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Pandiatonic Harmony

     This is a musical technique that consists of using diatonic material to dissolve the sense of functional harmony in a tonality, as opposed to using chromaticism for that effect. It is the practice of allowing chords to be formed from any combination of notes of the diatonic scale where the chord direction can be determined by the outer voices – the bass or the top voice of the chord.

     Chords are built by combining any number of tones from the scale and those can be placed according to taste or need, controlling the amount of dissonance and consonance – also see chords by seconds and tonal clusters. There is no need to only use chords that contain all the seven notes of the scale.

     For instance, in a three-part harmony, chords can be built in a way that each new chord introduces three new tones from that scale, making sure that all the scale tones are present in a short span of time:

Are you tired of the same old chord progressions? Explore new alternatives with pandiatonic harmony. Pandiatonicism is a way of dissolving tonal functions.
Are you tired of the same old chord progressions? Explore new alternatives with pandiatonic harmony. Pandiatonicism is a way of dissolving tonal functions.

or cycling through different chord combinations and quickly presenting all the scale tones

     In a way, pandiatonicism can be treated similarly as the twelvetone technique where the melodies and harmonies can be inverted, retrograded, etc.

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