harmony in the 20th century.

 

The Modern Period: Dissonance Is Set Free

            The rules of harmony continued to be broken, weakening their power

            Harmony as an adjective: Debussy’s harmonies provide washes of color

                        Melodies in the Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp cannot be harmonized with traditional chords, but the dissonances are not perceived as being especially disruptive

 

Across the Arts: Color and Suggestion

            Impressionist painters were more concerned with conveying the peculiar light and color of a single moment than with portraying an accurate representation of an object

            The suggestive images of the Impressionists find parallels in Debussy’s music

 

            Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms: Echoing Bach

                        Reaches backward into the Baroque for Bach-esque fugal techniques but relies on dissonant harmonies that are at once like both Debussy and Machaut

 

In History: Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms

            International style resulting from a blend of Russian, Western European, and American influences

            Text is written in Latin, while the music references Bach, Gregorian chant, and the octatonic scale common in Russian music: emotional distancing reacts against the excesses of late Romanticism

 

The Later 20th Century and Beyond: Anything Can Happen

            Few generalizations can be made about harmony in the late 20th century: composers like Crumb continue to write highly dissonant music, while Steve Reich and others have returned to consonant harmony and treated it in new ways

 

Focus on Janika Vandervelde

            American composer who regularly employs minimalist and postmodern techniques: post-minimalist, post-modernist, and post-postmodern fusionist styles

            Music frequently features changing meters and additive rhythms in combination with lyrical lines

 

            Crumb’s Black Angels: Absence

                        Quotes the Schubert lied Der Tod und das Mädchen played in such a way as to imitate the Renaissance viola da gamba—a momentary trip to the past

            Crumb’s Black Angels: Return

                        Clear references to dissonant but traditional harmony appear in God-Music, blended with the extended techniques heard previously

 

Harmony, Texture, and Meaning

            Music that highlights polyphony requires careful and attentive listening just as dissonant harmonies warrant repeat listening

            Listening is not only about identifying elements, but also about what is being communicated—what does the music mean?