Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Harmony" to "Heanor"

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Harmony" to "Heanor" - Volume 13, Slice 1

HARMONY (Gr. , a concord of musical sounds, to join; (sc. ) meant the science or art of music, being of wider significance), a combination of parts so that the effect should be aesthetically pleasing. In its earliest sense in English it is applied, in music, to a pleasing combination of musical sounds, but technically it is confined to the science of the combination of sounds of different pitch. I. Concord and Discord.By means of harmony modern music has attained the dignity of an independent art. In ancient times, as at the present day among nations that have not come under the influence of European music, the harmonic sense was, if not altogether absent, at all events so obscure and undeveloped as to have no organizing power in the art. The formation by the Greeks of a scale substantially the same as that which has received our harmonic system shows a latent harmonic sense, but shows it in a form which positively excludes harmony as an artistic principle. The Greek perception of certain successions of sounds as concordant rests on a principle identifiable with the scientific basis of concord in simultaneous sounds. But the Greeks did not conceive of musical simultaneity as consisting of anything but identical sounds; and when they developed the practice of magadizingi.e. singing in octavesthey did so because, while the difference between high and low voices was a source of pleasure, a note and its octave were then, as now, perceived to be in a certain sense identical. We will now start from this fundamental identity of the octave, and with it trace the genesis of other concords and discords; bearing in mind that the history of harmony is the history of artistic instincts and not a series of progressive scientific theories. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 39632
Author: Various
Release Date: May 5, 2012
Format: eBook
Language: English