Harmonic rhythm and urgency

I’m working on a new electric symphony. If you haven’t heard my first album “Expanding (An Electric Symphony)” definitely check it out.

In the first movement of this new symphony I wanted to create increased tension and increased movement and make the piece feel like it’s speeding up. The most obvious way to increase a sense of ‘urgency’ is to literally increase the tempo. That’s not what I wanted so I chose to do something else. I decreased the harmonic rhythm.

Harmonic rhythm is how quickly the chords change. A common harmonic rhythm is to have the chords change every measure. That harmonic rhythm is fairly common across a number of different genres.

Another common harmonic rhythm is changing chords every two measures. Each chord lasts two measures.

But one way to make a piece of music feel like it’s speeding up is to decrease the harmonic rhythm. Make the chords last fewer measures. If you start with chords lasting four measures each, then you can start by decreasing that time to two measures each. Each chord lasts for two measures. Then decrease it again so that each chord lasts for one measure each. Maybe decrease it one more time so that each chord lasts for half of a measure.

The tempo is staying constant, it’s not changing. But the piece of music will feel faster paced because the chords are moving faster. It’s a very useful tool to use because you don’t have to change the tempo to make a piece sound like it’s “moving faster.”

It’s something that I’m doing in the first movement of this new symphony to create some more forward momentum while keeping the tempo constant.

ISJ