Music, Tolkien and me
On Harmony and Disharmony

After finishing my text on magic in Myst (see the Crystal Cave), I started reading The Silmarillion by Tolkien, for writing something about magic in Middle Earth.

I liked the start a lot: the world starts with music and singing. Ilúvatar, the One, created the Ainur (kind of like angels). They sang together, music harmonious and beautiful, after the original idea of Ilúvatar. Until Melkor, who was the wisest of all of the Ainur, started to make melodies of his own, he was not in harmony with the others any more but followed his own ideas and tried to overwhelm others. Some were confused and followed him, some stayed with the original music from Ilúvatar. They are obviously the good guys. In the end Ilúvatar himself comes in and tries very hard to regain controll and restore harmony. To show Melkor what he has done being so disharmonic, he visualises the music, and that turns out to be Middle Earth.
A nice idea, that the world is actually a song, sung by a choir of angels. Tolkien is not the first to think of the universe as music, Pythagoras already was trying to explain the universe with his seven tones (and lots of math), vibrations and the relation between them.
What I found interesting in Tolkiens book, is how he describes disharmony and originality (or even individuality and creativity) as something negative. It is clearly explained that the Ainur should not sing anything that was not thought of or created by Ilúvatar. That is perhaps very right to say to the Ainur, but when I look at myself and what I like in music, I disagree strongly.

What is harmony?

There are several meanings to the word harmony.
-in life harmony means that one is living 'in harmony', or in agreement with his surroundings. There is no tension or conflict because harmonious living tends to be attuned to what is there.
-in music it is a bit more complicated to explain what harmony means. If you don't like music theory, skip this paragraph.
In modern music theory it is explained why some intervals sound harmonic and others don't. It all comes back to Pythagoras and his mathemathics. The vibrations of one note can be slow or quick (the higher the quicker) and the speed of the vibrations can be measured. When you try to visualise this, you see lines curving up and down. The proportion between the amount of curves can for example be 1:2. The interval that has these numbers is the octave. Funny enough, you can see this as well on stringed intruments. For example, when you play an e you play the lowest string on a guitar, loose. But when you want to play an e one octave higher, you make the string half as short by putting your finger on the 12th fret.
Intervals that are consonant or harmonic are octave, fifth, third, sometimes fourth. They are harmonic because the proportion between the vibrations of the notes is simple. 1:2 or 2:3 for example. This causes the tones to blend a little (more than dissonant tones). They are easy to listen to and cause a feel of peace and relaxation. Dissonant intervals are second, sixth, seventh. They cause tension and a feel that something is going to happen. When music ends dissonant, it feels open and unfinished. Jazz music does this a lot.
Now we know what harmony is..
Harmonic also means that there is hamonies involved in the music. These harmonies are mostly chords. But usually harmonic often means consonant. Which is where harmony in life and harmony in music come together: harmony means fitting in, being different but an attuned part of the greater whole as well.

Nice as that is though, I do not always appreciate music that is only harmonious and consonant. Usually music starts of as a fairytale: everything is happy and bright or perhaps sad but still clear and easy to understand and listen to. In the first few bars of a song we get the direct atmosphere of the song, we hear where we are and what kind of 'story' this is going to be. There are a few changes of chords, usually along the basis schedules so we get reassured: yes, we are here.
Than the story can begin. I would like to note that this goes for many songs and music, but of course not for all by far. Some kinds of music start disharmonic and never get to the part where everything is clear and easy to listen to. But well, the story begins. In fairytales this is the moment where the wicked stepmother starts making up evil plans, or where the dragon starts getting hungry. Or perhaps the little seed underground starts to stir and grow. In music it is where the first sounds come in that don't fit in totally with what has been before. You can hear that something is going to happen, something that wasn't there before. Or perhaps it was, when disharmony in a refrain leads back to another couplet. But there is a feel of change. This disharmony could last for a few bars or only for a few notes, in most music it isn't very long. But it is the way to get from one place to another. It brings in tension and makes the music interesting. Disharmony usually leads back to harmony, sometimes the same harmony as before, sometimes something completely different. But nearly all music has a clear harmonic end, though not always as bright as fairytales.

My point here is that disharmony brings change and that change is not necessarily something negative. I rather think a lot of changes are positive, both in life and in music. For example when winter passes to spring, or when we fall in love. People need changes to grow and learn. A song gets quite boring after a while when there's only the basic chords and notes and chord-progressions. It's the disharmony that makes everything interesting. In playing music, harmonies can give a good background and support, but they can be limiting and confining as well. To play a note that isn't in the chord played by other musicians sometimes keeps the movement in the music going forward instead of standing still. And consonance has a limited ability to express, because it lacks the tension a seventh chord for example has. To break free from harmony and to play your own ideas can be a relief and bring out your own feelings into music, and even stimulate your fellow musicians to playing new things when improvising.

I think in life both harmony and disharmony are needed, tension and relaxation, stillnes and movement, beauty and ugliness. We move from one extreme to the other and in the movement we learn and find ourselves. Sometimes disharmony is something happening to us, sometimes we cause it ourselves to express what we feel and who we are. This expression is vital, feelings and tensions (our inner disharmonies) never vanish but tend to build up untill they become unbearable. And stopping to try to fit in with everything else can help us and others to find new outlooks on life and new ways to deal with things. This can bring growth and pleasure.

And in the end of the fairytale, we can notice the princess being happily married or the dragon has been slain. Evil has been overcome, but more than that, the main characters and their circumstances have changed and all for the best. How would prince Charming ever have found Sleeping Beauty if he would have never heard of this beautiful girl in sleeping for a hundred years? If she hadn't been sleeping for that long she wouldn't even have been around when he was born, and wouldn't that be a pity?

Getting back to the point where I started: Tolkiens Silmarillion, I notice that I identify myself the most with the person who I feel is going to cause a lot of trouble. But perhaps it is nice to wonder if Ilúvatar would have created Middle Earth at all, if not to show Melkor what he had done. And when you read the rest of Tolkiens work (or watch the movies) you notice a lot of beautiful things arise between, or perhaps even out of all the ugliness around. And besides that, who would like to read a book in which everyone lives happily ever before, during and after for several hundreds of pages?

Tarhian