Playlist: Music on Harmony
This playlist takes the idea of harmony as its starting point. Each piece of music says something about harmony as a feeling, as a way of being with others and as a way of creating and organising sounds.
Francis Poulenc, Piano Sonata for Four Hands
This composer’s music blends musical styles of the past with fresh ideas. In this piece we also experience the harmony of two pianists working in concert while performing at the same instrument.
Vincenzo Lamagna, Love Duet I
This movement is from Akram Khan’s ‘Giselle,’ a reimagining of a romantic ballet that brings together classical, Indian, and contemporary dance. In the music we similarly see different musical styles incorporated through recorded and live sounds.
Penguin Café Orchestra, Harmonic Necklace
This band aspired to create a place where “… your unconscious can just be. It's acceptable there, and that's how everybody is. There is an acceptance there that has to do with living the present with no fear in ourselves.”
Moondog, Synchrony No.2
This piece explores the idea of bringing together the head and heart. It asks what happens if memories of past experiences become felt in the here and now, and how we might find harmony between the two.
Michael Gordon, Beijing Harmony
This piece was inspired by a Chinese temple where voices echo from one side of the structure to the other. This led the composer to reflect on the idea of architecture allowing the past to reverberate into the future.
Tom Johnson, Four-note Chords in Four Voices
This composer seeks ways of translating the patterns and shapes of the world around us into music. Here he lays out each combination described in the title, combining an exercise in precision with warmth and feeling.
Malcolm Arnold, Fantasy for Flute and Clarinet
This composer of this piece wanted to create something for his young children to play together, encouraging harmony in the music sense and within the bond between siblings.
Volodja Brodsky, Harmonious Bachscapes
This track, from the album ‘Whispering Ln,’ explores the relationship between simplicity and depth. The composer describes wanting to carry the listener “to a place of introspection and serenity.”
Edmund Finniss, Parallel Colour IV
This piece is one of seven short movements where the symmetrical arrangement of the musicians informs the music. Patterns of sound move across the performance space as exchanged between the instruments.
Benjamin Britten, Concord
This piece is from the opera ‘Gloriana’ and represents the character Concord. Each combination of notes requires no further combination following it or preceding it to make it satisfying to the ear.
Anna Clyne, A Wonderful Day
In this work the recorded voice of a passer-by in New York city, as captured by the composer, is set to gentle, sustained instrumental sounds that mirror and underpin the words. It captures a moment of harmony and creates another.
