Harmony: Historic Points and Modern Methods of Instruction (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Schachtel, Ernest G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1332135439 ISBN 13: 9781332135431

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2016

Synopsis

Excerpt from Harmony: Historic Points and Modern Methods of Instruction

It is not probable that harmony was employed prior to the ninth century, except perhaps in the music of the spheres.

Up to that period, Psalms and Hymns were sung in unison, notwithstanding the already known possibility of simultaneously uniting different sounds.

Dr. Ritter says, in his valuable epitome of Musical History, "The oldest historical document of which we have any knowledge, on harmony, in the modern acceptation of the term, is by Isidore, Archbishop of Seville, who lived at the time of St. Gregory (from 570 to 636 A. D.), and whose friend he was. Isidore says, in his 'Sentences on Music,' 'Harmonious music is a modulation of the voice: it is also the union of simultaneous sounds.' He also speaks of two kinds of harmony, Symphony and Diaphony. By the first word he meant probably a combination of consonant, and by the latter of dissonant intervals."

It seems certain that the earliest efforts in part-singing were in fourths, fifths and octaves. Hucbald, a Flemish monk who lived, according to Fetis, from about 840 to 932 A. D., was the first theoretical writer of eminence. He left a treatise on harmony, or, as it was then called, Organum or Diaphony, entitled "Enchiridion Musicæ," in which rules and examples are given for the proper progression of the different parts or "symphonies," as they were then termed.

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Edition details

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1332135439
• ISBN 13: 9781332135431
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 38