What is harmony in music?

What is beautiful harmony? For that matter, what is ugly harmony? To what degree are these subjective questions, and what role does nature (in both the physical and mathematical realms) play in such distinctions? My presentation will examine these questions from the perspective of two music theorists: Gioseffo Zarlino (1517-1590) and Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764).

David Macdonald holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Manhattan School of Music, an MFA degree from SUNY Purchase and a BA from St. John’s College. His composition teachers have included Nils Vigeland, David Noon, Charles Jones and Joseph Webber. He is a co-director of the Locrian Chamber Players contemporary music ensemble. He has been a fellow at June In Buffalo, the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Kimmel, Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and has participated in master classes with Lukas Foss, George Crumb, Roger Reynolds and others. Commissioners of his music include: The Elements Quartet; The Queen’s Chamber Band; the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet; RiverArts and Tactus. His works have been performed by: The Chappaqua Orchestra; Collegium Westchester; on The Hartford Commissions Concert (in Merkin Hall); Genealogies (in Rock Hall, Philadelphia); The OWU NOW festival (Ohio) and on recitals in the U.S. and abroad. He regularly contributes music to productions of The Actors’ Company Theater in New York, including their critically acclaimed off-Broadway revival of “Home” by David Storey in 2006. In 2016 he was awarded a grant by the National Endowment for the Arts to write the music for Braiding, an evening-length multimedia work that was premiered in 2018. His sacred choral music is published by Kjos Music. Since 2001 he has taught at The Manhattan School of Music in the Theory and Composition Departments and is the Director of Music at Pleasantville Presbyterian Church in Pleasantville, NY.