what is a harmony?

Hi guys! Heres another post! Now, I do kind of know what a harmony is, but I would like some more info on them??? What I have now is, when you have a note that is in a chord, so you place another note of that same chord under or above your base note. Can I have any more info?

Yes, it sounds like your understanding is correct. Harmony can be thought of as how horizontal—or thick—the music is, while the melody represents the music's verticality—how long it is, if you will. Typically, harmony appears in music as a chord or part of a chord, just like you mentioned. A melody without harmony can tell a story, but adding harmony gives it much-needed context and better informs the ear as to the feeling trying to be conveyed (if one is trying to be conveyed): sadness, melancholy, anger, disgust, horror, mystery, and so forth.

Over the last few centuries, beginning in the mid-1600s, harmony in Western music (that is, the music of Europe) has been studied and used extensively, and certain harmonic "rules" were developed. It was expected that composers produce music that obeyed these rules; this is referred to as the Common Practice Period, or CPP, and it lasted until the early 1900s. The harmony that came from this period, and which is still widely used today, is called tonal harmony, or common practice tonality—it is the basis from which we get our 24 major and minor keys. But if you want to understand tonal harmony, I suggest you master notes and scales first.

I should tell you that there are many schools of thought on what the purpose of harmony in music is, or should be. If you're interested in creating music that sounds "good," like the music of Mozart and Vivaldi (which I suspect you are), then any online music theory resource ought to be useful. Here's one: https://www.earmaster.com/music-theory-online/course-introduction.html

I hope this helps! Feel free to ask more questions as you have them.

2 hours ago, Tónskáld said:

Harmony can be thought of as how horizontal—or thick—the music is, while the melody represents the music's verticality—how long it is, if you will.

That's confusing. I thought harmony = vertical ordering, melody = horizontal developing.

I understand harmony in a much broader sense.

Before the common practice period there was 1000 years of modal harmony.

"Rules" about harmony change from period to period. 20th century brought many different, and new ways to organize harmony.

Whenever there are two pitches, there is harmony. 

1 minute ago, Luis Hernández said:

That's confusing. I thought harmony = vertical ordering, melody = horizontal developing.

Lol, yes, I said that backwards. Thanks for clarifying.

On 10/29/2020 at 4:10 PM, Luis Hernández said:

That's confusing. I thought harmony = vertical ordering, melody = horizontal developing.

I understand harmony in a much broader sense.

Before the common practice period there was 1000 years of modal harmony.

"Rules" about harmony change from period to period. 20th century brought many different, and new ways to organize harmony.

Whenever there are two pitches, there is harmony. 

 

Indeed, even into the Baroque, 2 voices and only 2 voices in harmony is common. It's really in Classical/Romantic and forward that three becomes minimal.