Difference between Harmony and Texture?

[Gargamel]

Just trying to figure this stuff out.  What's the difference between them?

ta ta... Gargamel

[quantum]

Harmony would generally refer to the relationships of multiple notes sounded at the same time. 

Texture could best be described thinking about the human sense of touch - as in smooth, silky, coarse, sharp, shrill, piercing, soft, metalic, wood, leathery, furry, etc.  Musically we would use similar descriptors to describe how particular selection of music is similar to physical touch sensations. 

Examples:
A picolo playing fff in it's highest register is considered shrill or even painful to some people.

One of my professors described an oboe as a "lazer".  Or the more common description of "nasal."

A flute may be "silky". 

Listen to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" there's a lot of texture in there. 

[Siberian Husky]

i agree with you on the harmony..

but i always though texture was like..
homophonic..monophonic..polyphonic..etc..

and what you described as texture..i reffer to the subjective describings as dynamics..

[m1469]

Great question 

I have been thinking of texture as aural density.  This includes for me things like harmonic density as well as tempo and rhythm.  I think of words like "smooth" and "silky" more as articulations.  Interesting.


m1469

[jlh]

Harmony would generally refer to the relationships of multiple notes sounded at the same time. 

Texture could best be described thinking about the human sense of touch - as in smooth, silky, coarse, sharp, shrill, piercing, soft, metalic, wood, leathery, furry, etc.  Musically we would use similar descriptors to describe how particular selection of music is similar to physical touch sensations. 

Examples:
A picolo playing fff in it's highest register is considered shrill or even painful to some people.

One of my professors described an oboe as a "lazer".  Or the more common description of "nasal."

A flute may be "silky". 

Listen to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" there's a lot of texture in there. 

It seems you're confusing texture with timbre here.

Timbre is basically tone color. The quality of a sound that distinguishes it from other sounds with the same pitch and volume -- or in other words, the acoustical properties of a specific instrument or voice which contribute to its distinctive sound. For example, a flute has a different timbre than a clarinet.

Texture is the density and complexity of the music, vertically speaking.  It is the interweaving, spacing and contrasting of vocal and instrumental parts or groups of them.  Texture is the distinguishing factor in determining whether a work is monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic or even polychoral.  For example, a string quartet has a thicker texture than a violin trio has.

Hope this helps!

[quantum]

It seems you're confusing texture with timbre here.

Timbre is basically tone color. The quality of a sound that distinguishes it from other sounds with the same pitch and volume -- or in other words, the acoustical properties of a specific instrument or voice which contribute to its distinctive sound. For example, a flute has a different timbre than a clarinet.

Texture is the density and complexity of the music, vertically speaking.  It is the interweaving, spacing and contrasting of vocal and instrumental parts or groups of them.  Texture is the distinguishing factor in determining whether a work is monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic or even polychoral.  For example, a string quartet has a thicker texture than a violin trio has.

Hope this helps!

Ahhh quite right.  Don't know what I was thinking.   

Well anyways, now you have a description of timbre as well

[Daevren]

Harmony has more to do with tonality, the flow or movement in the music, the harmonic pulse, going from one chord to the other.

Texture is the character or colour of one (big) chord, generally in an orchestra context.

You can play the same chord with alot of different note combinations. And each note can be played by different instruments.

In general in all those different combinations the harmonic function basicly stays the same while the texture can differ tremendusly. Just imagine full brass in frorte vs 2 flutes and 2 clarinets. Or a big choir and full strings vs a solo harp arpeggiating the same chords.

[ludwig]

Timbre is the tone colour, the quality of sound, although I think you can get different tone qualities within the one instrument, for example, there's a difference in timbre when one plays on the highest register on the piano than the lowest... When the trumpet is muted it has a different timbre....  There's a discussion on the colours relationship with music and notes, this could also be intepretated as tone colour, each note's quality of sound is different

Harmony I suppose could be discussed in terms of texture, however they are different things. I suppose if the music is harmonically rich (or to the point that its bi or poly tonal), it will seem texturally rich to some extent. Harmony describes how music is rich in the tonality sense, i,e when you have thirds, sixths, chord progressions, I IV V etc..., Texture describes the layers of sound in music, i.e monophonic, homo, poly, hetr, contrapuntal etc.... anyways, jlh's description is pretty accurate 

[jlh]

Timbre is the tone colour, the quality of sound, although I think you can get different tone qualities within the one instrument, for example, there's a difference in timbre when one plays on the highest register on the piano than the lowest... When the trumpet is muted it has a different timbre....  There's a discussion on the colours relationship with music and notes, this could also be intepretated as tone colour, each note's quality of sound is different

Quite right.