Harmony

Music is composed by four elements, this elements are harmony, rhythm, form and melody. I consider harmony to be the most important and my personal favorite because harmony is what gives the feeling and character to a song. The harmony gives emotions to a song, some of this emotions are sadness, happiness and/ darkness. Harmony is any combination of tones simultaneously. It is the structure of music with respect to the composition and progression of chords. It is often referred as the â€Å"vertical† side of music with melody being the â€Å"horizontal† side of music.Usually harmonization sounds pleasant to the ear as long as the consonant and the dissonant sounds are balanced. Which means that there is a balance between the â€Å"tense† and the â€Å"relaxed† moments. The word harmony comes from the Greek word harmonia that means â€Å"agreement† and from the verb harmozo that means â€Å"to Joint†. In the past the word harmony was used to r efer to the whole field of music while the word â€Å"music† was used to refer to the arts in general. There are different types of harmony.Some of these types are open position, close position, subordinate and oordinate. Even though some types of music can exist without harmony like percussive music that doesn't utilize harmony, doesn't mean that all kinds of music can exist without harmony. No, they can't. One of the genres of music that highlights the use of harmony is Jazz. Any music that utilizes instruments like piano, guitar or voices utilizes harmony. A song that I like and highlights the use of harmony is â€Å"Hotel California† by The Eagles.In this song some of the chords they use mimic the ringing f the â€Å"mission bell† on top of hotel. There is also a Spanish feeling in the song that I think could relate to the Spanish heritage of California. In the beginning of the song there is also a â€Å"shaker† sound that kind of resembles that of th e rattlesnake. When you hear this sound you can imagine a desert. All of this and other sounds in the song creates a mood. Also during the chorus you can hear a few other voices in the background that resembles there sound of voices echoing through the hallways of the hotel.