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laws of harmony

Hughes
"Harmony must be looked at in two ways at least: first, up the score from bottom to top—the perpendicular view; second, along the score from side to side—the horizontal view. Then as to its periods or pulsations—its to and fro, its flow and ebb. This brings us to rhythm and measure. At the bottom of these lie what is called stress or accentemission and remission—strong and weak: of these the bar in modern music is an outward and visible sign of certain facts which ought to be in the music, but which, if not in the music, the presence of the bar is of no avail. The bar cannot give stress or accent. 'Wherever there is time, there must be accent;'* but the tick of a clock has no accent. Hullah (or Chorley) should have said life." "The semitone makes music. What operation has it upon the accent or to and fro? It creates the call, it supplies the answer." [This point, I believe, Dr. Gauntlett never alluded to with me, and I have feared that making no difference between tones and semitones might be considered a difficulty with regard to the scheme. In the working of the natural laws of harmony, they must all equally be employed.—F. J. H.] "Art (grand and true) does not depend upon the teaching of facts. The head is of less importance than the heart. Unless the tone of feeling, the habit and disposition, be well fixed, nothing enduring can come out of the misdirected artist." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Fragments from the Last Note-book, page 50]

"I esteem myself fortunate in being introduced to you, and becoming acquainted with your beautiful work on 'Tones and Colours.' I have, to the best of my ability, worked out your idea, by writing down in music the various discords in use amongst musicians, and resolving them according to the laws of Harmony, and I find in all cases the perfect triad agrees with what you term the trinities in colours. The way in which you find the whole circle of Major and Minor keys by pairs in colours is deeply interesting, and must be true. The only point of divergence between your system and that recognised by all musicians is the ascending Minor Scale. No musically trained ear can tolerate the seventh note being a whole tone from the eighth. The Minor second in the lower octave descending is very beautiful, and it is strange how all composers feel a desire to use it. To mention one case out of hundreds, I may cite Rossini's well-known air, 'La Danza.'
"Yours faithfully,
"W. CHALMERS MASTERS." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Supplementary Remarks and Diagrams, page 53]

See Also


concord
harmony
law of harmony
laws
laws of music
sympathy

Created by Dale Pond. Last Modification: Friday April 9, 2021 04:53:09 MDT by Dale Pond.