Ever since Jacob Collier’s interview by June Lee, musicians have been pretty obsessed
with the concept negative harmony.
But it can be hard to understand exactly what it is, so here is negative harmony, explained
visually.
When we play two or more notes, we create harmony.
Different relationships between notes result in different emotions being created by different
harmonies. In western music, major thirds are happy and minor thirds are sad.
Ernst Levy proposed that all chords have opposites in harmony and emotion. This can be described
as harmonic polarity.
We find the negative equivalent of a note or chord by reflecting it about the harmonic
axis in the circle of fifths. The harmonic axis is found exactly halfway between the
tonic and dominant in a key centre.
In the key of C, the harmonic axis lies between E flat and E, so a G would become a C, and
a B flat would become an A, for example.
Using this method, we can find out the negative equivalent of whole chords. For instance,
dominant seventh chord’s negative counterpart is a four minor sixth.
Here’s a quick cheat sheet for the negative equivalent of common chords.
If you just wanted to know how to work out a chord or progression’s negative harmony
equivalent, you can stop here, but if you want to understand how it works then keep
listening.
Harmony, at its simplest, refers to tension and release.
We go on a harmonic journey,
and we arrive home. We can arrive home from two different directions – from the brighter
side of the circle of fifths,
and the darker side of the circle of fifths. I’ll let Jacob Collier describe his interpretation of this.
By flipping a chord progression over the harmonic axis, we change the direction from which we
approach the key centre. A two five one is a staple of jazz music. It approaches the
tonic from the brighter side of the circle of fifths. If we turn the major second and
the dominant seventh chords into their negative equivalents, we approach the tonic from the
darker side of the circle of fifths. One of the key aspects of negative harmony
is that tension is preserved. A dominant seventh wants to resolve to the tonic, and so does
it’s negative equivalent, a four minor sixth, with equal strength, but the emotions created
by these two chords are opposites. A five one cadence is triumphant,
whereas a four minor sixth is timid yet clearly wants to resolve to the tonic.
Negative harmony is not an action. You can rarely flip every chord to its negative counterpart
to create a contrasting emotional effect. Rather, negative harmony is a theory of harmonic
direction, which can help us to consider how we can approach a key centre in a more unfamiliar
but equally powerful way.
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