according to the modern definition of the word, is a succession of chords, written according to the laws of fundamental progression and modulation. Harmony is a generic term when it signifies the doctrine of chords; but we also make use of the expression to indicate the effect of a combination of sounds on the ear.

The history of harmony forms an interesting branch of musical knowledge. In tracing its progress, we observe an almost uninterrupted succession of discoveries in the aggregate properties of sounds. These discoveries are referrible to the early felt and increasing desire to create novelty of effect; to the boldness of human skill and invention, to the improvement of instrumental music, and, without doubt, also to the results of chance. The history of the theory is necessarily dependent upon that of the practice of harmony; for, in proportion as composers have attempted new combinations, it becomes more difficult to trace their origin and reduce them to a general system. The innumerable modifications which chords undergo so essentially change their primitive forms, that we can scarcely wonder at the multiplicity of errors which have been committed in endeavouring to classify them.

We could almost persuade ourselves that harmony, from its being so natural to man, must have been universally understood in all ages. We learn, however, that the ancients had scarcely any idea of it; and even now the oriental nations are ignorant of harmonic relations, and our music affects them with disagreeable sensations. The knowledge which the Greeks and Romans had of harmony has been the subject of much controversy, but to little purpose. Some treatises on music, written since the time of Alexander the Great, and towards the decline of the Grecian empire, have come down to us; but in none of them do we find the word harmony employed in the sense in which we now understand it. The chant or song of an ode by Pindar, a hymn to Nemesis, and a few other fragments, without chords of any kind, are all that have been preserved as specimens of ancient Greek music. Moreover, the form of ancient instruments, and the small number of their strings, all tend to render probable the opinion of those who doubt the employment of harmony in the music of the ancients. Their opponents contend that harmony exists of the Theory and Practice of Music, in which an ap-Harmostes parent order and clearness is imparted to a system essentially defective. Marpurg attempted to introduce these doctrines into Germany without success. It is almost unnecessary to add, that they are now universally rejected by all modern theorists.

It was reserved for Kirnberger, a learned musician, to discover the theory of suspensions, and explain, in his Wahren Grundsätze zum Gebrauch der Harmonie, published in 1773, the laws of harmony, in a manner at once natural and satisfactory. Catel has reproduced this system in a clear and simple form, in his treatise on harmony, written for the conservatory of music in France. Albretzberger, Reicha, and several other eminent theorists, have propagated and elucidated the doctrines of Kirnberger with ingenuity and ability, and by their elaborate works have largely promoted the practical uses of harmony. In England the science has been as yet very imperfectly explained. One of the best works we have met with in our language is by Kollmann, whose Treatise on Harmony displays admirable systematic arrangement, although his expositions are rather dry and verbose. See Music. (z.z.)