Page:Letters to a Young Lady (Czerny).djvu/63

 is with great pleasure that I now fulfil the desire which you expressed that I would give you some preliminary notion of Harmony or Thorough-bass, to facilitate the study of it, when you, by and by, commence with your worthy teacher this very necessary and interesting science on a more extended scale.

First of all, I will endeavour, by the following explanations, to give you as clear an idea as possible of what thorough-bass or harmony is, and to what purpose it serves.

Music consists of melody and harmony. When, for example, a female sings quite alone, without any accompaniment, her song is pure, simple melody. When another female singer, with a somewhat deeper voice, accompanies the first with a different, but still agreeably sounding melody, this will form music in two parts, which may also be called two-part harmony.