Harmony and melody

As noted above, melody and harmony were synonymous in classical Greek theory; the term harmony referred not to notes sounded simultaneously, but to the succession of notes, or the scale, out of which melody was formed. During classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages melodies were written that had an inner logic in terms of their scale, or mode, its important notes, and the melodic patterns associated with it. This is also true of many non-Western melodies. After the gradual evolution in Europe, through the polyphony of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, of the common practice, or classical, system of Western harmony, the inner logic of melodies was strongly affected by harmony. Because the ear can perceive harmonic patterns in certain groups of notes, even when sounded successively rather than simultaneously, melodies began to carry a strong implication of underlying harmonies. During this period there arose the conception that melody was the surface of harmony. Thus, for example, the partitas for unaccompanied violin by J.S. Bach, despite their melodic basis and lack of outright harmonic underpinning, clearly set forth their basic tonality and harmonic direction. This is achieved by a melodic style that includes frequent scale passages and arpeggiated chords (chord notes played successively, in melodic fashion, rather than simultaneously, as in a chord) that make clear to the listener the scales, harmonies, and keys belonging to the tonality of the composition. Through the 18th century and well into the 19th, melodies tended to be the bearers of their own harmonic implications. The above noted opening of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony represents this practice at both its height and at the beginnings of its dissolution. The opening eight notes outline an unmistakable E♭ triad, and would do so even if they were sounded unharmonized; the ensuing plunge to the unexpected C♯ likewise indicates by its mere melodic shape the harmonic unrest arising at this juncture.

Nevertheless, melody in the hands of a composer seeking a genuine expressiveness must function with some degree of independence from its harmonic underpinning. The long, expressive dissonances in the vocal lines of Romantic composers not only heighten the passion sought after in the music but also specifically represent a seeking for a heightened independence of melody from harmony.

The shift of harmonic usage in the 20th century can be viewed partly as a marked change in relationships between melody and harmony. In Schoenberg’s techniques, the generating force is the 12-tone row, which is primarily a melodic sequence out of which harmonies, as well as themes, are generated. Thus, it is possible to detect a reversal of the traditional relationship, whereby harmony has become the surface—or at least the final result—of melody.

Harmony in musical form

The chief problem of composition, in any style from ancient times to the present, is the creation of a form, or structure in which the principles of unity and contrast operate in some kind of equilibrium. The listener enters into this process by the use of his powers of recognition and of memory.

In purely melodic, modal music the form often derives from the inner logic of the melody in terms of the important notes and melodic patterns of the mode. In polyphonic music before the common practice period, musical form depended partly on the unity achieved by setting a piece in a given mode, partly on the use of musical themes, and partly on creating harmonic movement and tension toward stopping points, or cadences. During the common practice period—from Bach to Debussy—much of the creation of musical form took place through the organization of harmonies into keys and relationships between keys. Thus, the sonata forms of the 18th and early 19th centuries depended as much on the statement of a key, the movement to other key areas, and the eventual return to the same key as they did on themes and other melodic devices. The composer was likely, of course, to employ the two principles of melody and harmony simultaneously; the return to the tonic key late in the course of a movement was usually reinforced by a restatement of the initial themes. In certain works of Haydn and Mozart, the listener was often thrown off course purposely by the premature return of initial themes in an unexpected key; such devices served further to enhance the drama of the genuine recapitulation, or return to the main key.

By the 19th century, however, the power of harmony to suggest clear formal structures was greatly undermined by freer use of dissonance, which broke down the clarity with which a key was defined. Other customary procedures were also abandoned. Many of Schumann’s songs do not return to the tonic, or home key, for the final cadence. The extended length of Wagner’s music dramas, and their wide-ranging modulation, make it impossible to regard key as a unifying force. Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, the first movement of which is in D major, ends with a movement in D flat major, and since the symphony lasts nearly 90 minutes, there seemed to Mahler to be no reason to pay any closer lip service to classical practices of unity of key. Such necessities, by the time of this symphony, had vanished from the musical language.