harmony Hear it!

harmony Definition

har·mony (här′mə nē)

noun pl. -·nies

  1. a combination of parts into a pleasing or orderly whole; congruity
  2. agreement in feeling, action, ideas, interests, etc.; peaceable or friendly relations
  3. a state of agreement or orderly arrangement according to color, size, shape, etc.
  4. an arrangement of parallel passages of different authors, esp. of the Scriptures, so as to bring out corresponding ideas, qualities, etc.
  5. agreeable sounds; music
  6. Music
    1. the simultaneous sounding of two or more tones, esp. when satisfying to the ear
    2. structure in terms of the arrangement, modulation, etc. of chords
    3. the study of this structure

Etymology: ME armony < OFr harmonie < L harmonia < Gr < harmos, a fitting < IE base *ar- > art, arm

harmony Synonyms

harmony

n.

  1. Musical concord

    chord, consonance, triad, diapason, accord, euphony, tunefulness, symphony, harmonics, counterpoint, concert, concordance, music, chorus, organum, sympathy, blending, unity, accordance, attunement, symphoniousness, chime, polyphony, unison, richness, overtone, musical pattern, musical concurrence, musical blend, concinnity.

  2. Social concord

    compatibility, equanimity, unanimity; see agreement 2, peace 2.

  3. Logical concord

    form, symmetry, accord, balance; see agreement 2, consistency 1, regularity, symmetry.

  4. Musical composition

    melody, piece, arrangement; see composition 2, music 1, tune. See syn. study at symmetry.

harmony Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • soar: Waking the Witch Their voices range from haunting, delicate beauty to an explosion of soaring harmonies.
  • sing: Most of them were new to us, and for most of them we sang harmony in various combinations.
  • restore: The inconsistency produces tension which acts to motivate the individual to restore harmony within the system.
  • shimmer: Making the musical journey from Buffalo Springfield and the shimmering harmonies of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to the present day.
  • disrupt: Secondly he had a quality of combativeness, of always being actively engaged in combat against all that negated the Truth and disrupted harmony.
  • haunt: This collection is ' spirited and rescuing ' music, where there is definitive string movement, tambourine auspices and haunting feminine harmonies.

Adjective modifier

  • vocal: With any hope of being critical, perhaps more vocal harmonies at the end... Hoodlum Angels.. .
  • four-part: Features additional effects processors for vocal and guitar processing, including a harmonizer that adds four-part harmony to singing from MIC input.
  • racial: That is essential for racial harmony in Britain today.
  • perfect: Remember, you should aim for perfect harmony between both vehicles.
  • chromatic: The theme is first stated over a somewhat ambiguous chromatic harmony in the home key of D minor.
  • marital: Marriage Advice: Eight Steps to Marital Harmony The formula for marital harmony and success is not a mysterious secret.

Modifies a noun

  • singing: Overall, the album displays more attention to harmony singing than usual.
  • vocal: Beside, Paul's harmony vocals alone make the song worth the price of admission.

Noun used with modifier

  • vowel: It does include a box on present tense verb conjugation ( taking vowel harmony into account!
  • backing: Sim also plays excellent lead electric guitar and viola and sings backing harmonies.
  • jazz: Coursework will involve aural analysis and exercises in jazz harmony that may lead to composition.

Preposition: of

  • sphere: It was believed that earthly music was no more than a faint echo of the universal ' harmony of the spheres ' .
  • universe: For it was reserved for the Law of Continuity to put the finishing touch to the harmony of the universe.

Preposition: with

  • nature: Many stories loved by the travelers teach the message of the present-day Green party: we should live in harmony with nature.
harmony Quotes

How parts relate to parts, or they to whole, The body's harmony, the beaming soul.

—Pope, Alexander

Nowadays harmony comes almost as a shock.

—Raine, KathleenJessie

Now, in this blank of things, a harmony, Home-felt, and home-created, comes to heal That grief for which the senses still supply Fresh food.

—Wordsworth,William

An agreeable harmony for the honour of God and the permissible delights of the soul.

—Bach,Johann Sebastian

Harmony! Harmony!

—Schoenberg, Arnold Franz Walter

The day becomes more solemn and serene When noon is pastöthere is a harmony In autumn, and a lustre in its sky, Which through the summer is not heard or seen, As if it could not be, as if it had not been!

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Concordia discors. Harmony in discord.

—Horace full name  Quintus Horatius Flaccus   65

   Among unequals what society Can sort, what harmony or true delight?

—Milton,John

The immortal god of harmony.

—Behn, Aphra ne¤  e  Amis

  Accordion, n. An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin.

—Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett

Nature that heard such sound Beneath the hollow round Of Cynthia's seat, the airy region thrilling, Now was almost won To think her part was done, And that her reign had here its last fulfilling; She knew such harmonyalone Could hold all heaven and earth in happier unio'  n.

—Milton,John

Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows Like harmony in music; there is a dark Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles Discordant elements, makes them cling together In one society.

—Wordsworth,William

Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. Wherethere isdespair, may we bring hope. See St Francis 334:98.

—Thatcher, Margaret HildaThatcher, Baroness

Ring out, ye crystal spheres, Once bless our human ears (If ye have power to touch our senses so), And let your silver chime Move in melodious time, And let the bass of Heaven's deep organ blow; And with your ninefold harmony Make up full consort to th'angelic symphony.

—Milton,John

If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact, or the description of one actual phenomenon, to infer all the particular results at that point. Now we know onlya few laws, and our result is vitiated, not, of course, byany confusion or irregularity in Nature, but by our ignorance of essential elements in the calculation. Our notions of law and harmony are commonly confined to those instances which we detect; but the harmony which results from a far greater number of seemingly conflicting, but reallyconcurring, laws, which Thoreau we have not detected, is still more wonderful. The particular laws are as our points of view, as, to the traveler, a mountain outline varies with every step, and it has an infinite number of profiles, though absolutely but one form. Even when cleft or bored through it is not comprehended in its entireness.

—Thoreau, Henry David

What judgement I had increases rather than diminishes; and thoughts, such as theyare, come crowding in so fast uponme, that myonlydifficulty isto choose or reject; to run them into verse or give them the other harmony of prose.

—Dryden,John

Sentimentally I am disposed to harmony. But organically I am incapable of a tune.

—Lamb, Charles

The brawling of a sparrow in the eaves, The brilliant moon and all the milky sky, And all that famous harmony of leaves, Has blotted out man's image and his cry.

—Yeats,W(illiam) B(utler)

   The Attic warbler pours her throat, Responsive to the cuckoo's note, The untaught harmony of spring.

—Gray,Thomas