HARMONY, according to the modern definition of the word, is a succession of chords, written according to the laws of fundamental progression and modulation. Harmony is a generic term when it signifies the doctrine of chords; but we also make use of the expression to indicate the effect of a combination of sounds on the ear.

The history of harmony forms an interesting branch of musical knowledge. In tracing its progress, we observe an almost uninterrupted succession of discoveries in the aggregate properties of sounds. These discoveries are referrible to the early felt and increasing desire to create novelty of effect; to the boldness of human skill and invention, to the improvement of instrumental music, and, without doubt, also to the results of chance. The history of the theory is necessarily dependent upon that of the practice of harmony; for, in proportion as composers have attempted new combinations, it becomes more difficult to trace their origin and reduce them to a general system. The innumerable modifications which chords undergo so essentially change their primitive forms, that we can scarcely wonder at the multiplicity of errors which have been committed in endeavouring to classify them.

We could almost persuade ourselves that harmony, from its being so natural to man, must have been universally understood in all ages. We learn, however, that the ancients had scarcely any idea of it; and even now the oriental nations are ignorant of harmonic relations, and our music affects them with disagreeable sensations. The knowledge which the Greeks and Romans had of harmony has been the subject of much controversy, but to little purpose. Some treatises on music, written since the time of Alexander the Great, and towards the decline of the Grecian empire, have come down to us; but in none of them do we find the word harmony employed in the sense in which we now understand it. The chant or song of an ode by Pindar, a hymn to Nemesis, and a few other fragments, without chords of any kind, are all that have been preserved as specimens of ancient Greek music. Moreover, the form of ancient instruments, and the small number of their strings, all tend to render probable the opinion of those who doubt the employment of harmony in the music of the ancients. Their opponents contend that harmony exists [7:11:151]as an elementary part of our nature, and must have been comprehended in the most primitive times; but this opinion we are strongly induced to disregard, from the fact, that to this day the Turks, Arabians, and Chinese are unacquainted with the simplest union of harmonies.

The first indications of an approach to harmony appeared among the writers of the middle ages, towards the ninth century; but it remained in a state of barbarism till about the middle of the fourteenth century, when some Italian musicians began to mould it into a somewhat agreeable form. Amongst those who distinguished themselves at this remote epoch were, Francesco Cieco, so called from his blindness, and Francesco degli Organi, so designated from his skill in organ-playing, and Jacomo da Bologna. Harmony was still further elucidated by two French musicians, Guillaume Dufay and Giles Binchois, and by John Dunstable, an Englishman, who lived about the early part of the fifteenth century. The advancement of this science must, however, for a long period have been of small extent, and still less interest; for, up to the close of the sixteenth century, we find that consonant chords, and certain discordant prolongations, or suspensions as they are now called, were all that were known and used in music. Composed of such elements, harmony was too limited in its operation to become the groundwork of any intelligible science. It appears indeed probable, that at this dark period of musical history, no systematic connection was even supposed to exist between the chords, or the tones of which they consisted. The intervals were considered only in a double relation; and the art of writing them, according to certain conditions, comprehended the whole doctrine of the schools.

Towards the year 1590, a Venetian called Monteverde introduced the fundamental discord, and immediately a new impulse was given to the art, which attracted the attention of musicians. About fifteen years after this period, Monteverde’s invention was disputed by Viadana and some Germans, who represented harmony by figures, and considered the nature of musical sounds separately. It was then that the term chord was introduced into the vocabulary of music; and harmony, or the basso continuo as it was styled, became a branch of scientific study. For nearly a century, no further advances were made, although a number of elementary works had been published during that interval, to explain the intricacies of the new science.

In 1699, Sauveur, a French geometrician, entertained such a passion for music, that it became the object of all his pursuits. The doctrine of sounds appeared to him worthy of mathematical analysis, and his researches were so successful, that he founded the science called Acoustics. Availing himself of the labours of Father Mersenne, Sauveur also found that every sound, however simple, was always accompanied with other sounds less sensible. With this experiment Rameau set out, and upon it formed the basis of his harmonic system, which he demonstrated in a series of works published in the early part of the last century. Tartini, although following a different mode of investigation, arrived at conclusions similar to those of Rameau. The latter supposes the treble to be generated by the bass; the former makes the bass result from the treble. Rameau deduces harmony from melody; Tartini, on the contrary, derives melody from harmony. To determine from which of the two schools the best performances are likely to proceed, no more is necessary than to investigate the end of the composer, and discover whether the air is made for the accompaniment, or the accompaniment for the air. Rousseau, in his Musical Dictionary, gives a decided preference to the system of Tartini; but this celebrated author was not very profoundly versed in these matters. D’Alembert gave a familiar explanation of the doctrines of Rameau, and in 1752 published his Elements of the Theory and Practice of Music, in which an apparent order and clearness is imparted to a system essentially defective. Marpurg attempted to introduce these doctrines into Germany without success. It is almost unnecessary to add, that they are now universally rejected by all modern theorists.

It was reserved for Kirnberger, a learned musician, to discover the theory of suspensions, and explain, in his Wahren Grundsatze sum gebrauch der Harmonie, published in 1773, the laws of harmony, in a manner at once natural and satisfactory. Catel has reproduced this system in a clear and simple form, in his treatise on harmony, written for the conservatory of music in France. Albretz-berger, Reicha, and several other eminent theorists, have propagated and elucidated the doctrines of Kirnberger with ingenuity and ability, and by their elaborate works have largely promoted the practical uses of harmony. In England the science has been as yet very imperfectly explained. One of the best works we have met with in our language is by Kollmann, whose Treatise on Harmony displays admirable systematic arrangement, although his ex« positions are rather dry and verbose. See Music, (z. z.)

Harmony of the Spheres, or Celestial Harmony, a sort of music much talked of by many of the ancient philosophers and fathers, and supposed to have been produced by the sweetly-tuned motions of the stars and planets. This harmony they attributed to the various proportionate impressions of the heavenly globes upon one another, acting at proper intervals. It is impossible, according to them, that such prodigiously large bodies, moving with so much rapidity, should be silent. On the contrary, the atmosphere, continually impelled by them, must yield a set of sounds proportionate to the impression it receives; and as they do not all run the same circuit, nor revolve with the same velocity, the different tones arising from the diversity of motions, directed by the hand of the Almighty, must form an admirable symphony or concert. They therefore supposed that the moon, as being the lowest of the planets, corresponded to mi, Mercury to fa, Venus to sol, the Sun to la, Mars to si, Jupiter to ut, Saturn to re, and the orb of the fixed stars, as being the highest of all, to mi, or the octave.