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"We have learned to express the more delicate nuances of feeling by penetrating more deeply into the mysteries of harmony." —ROBERT SCHUMANN

Key Points

  • Harmony describes the simultaneous events in music.
  • A chord is the simultaneous sounding of three or more pitches; chords are built from a particular scale, or sequence of pitches.
  • The most common chord in Western music is a triad, which has three notes built on alternate pitches of a scale.
  • Most Western music is based on major or minor scales, from which melody and harmony are derived.
  • The tonic is the central tone around which a melody and its harmonies are built; this principle of organization is called tonality.
  • Dissonance is created by an unstable, or discordant, harmony, while consonance occurs with the resolution of dissonance, producing a concordant sound.
  • In music of some cultures, a single sustained tone, or drone, constitutes the harmony.

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