Tonality and harmony of composition

It is originally "traditional harmony", "western harmony" and "western traditional harmony". Theories and techniques summarized by European baroque, classicism and romanticism composers through practice. The function and acoustic status of the tone system is very important, and it is the basis of all composition theories. Many composers have made outstanding contributions in function and acoustics. This paper briefly introduces some important basic concepts and terms of functional harmony.

bowstring

The combination of three or more sounds with different pitches and names is called a chord. The chords used in function summation are generally three-degree overlapping chords. Based on a certain sound, build a chord by overlapping sounds in the high-pitched area. This sound is called "root" A chord with the root as the bass is called the original chord, and other chords with this chord as the bass are called transposed chords.

triple

A chord composed of three tones superimposed on the root twice and thrice is called a triad. Trichord is the most basic chord that constitutes the function of chord. According to the structure, the basic triads are major triad, minor triad, increase triad and decrease triad. Every triad has two inversions. The third bass is the first inversion (also called "sixth chord", named after the interval relationship between the root sound and other chords after chord inversion), and the fifth bass is the second inversion (also called "fourth and sixth chord").

Seventh chord

A chord composed of four tones composed of three and three root sounds is called a seventh chord (named after the root sound and the crown sound are seven degrees in basic arrangement). The seventh chord is not harmonious. There are three kinds of transpositions, the first one is also called "fifth and sixth chord", the second one is also called "third and fourth chord", and the third one is called "second chord" when the seventh tone is bass.

Superposition chord

Unified names of nine chords, eleven chords and thirteen chords. Because the transposition of overlapping chords may change its own nature and become audible other chords, overlapping chords generally do not transpose. If there is transposition, we should pay attention to the root sound, so as not to change the bass into other chords because of the root sound.

Stress chord (stress chord)

Added a chord that does not change the nature of its own chords. Generally speaking, on the basis of a triad, a four-tone chord or a five-tone chord composed of any one or two tones of nine, eleven and thirteen (and their variations) above the triad is added. The additional notes will not be bass, otherwise it will change the nature of the chord. The eleventh and thirteenth tones of the seventh chord (and their inflections) are likely to become highly overlapping chords.

suspensive

1, chords have consonants, prestored sounds, leaning sounds and consonants all involve chord analysis. These sounds can be used as bass, but they need to be solved. Otherwise, it will change the nature of chords.

2. Or a chord in which the tone of a chord is replaced by another tone that does not change the basic nature of the chord (generally, two tones change into three tones and four tones change into three tones), which is also called "tone sandhi chord". Does not involve solving, independent use. The replaced sound will not be bass, otherwise it will change the nature of chords.

Variable string

One or more chords in a chord except the root sound rise or fall, and the sound name remains the same. This kind of chord is called variable chord. Generally used to emphasize the tendency of harmony, out of tune and some special progress.

Functional system

Dominant chord (chord with root), dominant chord (chord with root) and dominant chord (chord with root). These three chords are not only based on the orthochromatic level, but also reflect the tonality (tonic+mode) characteristics of the sound, so they are called "orthochords" and the other four are called "chords". These four chords belong to the main functional group, the subordinate functional group and the subordinate functional group respectively.

Main chord In multi-part music, this chord is the main support of tonality. Because in the case of proper melody rhythm and beat, the stability and musical integrity necessary for the ending can be shown.

Dependent chords and dependent chords are the most common and important chords with unstable tonality, which can form "incomplete musical thoughts" under certain conditions.

This characteristic of positive chord affects the whole functional system.

Main functional groups: main chord, middle chord (level 3) and lower middle chord (level 6).

Subordinate functional groups: subordinate chords, upper main chords (secondary) and lower middle chords.

Function group: dominant chord, leading chord (seventh grade) and alto chord.

In natural major and minor, the middle chord (generally modal triad) and the lower middle chord (generally modal sixth chord) are also components of the other two functional groups. Just like their names (middle-middle), they are functionally intermediate, and can belong to different functions according to the connection of the front and back chords (this is called "functional variability").

In harmony major and minor, the third level in harmony minor and the sixth level in harmony major are not included in the main function group, although they have the same sound as the main chord in mode. Because their basic triad is a progressive triad, they are very unstable. Therefore, the third level of harmony minor and the sixth level of harmony major only belong to another functional group in mode. (Please refer to the course of Harmony and Acoustics for some contents. )

part

Harmony generally consists of four parts: treble, alto, tenor and bass. In writing the spectrum of harmony, the treble is above, the bass is below, and the alto and tenor are all in it. Therefore, the high-pitched and low-pitched parts are often called "external sound parts", and the midrange and tenor parts are called "internal sound parts". The treble part is generally the main melody part; The two inner voices are mainly configuration harmony, which is often called "filling voice". In the process of harmonious connection, the interior should be full and stable, and all parts are not allowed to cross. Bass is always the lowest sound in harmony, which determines the root sound, so it not only plays a basic role, but also leads the direction of harmony and plays a very important role.

The writing of "four harmonies" is one of the important skills in composition. No matter how big or small the work is, it should start from here (after the main theme is determined, it is necessary to start harmony writing). The orchestration concretizes the harmony texture. (Because different musical instruments belong to different parts, music scores can be written according to harmony parts, or grouped according to musical instruments, such as string parts, brass parts, woodwind parts ...) Different composers often have different harmony styles: magnificent, generous, or clear and transparent. For example, Wagner's works are famous for their grandeur.

The Process, Connection and Solution of Harmony

Harmony should be constantly transformed, changed and suspended in the process of music; For this reason, all sounds should be properly transitioned and connected. So this is the basic skill of writing harmony. The basic characteristics of harmonic series are from "stability" to "instability" and then to "stability"; The alternate cycle from "harmony" to "disharmony" and then to "harmony" has its functional schema: T-S-T, T-D-T or t-s-d-t. Jazz harmony

Jazz harmony is a kind of harmony language and skill developed from functional harmony after the 20th century.

Jazz harmony is mostly tonal harmony, mainly functional harmony, and chords are also functional. Although composers such as Charles Mingus and Cecil Taylor have tried to apply atonal composition techniques to jazz harmony, their so-called "free jazz" sometimes does show some characteristics of atonal music (its composition techniques are more similar to occasional music in modern music, and its sound effect is basically atonal or atonal). So "free jazz" is more suitable to be classified as avant-garde music than pop music. However, for most composers, this relatively conservative harmony technique is still maintained. And in most cases, the harmony language they use is still clear and recognizable.

Jazz harmony has no restriction on the choice of scales, and commonly used ones are major and minor scales, medieval mode scales, blues scales, symmetrical subtraction scales and panchromatic scales. Based on the seventh chord, the selected chord has tension, including the ninth chord, the eleventh chord, the thirteenth chord and all semitones (b9, #9, # 1 1, b 13). They are so named because they produce a lot of dissonance in the chord structure. When tension is used, the ninth, eleventh and thirteenth notes of the chord will appear accordingly. A higher chord superimposed on the seventh chord. This chord is called sustain. Use four-degree overlapping chords, etc. Mainly used for pop music creation. National harmony

Also known as "modal harmony". It refers to the harmony of Han people in China, and also refers to the national style and national harmony language of multi-voice music. National harmony discusses the chord structure, connection method, progress law, sound effect, harmony characteristics and its specific role in composition practice.