Modern Harmony from the Standpoint of the Teacher

Extract

It is probably true to say that there has been no more difficult period for the teacher of harmony than that in which we are now living. Not only are problems much more complex and much wider in their sphere than ever before,—problems of resource, medium, technique, form, and aim—but, living as we are in the throes of the second great harmonic upheaval that the evolution of resource has produced, we are confronted with the additional problem of what is practically a new language. The great English school with which we associate the names of Parry and Stanford was not remarkable for anything new in the idiom, but rather for the quality of what was said. But compare any score of these men with any page in Vaughan Williams's “London Symphony,” and you will see that the composer of to-day uses a new language, not because the old one is inherently bad or has necessarily worn itself out, but because the new language is the vogue of the time and the reflex of the progress of thought in other spheres. Greek music reflected the individual nature of Greek religion Greek religion, early Western music reflected the congregational principle of Christianity.