Harmony 1

Harmony

In this session, we began to understand how l to create harmonies and to make them sound good to the ear of the listener. Harmonys are what can make an accapella vocal arrangement go from nice to breathtaking with just the addition of one or two additional notes.
The oxford definition of harmony is "the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce a pleasing effect." I agree with this as harmonies that sound pleasing make us feel involved and make us enjoy certain parts of a song more as it bay give you goosebumps or shivers up your spine however harmonies in some pieces clash sound very unpleasing but are still a creative expression of music. For example in Schoenbergs chamber symphony no.1 op.9 there is the constant use of clashing notes within the harmonies which create a menacing tone to certain moments within the piece which some people may find unpleasant to the ear yet it is till considered a great piece of music. It's complicated harmonies show great talent from the composer which is respected as it is a specific time period and genre of music. 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jhkytzoQpW4

Harmonies in pieces aren't always necessary but the majority of world famous pieces use harmony. Alan rich. (6.8.15). Harmony . 
These harmonies are normally made from the major scale of the key of the piece. The notes used to create the harmonies of the piece tend to be the chords 1, 4 and 5 as they sound the most pleasant to the ear. 

These chords are the main chords you will hear in western pop culture music as they are the most simply yet effective chord progressions to use that satisfy the ear of the listener. The varmints tend to be a created from the 3 notes of the chords however in a four party harmony, you would never okay the middle note of the chord twice or more old than once in a chord as it doesn't sound harmonious. 

There are different ways to harmonise with the chords for example you can play just  the chord it's self in a strong  and domination fashion or you can break them up like in Adele's 'someone like you'  or in a  vocal arrangement you can have each not of the chord or just the tonic note as  a basis for a counter melody which is in harmony to the origional melody..