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tertiary harmony

Tertiary Harmony in Music

Tertiary harmony refers to a type of harmony in music that is based on the stacking of thirds to create chords. In this system, chords are constructed by taking a root note and adding a third and a fifth above it, and then continuing to add thirds to create extended chords. This is in contrast to quartal harmony, which is based on the stacking of fourths to create chords.

Tertiary harmony is more commonly used than quartal harmony for several reasons. One reason is that it is deeply ingrained in Western music traditions and has been widely taught and studied for centuries. Additionally, tertiary harmony is often considered more consonant and harmonically stable compared to quartal harmony, which can sound more dissonant and ambiguous.

The use of tertiary harmony allows composers and musicians to create rich and complex harmonic progressions, as well as to establish tonal centers and functional relationships between chords. It provides a framework for creating melodies and harmonies that are familiar and pleasing to the ear.

**Sources:**-(https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/comments/1rnl3h/why_is_tertiary_harmony_more_commonly_used_than/) (Reddit)-(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertian) (Wikipedia)-(https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/101380/what-are-historical-and-structural-reasons-for-the-prevalence-of-tertiary-harmon) (Music Stack Exchange)

Popular questions related to tertiary harmony

Harmony parts are made by stringing together triads built on different scale degrees. Triadic Harmony: The three most common triads used to harmonize a melody are the tonic, subdominant, and dominant triads: I, IV, and V. In a major key, all three of these will be major triads.

Thirds: The most common type of harmonization is a third above or a third below the melody note. For instance, if the melody of your favorite song calls for the note A over an F major chord, this means the melody is using the third scale degree.

Basic guitar and piano chords like C Major, G Major, D7, A minor, and others are all chords that can be grouped into the tertian chord classification. Tertian refers to the number 3 or a musical interval of a 3rd. An example of a 3rd would be playing A and C notes together.

Most chords used in western music are based on “tertian” harmony, or chords built with the interval of thirds. In the chord C Major7, C-E is a major third; E-G is a minor third; and G to B is a major third. Other types of harmony consist of quartal harmony and quintal harmony.

In a Triadic color harmony we use any three colors located at equal distance from each other on the color wheel. For example yellow, blue and red. This harmony has a tendency to be quite vibrant, even if the hues are unsaturated. To be effective, the colors used in this harmony need to be well balanced.

Here are perfect examples of triadic color combinations:

  • Red, Yellow, and Blue.
  • Purple, Green, and Orange.
  • Blue-Violet, Red-Orange, and Yellow-Green.
  • Red-Violet, Yellow-Orange, and Blue-Green.

3 Different Types of Harmony in Music

  • Diatonic harmony. This is music where the notes and chords all trace back to a master scale.
  • Non-diatonic harmony. Non-diatonic harmony introduces notes that aren't all part of the same master scale.
  • Atonal harmony.

Four-part harmony is a traditional system of organising chords for 4 voices: soprano, alto, tenor and bass (known together as SATB). The term 'voice' or 'part' refers to any musical line whether it is a melody sung by singers, a long note played on an instrument or anything in between.

In music theory, a tetrachord (Greek: τετράχορδoν; Latin: tetrachordum) is a series of four notes separated by three intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion (approx.

Harmonies with three or more notes are called chords and they provide the harmonic structure or background mood of a piece of music. Intervals are the building blocks of chords.

Harmonization Using Thirds. The traditional practice for harmonization in third intervals is that you harmonize a given note using another note that is a third below it. However in the case of the first tone of the scale we'll be going down a fourth instead.

The combination of primary and secondary colors is known as tertiary or intermediate colors, due to their compound nature. Blue-green, blue-violet, red-orange, red-violet, yellow-orange, and yellow-green are color combinations you can make from color mixing.

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