By Jonathan David Whitcomb
Introduction
The new system of music harmony I call “4P harmony“, for it’s based upon the use of a four-note chord that I call the “perfect chord”. Its raw form is shown below, with intervals of perfect fifths:
It is more commonly found in other inversions and variations, however, rather than in the raw form above, in this case with the notes F, C, G, and D in ascending fifths. The following are other examples the P-chord with those same notes but with some notes inverted by one or more octaves:
Eleven other perfect chords could be mentioned, each with a number of variations. The above example relates to the triad of C major or C minor.
Now for the “common chord progression” (CCP) to C major, with one example:
This version of progress from a perfect chord to a triad-form is one of a number of possibilities in four-part harmony, yet it should be the most important: taking the place, in traditional Western harmony, of both the authentic cadence and the plagal cadence.
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Examples in a Choral Composition
The short choir piece is titled “Come to Christ”, version 117, in the key of Bb major. Here are the final three measures:
The second and third of those three chords are just two versions of the same chord type (perfect chord). This type of progress (from chord with “Come” to chord with “to”) I call a “same-chord progression”.
Now notice that the perfect chord resembles an unresolved dominant seventh in traditional Western music, but there’s more to it than that: It can do more than act as a substitute for both the dominant and the subdominant in a cadence (CCP) that resembles both an authentic cadence and a plagal cadence. A perfect chord can also progress to a different perfect chord. One example is this: a P-chord with notes F, D, G, and C could smoothly progress to a chord with E, D, G, and A. (The bass moves from F down to E, and the soprano, from C down to A.)
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New harmony in a short piece for choir
“Press forward: Feast on the word of Christ;
Behold you shall have eternal life.“
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Book of Mormon Music for Choir
In June of 2022, I sat down to write a simple piece for the piano . . . I had barely begun, however, when I felt impressed to make it a choir composition and soon arranged words taken from II Nephi 31:20 in the Book of Mormon.
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Choir music with text from the Book of Mormon
The following is the text for the short choir piece “Come to Christ” (YouTube), which choral piece I wrote in mid-2022
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