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exploring the world of music - harmony — Transcript

by Walter Brath · 2,798 words · 448 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00[Music]
0:05and in the media much of the world's
0:25music involves the interaction of two or
0:28more tones being sounded simultaneously
0:34this interaction how the pictures relate
0:38to each other is defined in Western
0:40music theory as harmony to me harmony is
0:45similar to the spice that you use when
0:49you're creating a sauce take you've got
0:51a melody there are many different ways
0:53that you can harmonize the same melody
0:55and the way you choose to harmonize it
0:57is what will give you a different
1:00emotional response so in that sense I
1:02really feel that the harmony is
1:04responsible for how a melody makes you
1:06feel
1:10[Music]
1:40harmony can best be described as notes
1:43sounding together in combination pitches
1:46that are stacked on top of one another
1:48if we hear only a melody by itself with
1:52no harmonic accompaniment might sound
1:54something like this
1:59you
2:02if we hear an accompaniment to it this
2:05would be considered harmonizing the
2:07melody this hand is going to play the
2:09harmonic accompaniment the sand will
2:12play the melody gap
2:13[Music]
2:20if you look at harmony as the sounding
2:24of a number of musical notes at the same
2:28time it's not a phenomenon that is
2:31confined to Europe or the United States
2:33it happens in a million different ways
2:35all around the world in Indonesia and
2:40gamelan music you have a kind of harmony
2:43because you have notes that are tuned
2:46together that are being sounded
2:48simultaneously
2:57in Zimbabwean indira music there is a
3:01kind of harmony
3:03although Africans don't have words for
3:04chord and don't have a word for harmony
3:09[Music]
3:18in a general sense
3:20harmony means being in agreement you can
3:23say that some people are in working in
3:25harmony they are working in agreement
3:27with each other toward a common goal in
3:30music it's it's similar musical notes
3:33musical pitches can be in agreement with
3:36each other
3:37[Music]
3:41what constitutes agreement is the key
3:44question in the in Eastern Europe there
3:49are some sounds that they think are in
3:52agreement that most people who are not
3:54from Eastern Europe will think are very
3:56very much in disagreement in this style
3:59of music called ganda
4:05in gangin music they sound notes at the
4:10same time that are very very close
4:12together and in Bosnia that sound is of
4:17the essence of music what constitutes
4:22being in agreement or being dissonant or
4:25being consonant is a culturally
4:27determined thing and it can change over
4:30time within the Western classical
4:35tradition ideas have varied over time as
4:38to what combinations of notes make good
4:41harmony the story of how these ideas
4:45developed can be traced back through the
4:48baroque Renaissance and medieval periods
4:55well the term harmony is used in western
4:58music to describe the simultaneous
5:00sounding of several notes what we call
5:02chords
5:03[Music]
5:10that's what we use as the basis of our
5:13music in the 19th and 20th century but
5:15it really wasn't always the case in
5:17order to understand the development of
5:19harmony you have to really go back to
5:20the very beginnings of western music to
5:23the origin of plain chants plain chant
5:26is term used to describe the singing of
5:29the sacred texts in the Christian Church
5:34plain chants is always just one line of
5:37music as if only one person is singing
5:42[Music]
5:44but oftentimes several people would be
5:47singing this music at the same time but
5:48they'll always be singing in unison the
5:50same melody exactly at the same time but
5:54around the Year 900 we know from some
5:56treatises that survived that they were
5:59adding lines on top of these plain
6:02chants
6:02originals at first it was a line that
6:10would move exactly in parallel contour
6:12with the original melody and one theory
6:15is that's because men and boys often
6:17sang together in liturgical services and
6:20the boys just didn't have voices low
6:22enough to sing with the men they would
6:24sing as best they can in their own range
6:26and it would wound up being just a knot
6:29an octave higher knots in unison they'd
6:31have to sing a fifth higher about five
6:34notes higher than where the men could
6:35sing and so as an accidental development
6:37that these two lines were sung
6:40simultaneously a fifth of parts
6:45Oh
6:52the church musicians must have really
6:54liked the sounds because they really
6:57took off on this idea and soon they're
7:01developed a free form where the the
7:03added line was not tied to the melodic
7:05contour of the original melody but
7:07sometimes went up when the original
7:09plain chant went down or vice versa
7:12[Music]
7:23[Music]
7:26eventually even more lines were added so
7:30that's in the late Middle Ages around
7:32the Year 1400 for example three voices
7:35was the norm by the year 1500 100 years
7:37later four voices were the normal the
7:42texture of having these four voices work
7:44together was such that there's a lot of
7:46imitation between the four lives
7:49[Music]
7:53and it was rather playful for parts
7:56would weave in and out of each other
7:59they would chase each other echo each
8:02other
8:02[Music]
8:06and always come to a nice part at the
8:09end the notes were sounding together
8:17forming courts even if the composer
8:19didn't think of them as courts certain
8:21notes would line up at a certain time
8:23and create a chord in the Renaissance in
8:28the 15th 16th centuries these harmonies
8:31were sort of the result of the different
8:33lines of polyphony as they sort of made
8:36a tapestry of music altogether composers
8:38became increasingly aware of these local
8:42vertical sonorities or courts by the end
8:44of the sixteenth century composers were
8:46ready to drop the middle lines of a
8:49standard four part texture and just keep
8:51the top and bottom lines why did they do
8:53this for a very good reason this is at
8:56the time when the earliest operas were
8:58being written and the solo song was of
9:01prime importance
9:04[Music]
9:14in these new art forms the composer
9:18intended to get across the text of a
9:20song and it's clear and immediate way as
9:22possible so by getting rid of the middle
9:24lines he focused all the attention on
9:27that top line so you can really hear
9:28what the singer was singing
9:30[Music]
9:35I
9:36[Music]
9:43the melody and the bass became the two
9:45most important voices as the inner
9:47voices became less important what the
9:50composer's substituted for those middle
9:52lines was little chord symbols that he
9:55wrote above the notes of the bass line
9:57and the instruments that played that
9:59bass line were the instruments that can
10:01actually play more than one note at a
10:03time instruments such as the lutes
10:05harpsichord Oregon and performers became
10:09adept at reading these symbols and
10:11knowing what notes to add on top of the
10:14bass line
10:18[Music]
10:27all written in this shorthand of figures
10:31over the baseline it probably saved a
10:33lot of paper the use of the figured base
10:40adding symbols above these base notes is
10:43really the whole foundation of our
10:45modern concept of harmony
10:56[Music]
11:02[Music]
11:04the harmony that underlies much of the
11:07standard classical and popular music we
11:09hear today was developed by the 18th
11:12century it involves rules and
11:14conventions about how chords are
11:16constructed and how they progress from
11:19one to the next
11:28accord will have certain sounds or
11:32colors that give the composer a lot of
11:36choices and I was going to make a peace
11:38sound in fact it's kind of like a
11:41painter's palette they have a palette of
11:43different colors to choose from and a
11:45composer has different chords or harmony
11:49to choose from to make his piece come
11:51alive
11:51[Music]
12:06when a compulsory takes chords and
12:09strings them along one after another
12:11that's called a chord progression here's
12:14a very simple chord progression three
12:20chords coming back to the first chord in
12:23a chord progression often the chords
12:26will lead to a point of tension and then
12:29you have to have resolution see if you
12:31can hear it's not finished and then we
12:39come home the idea of moving music to
12:43and from a tonal Center is referred to
12:46in western music as tonality
12:48[Music]
12:55this is the really great discovery in
12:58European music where you know where home
13:01is you have a tonal center if I go like
13:05this and I stop there after a while you
13:11got to run down in turn off the light or
13:14something like that you say I'm not done
13:16yet he's saying the end the end the end
13:24over and over again so you don't make
13:27any mistake about it this Symphony which
13:29has taken 45 minutes is done and so
13:39whenever you talk about harmony in in
13:42our context you're talking about
13:44tonality about the way the Harmony
13:47shapes the movement of the music and
13:55that's what provides that sense of shape
13:59and direction and flow
14:04we as musicians that would like to sort
14:07of define harmonies in the way they
14:09operate because they create within us a
14:12set of expectations when I hear a chord
14:14like this I want to hear as a resolution
14:18of the first chord and those
14:20expectations are important and they are
14:21very conditioned to us especially in the
14:24in Western civilization's
14:29what is really exciting about harmony is
14:32when those conventions are gone against
14:35at the beginning of the Browns to be
14:37major trio there are certain notes like
14:41when when I play with the violin this
14:44sort of melody and six not every
14:52interval is the sixth even if we're not
15:01aware technically of what's going on
15:03your ear picks this up disturbs our
15:09sense of emotions and that's one reason
15:10why music stirs
15:34harmony in western classical music has
15:37always kind of come with a set of rules
15:41composers were supposed to follow those
15:43rules of course being creative people
15:46they also wanted to explore further
15:48tonal possibilities so each composer
15:50would try to take harmony to kind of the
15:53next step
15:55[Music]
16:07by the end of the 19th century composers
16:10had moved harmony almost to a breaking
16:13point
16:14[Music]
16:17they had basically explored as far as
16:20they could go and then they decided to
16:24break with harmony and tonality and
16:29that's when atonal music came in it was
16:36so to the edge that you don't have a
16:41neat clean predictable harmonic
16:43progression
16:44[Music]
16:59while much of Western classical music in
17:02the 20th century has moved away from
17:04tonality popular music and traditional
17:07jazz have nots in jazz it is the chord
17:12progression of the tune that provides
17:14the foundation for the improvisations of
17:16the soloist
17:23if I'm playing with the group I have to
17:26coordinate certain elements of the
17:28harmonic accompaniment with other
17:30players particularly in the bass player
17:32he and I have got to be an agreement
17:36the main function of the base is to play
17:39the bottom note of the chord that's
17:42pretty much what you're hired for that's
17:44your function that's your responsibility
17:47outside of that you can play other notes
17:51in the chord for instance if the piano
17:53player where the guitar player is
17:54playing a G chord the root of that chord
17:56is the G note other notes in the G chord
17:58would be the G then the B or the third
18:00moving up to the fifth which is D and
18:03then in the octave
18:04another G at the top you can use those
18:07notes to create an interesting line you
18:09know that's the first those are the most
18:11common tones the most inside notes to
18:14play that will agree with what the piano
18:16player is playing
18:16[Music]
18:24Yeah right after we agree on the basic
18:28harmony we can still shape each
18:31individual chord a little bit different
18:33I just want to check the page mate call
18:38for a minor seven seven it'll give us a
18:42description of quartz but I can play the
18:45chords and different registers I can
18:48play them close I can spread the notes
18:51out so I can change the general texture
18:55of the chord so we have the freedom to
18:58improvise harmonically
19:04a very important thing to be listening
19:09for is the soloist I have got to listen
19:13to that person and play forms of the
19:16chord that are hopefully going to best
19:18complement the melodies that the soloist
19:20is playing let's just say somebody
19:24play's something and they're playing a
19:26lot of notes - playing a very fast
19:28passage maybe I want to stay out of
19:31their way and not fill things up and
19:32just play it forward and hold it out
19:34let's say the person is holding one long
19:37note and they're sustaining it and it's
19:39growing dynamically and they're really
19:41milking this one long note I may want to
19:43play I may want to play a rising pattern
19:48to create some kind of further
19:50supporting tension for what that person
19:53is trying to do
19:56[Music]
20:24you want to have the soloist have the
20:26freedom to choose their direction yet
20:29you want to give them some support and
20:31that might mean sort of helping to push
20:34them in a direction even if maybe it's
20:36not where they were intending to go
20:37originally because that's where the best
20:39performances sometimes come from those
20:41little surprise turns that music can
20:43take when you're improvising
20:45[Music]
21:06harmony is a word that was developed to
21:09understand Western music that is music
21:12of the European and American traditions
21:14over about the last 500 years when
21:17people started going out from that
21:19tradition and running into the music's
21:22of the rest of the world they needed
21:23words to talk about how those other
21:26musics work that didn't have our
21:27tradition
21:28so harmony is applied sometimes other
21:31kinds of music then the music it was
21:33meant to describe there are many forms
21:38of harmony found throughout Africa in
21:41Zimbabwe one of the most common
21:43traditional harmony producing
21:45instruments is called the Umbra Bureaus
21:49are often used to accompany song and
21:51dance they are constructed with metal
21:54keys fixed to a sound box that is often
21:57surrounded by a good resonator in Africa
22:02there is no word for cord and there's no
22:05word for harmony but there are chords in
22:07African music and there is harmony in
22:09African music for example in Zimbabwean
22:12indira music the chords will consist of
22:16two notes being sounded simultaneously
22:19that are a fourth or fifth or an octave
22:23apart and that's what the Harmony is
22:25built on now that song consists of a
22:40series of two note chords that are being
22:43sounded in sequence so there's a chord
22:45progression there are two phrases here's
22:48the first phrase here's the second
22:53phrase so the whole song consists of two
22:59phrases each of which has three chords
23:02now that's the basic framework I want to
23:05elaborate on it so I'm going to take
23:08some notes out of the chords play them
23:10independently of each other
23:12and develop a more interesting melody so
23:16here we go
23:18[Music]
23:27the court progressions in in Bureau
23:29music are very much like the chord
23:31progressions in jazz or the chord
23:33progressions in Bach they are the
23:35underlying framework in a jazz context
23:38you improvise over a recurrent cycle of
23:40chords a chord progression in in Barrow
23:43music it's the same you improvise over a
23:46recurrent or depression
23:47[Music]
23:55you don't have the word for cord and you
23:59don't have an explicit body of musical
24:02theory but if you play notes that are
24:05not in the chord your teacher will tell
24:07you or someone or someone in the
24:09audience will tell you or they throw a
24:11stick at you you don't do that they'll
24:13say here leave that alone don't play
24:15that note here and they'll show you here
24:17play this one and if you analyze what
24:20they're telling you to play they're
24:22telling you to play the notes that are
24:23within the chord so they're hearing the
24:26relationship of tones to each other
24:28they're hearing chords but you don't
24:30have a word for it and really that was
24:33the situation that existed in Western
24:35Europe before music theory was developed
24:37music theory is something that is based
24:40upon practice it's based upon what
24:43musicians do you look at what musicians
24:46do and you find some patterns in it and
24:48then you write down those patterns and
24:51you can make that prescriptive you can
24:53make those into rules
24:54[Music]
24:59while some musical genres have explicit
25:02formalized rules for harmony others do
25:05not but the impulse to sound notes
25:09together to make harmony is an essential
25:12part of music in many diverse cultures
25:14around the world
25:32[Music]
25:44[Applause]
25:48[Music]
26:06[Music]
26:21[Music]
26:26Annenberg media
26:35for information about this and other
26:37Annenberg media programs call 1-800
26:40lerner and visit us at

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