[Bards] Accompaniment (was Query)

[Jeffrey Clark]

Of Melody and Harmony
[My apologies in advance to anyone familiar with Schenkerian theory]


One of the defining characteristics of Western music over the centuries has
been its use of harmony to accompany its melodies. Whether the harmony is
supplied by a fixed or movable drone, contrapuntal voices, or a functional
bass; the presence of such an accompaniment has been ubiquitous in Western
art music since time immemorial.

Heinrich Schenker postulated in the early 1900's that music was a journey
from instability to stability. He derived from this  theory the idea that
tonal music is composed of a fundamental line (Urline) and a harmonic
prototype (Bassbrechung), and he developed a reductive method of musical
analysis by which one can find the resulting fundamental structure of a
composition (Ursatz). The most basic form of this fundamental structure is
characterized by a ^3-^2-^1 melodic line over a ^1-^5-^1 harmonic
foundation. According to Schenker, all of tonal music was derived from this
Ursatz; leading to his motto: "Always the same, never the same way." While
pre-tonal music does not adhere to Schenker's exact model of the Ursatz, the
theoretical underpinnings behind it are are no less valid to musical forms
before 1750 (as evidenced by the research of Schenker's student, Felix
Salzer).

Working from the fundamental structure, a piece of music can be understood
to be comprised of various elaborations and prolongations of the notes of
the fundamental structure. It is also understood that the fundamental
structure works on multiple levels (both in terms of overall form and within
each musical phrase). Any piece of music bound by the rules of tonality can
be reduced to simple note-against-note counterpoint and that contrapuntal
motion can be shown to be related to one of the Ursatz models.

The underlying thought to Western music is that of a journey from
instability and tension to that of stability. A musical thought will work
towards a concerted "goal" harmony, and may only be considered to end
"conclusively" if the melody and the lowest supporting harmony both conclude
on the tonic or final of the key or mode. This idea of unison between the
melodic line and the harmony brings us to the ultimate point of rest and
closure, nothing is more stable than the unison; and any other harmonic
interval does not convey the same sense of stillness.

Emerging from this stillness, music is concerned with two types of tension:
harmonic tension resulting through the use of controlled dissonance of one
voice against another, and melodic tension resulting through the
exploitation of tendency tones, leaps, skips, and deceptive motion. With few
exceptions, a melody will always have harmonic implications; and some music
theorist will argue that any consonant leap within a melodic line
constitutes a compound melody.

When we hear a melody, and we perceive tension in the melody, we know that
the tension is there because of its relation to the final of the scale upon
which the melody is built; even if that final is not sounding. The "ear"
hears the dissonance and tension against this because our brain
subconsciously remembers the pitch of the final and is measuring the
"distance" from the note it hears against the note it remembers. Even
without actually "hearing" a harmony, our ear creates one, and that
subconscious harmony is how our ear keeps track of the shape and flow of the
melody. As such, a melody is inseparable from its harmony, and in the
absence of a sounding harmony our ear will attempt to create one even
without one being present. However, when such a harmony is not present to
guide our ear and to put the melody into its structural context we perceive
this as a "hollowness" or the sense that "something is missing" from the
overall effect.

This effect is particularly pronounced as the idea of harmony becomes more
complex and the harmonic support of a melody becomes more integral and
deliberate heading towards the 17th century. As the modal system begins to
break down with the advent of contrapuntal writing, and the rise of the
"Contenance Angloise" served to muddy the modal system, the harmonic aspects
of music became more prominent and began to be considered obligatory.

Solo, unaccompanied music is rare in Western literature; and much of the
unaccompanied literature makes use of compound melodic technique to supply
the harmonic foundation for the melody. The performance of the "melody" of a
piece of music can be considered complete unless its proper harmonic support
is also supplied. A performance of a period work that did not use the
accompaniment would not only be going against period performance practice,
but would also be going against proper musical form. The harmonic structure
of a work is every bit as integral as its melodic content.