José Montero

Yes but unlike the usual the usual ways of counterpoint, the voices are not as individual or free (because they serve the purpose of being parallel). At least that’s what I’ve said. You should also research this things by your own. The main thing here is that you’ve found an emotional way to use the sounds! The theory comes later. So thank you for sharing 🙂

That is certainly good to know, thank you😁. I think OP meant that the use of parallel harmony was relating (originally or traditionally) unrelated keys. But since he mentioned the use of (progressions of) purely major (or minor) chords, I don’t think he intends to really establish a tonality. So chromatic planing would apply, right? Anyway, I think there is enough material on this thread for him to respond, it would be cool. Thanks.

Oh, I think I see what you mean. I hand’t heard of the term. It would be like transposing something diatonically or chromatically (Finale has this option, for example), if I understand it correctly?

I see it this way: To define “parallel harmony”, it think it would be good to analise the term a little. Roughly speaking, harmony takes place when we play notes simultaneously, usually more than two. (That doesn’t necesarily mean that there is a key — although it may suggest it). When we have more than two of this combination of notes (called chords), we perceive the moving of the notes as “voices”: moving melodic lines. On the other hand, there are three basic forms of contrapuntual motion: oblique, contrary and similar. Parallel motion is a type of similar motion (or at least that’s a way to look at it). In similar motion, the two (or more) voices move in the same direction, but not necessarily result in the same interval as they started. In parallel motion, the two (or more) voices move in the same direction AND result in the same interval as they started. For example, if you have a set of notes C, E and G —in the same octave— and you move them up a minor third by parallel motion, you will get Eb, G and Bb. So, when we talk about parallel harmony, we mean that the voices that constitute the harmony move in parallel motion. If you search Parallel Harmony in Google, you’ll find several visual examples of that. The use of parallel harmony often results in “shifting to "unrelated" keys that are identical”, but it isn’t just that, so I wanted to make sure you know this. I hope it worked. Luis Hernández mentioned Debussy and I think it will be illistrative to look at his music. The first bars of this prelude by him use parallel harmony. Notice that in this piece not every possibility of parallel harmony is used. There are many cool things you can do with it! I hope it helps 🤔😁 P.S.: Also notice that some parallel movement in a piece of music doesn’t necessarily imply that the music has parallel harmony. I was listening to Corcovado by Darius Milhaud, and it has a bit of parallel motion in the harmonization of a melody, but that doesn’t mean that he is really using parallel harmony.

Hi! Now that you mentioned that you like to jump a major 3rd with this major and minor chords, you reminded me of Prokofiev. Have you seen how he uses chords (mostly major) in a non-functional manner? “Non-functional” meaning “used in a coloristic way”, or at least thats one way to look at it. Maybe you can check out this video if you haven’t already, to see what I mean: It’s not parallel harmony, but I thought it could help.