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tive harmony in music?
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Why is musica
Why is musical harmony so pleasing to the ear?l harmony so pleasing to the ear? Why is harmon
Why is harmony important in music?y important in music? How does som
How does someone learn how to sing harmony?eone learn how to sing harmony? Is jazz a music
Is jazz a musical genre or a type of harmony?al genre or a type of harmony? What are som
What are some song with good harmony?e song with good harmony? How can I have
How can I have a better memory for harmony in a better memory for harmony in songs?
songs? What is the im
What is the importance of rhythm and harmony inportance of rhythm and harmony in music?
music? I hate the loud
I hate the loud music coming from the Harmony Cafe,music coming from the Harmony Cafe, a bar in Rhode Island, at night. What should I do a bar in Rhode Island, at night. What should I do abou
about the st the situaituation?tion?
Who are the models from Fifth Harmony's new music Who are the models from Fifth Harmony's new music video "Work From Home"?
video "Work From Home"? What defines a harmon
What defines a harmony as y as complex?complex? H
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2 Answers
Answers
F
Functionally, in present thunctionally, in present thinking, it amounts to the conversion of a progression by fifthsinking, it amounts to the conversion of a progression by fifths
(e.g. VI - II -
(e.g. VI - II - V - I) iV - I) into an equivalentnto an equivalent, negative-image progression by fourths (, negative-image progression by fourths (e.g. be.g. bIII - bVII -III bVII
-IV - I). We can get considerably more fiddly with the idea than this, though.
IV - I). We can get considerably more fiddly with the idea than this, though.
“Negative harmony” has emerged of
“Negative harmony” has emerged of late alate as a hot topis a hot topic in c in jazz theory because of itsjazz theory because of its
popula
popularization by Jacob Collrization by Jacob Collier, a phenomenally gifted and skilled young ier, a phenomenally gifted and skilled young musician frommusician from
Londo
London, who has referenced discussions with Herbie Hn, who has referenced discussions with Herbie Hancock on the subject. A very recentancock on the subject. A very recent
shop-talking
shop-talkinginterviewinterview wi with Jacob has alreath Jacob has already dy attraattracted several hundreds of cted several hundreds of thousands of thousands of
views—a big deal when we’re talking about music theory!
views—a big deal when we’re talking about music theory!
Curtis Lindsay, pianist, composer. TW '14 - '17.
Curtis Lindsay, pianist, composer. TW '14 - '17.
Answered 6d a Answered 6d agogo Related Questions Related Questions Sign In Sign In
In the key of C, the VI - II - V - I progression moves from the sharp side of the ci rcle of fifths toward the flat side:A -D -G -C, in a chain of d ominant-relation cadences.
We can also approach C from the flat side of the circle movi ng sharpward, u sing the same number of steps. In that case we would getEb-Bb-F-C, which is a chain of plagal cadences. The notion that these two processes are functionally comparable is the essence of negative harmony.
This concept is d erived, Jacob says, from the Theory of Harmony by Swiss composer Ernst Levy (1895 – 1981).
Relative to any given key center, an axis of tonality is defined such that the circle of fifths is divided by that axis into mirroring halves. In the key of C, the axis would be drawn between C and G; in A-flat, it would be drawn between A-flat and E-flat.
For every pitch on one side of the axis, there exists a corresponding “reflection” or “negative” on the other side.
Here we’ve identified the origin as the midpoint of the C-G axis, falling between the pitches E and E-flat. Sorting by absolute value, we see that the reflection of F is D ( 1 and -1), the reflection of F#/Gb is C#/Db (2 and -2), and so on.
Referring back to the circle of fifths, you ’ll note that this presentation is the same as if we drew a line from the 12 o’clock to the 6 o’clock of the ci rcle, where 12 o’clock is halfway between C and G and 6 o’clock is halfway between G-flat and D-flat.
Levy’s characterization, coming from the standpoint of common practice classical harmony, is that the traditional dominant-chain cadence by fifths is like a tree branching out above ground, while the plagalized chain of cadences by fourths which mirrors that motion—its “negative harmony”—i s like the root system, unseen beneath the surface.
It’s vaguely similar, if in silhouette only, to Harry Partch’s distinction betweenOtonality and U tonality—wherein minor tonality, which is not native to the naturalovertone series, is derived by means of inversion of the series downward toward an imaginary fundamental “ undertone.”
Earlier I said that we can get rather more involved in this p rocess of reflection if we like. Well, it i s one thing to contrast a flatward-trending series of chord roots against a sharpward-trending series of chord roots—but what if we then go on to flip all the individual pitches of each of these chords across the axis while we’re at it—thinki ng about the whole chord instead of only the root?
We already know that from A - D - G we will derive Eb - Bb- F, th e plagalization of that progression, toward the target of C.
It turns out that flipping all of the involved pitches within the chords of this dominant seven chain looks like this:
Flipping any major chord will yield a minor chord; flipping any dominant seven will yield a minor six.
So, for i nstance, you can get complementary prog ressions like these unlikely mirror-friends:
You might ask why we don’t also flip the tonic chord across the axis—doing so would yield C minor.
But the whole point i s to come up with two opposite but equivalent means of approaching the same harmonic goal, so in that framework there is no reason to flip the target chord itself. It’s nothing earth-shattering, this i dea of “negative harmony.” It isn’t the d ark matter or the
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Why is musical harmony so pleasing to the ear? Why is harmony important in music?
How does someone learn how to sing harmony?
harmonic prog ressions, and of di scovering new tools to stash in y our chest, as Jacob says.
One final thought:
When we mirror the major scale over this axis, we get the phry gian built on the d ominant degree of the source scale.
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Is jazz a musical genre or a type of harmony? What are some song with good harmony?
EDIT: Curtis Lindsay has given a far superior answer, don’t waste you’re time here, until you’ve read his.
Negative harmony would perhaps be better named symmetrical harmony.
Wouldn’t it be nice, in a given key, to have a simple method of substitution, so that given any chord I could spit out a “symmetrical” or “negative” chord, that could be played instead? This is the i dea. You can mirror anything, you just have to choose where the axis is. -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5, Negative numbers provi de a symmetry to positive numbers only because they have an axis around 0. The term ‘negative’ provides no insight into the technique outside of that. So stop thinking about it.
Here’s the recipe for producing a negative chord. For the key of C
Caleb Creed, studied at Musi c Theory
Updated 6d ago
1. Find Tonic (That’s C) 2. Find Dominant (That’s G)
3. Find the Midpoi nt of those two (That’s E) 4. The result of #3 is your axis of symmetry. (E)
5. The symmetrical counterpart 1 half step above E is 1 half step below E. 6. The symmetrical counterpart of F is D
7. The symmetrical counterpart of F# is Db 8. Take any chord in the key (Say G7)
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So negative harmonies are simply th e result of that process
NH(G7) -> Fm6
NHis the function we were looking for in the begi ning. a simp le transformation that will provide us with a harmonic alternative for any chord given.
For a little more insight consider the tenencies of motion for each of these chords. DO is stable so is i ts symmetrical counterpart SO. RE wants to move up to MI, RE’S symmetrical counterpart is FA which want’s to move down to MI. LA will go in either direction. Each member of the negative harmony wants to move to the same chord as the posi tive harmony
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