AQA Music GCSE- AoS2- Harmony and Tonality

Harmony and Tonality

Harmony- When two notes of different pitch are sounded together.

What we will need to recognise in the Exam:

• diatonic, chromatic
• consonant, dissonant
• pedal, drone
• cadence: perfect, plagal, imperfect, interrupted, tierce de Picardie
• Major, minor and dominant seventh chords using Roman numerals or chord symbols

Diatonic and Chromatic

• Diatonic harmony uses only notes in the scale or key that the music is written in
• They will only use notes from the same scale
• Chromatic harmony uses other notes as well like flats and sharps
• These notes don't belong in the scale but are usuallyused to add emotional effect to the music

Consonant and Dissonant

• Consonant is nice and pleasant sounding
• The harmony is agreeable
• Dissonant is uncomfortable, even painful to listen to, it clashes.
• Often used to create suspence or tension

Pedal and Drone

• A pedal note is sustained or repeated whilst the harmonies change
• It can be doubled, adding the same note an octive higher or lower
• If the harmony doesn't change it is not a pedal note
• Pedal notes are normally in the bass
• If they are higher than the meoldy it is known as Inverted pedal
• A drone is played in the bass
• It can be one note, but is normally two- a fifth apart
• They may be sustained or repeated
• Usually ued to accompany melodies in folk or medieval music, or Indian.

Cadences- formed by two chords at the end of a musical phrase, like a full stop, or comma

• Perfect: Gives the music a sense of completion. Chord V to Chord I, Dominant to Tonic
• Plagal: 'Amen' cadence. Chord IV to Chord I, Subdominant to Tonic. Also gives sense of completion, but less strongly.
• Imperfect: Feels incomplete, like music should go on, like a comma. Made up of any chord though usually I, to Chord V (dominant)
• Interrupted: A 'surprise' cadence. Goes from Chord…