Editing Close and open harmony (section)

{{Short description|Types of note arrangements within chords}}
{{hatnote group|{{redirects|Barbershop harmony||Barbershop arranging}}{{redirects|Open harmony|the software|OpenHarmony}}{{other uses|Close harmony (disambiguation)}}}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Image frame|content=<score sound="1">
\relative c' { \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f <c e g>1 <c g' e' g> }
</score>|width=300|caption=C major triad in close and open harmony}}
A [[Chord (music)|chord]] is in '''close harmony''' (also called '''close position''' or '''close structure'''<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Tonal Harmony|url=https://archive.org/details/workbookfortonal00kost_245|url-access=limited|last1=Kostka|first1=Stefan|author1-link=Stefan Kostka|last2=Payne|first2=Dorothy|date=2004|publisher=McGraw-Hill|isbn=0072852607|edition=5th|location=Boston|page=[https://archive.org/details/workbookfortonal00kost_245/page/n70 74]|oclc=51613969}}</ref>) if its notes are [[Voicing (music)|arranged]] within a narrow [[range (music)|range]], usually with no more than an [[octave]] between the top and bottom notes. In contrast, a chord is in '''open harmony''' (also called '''open position''' or '''open structure'''<ref name=":0" />) if there is more than an octave between the top and bottom notes. The more general term ''spacing'' describes how far apart the notes in a chord are voiced. A triad in close harmony has compact spacing, while one in open harmony has wider spacing.

Close harmony or voicing can refer to both instrumental and vocal arrangements. It can follow the standard [[Voice leading|voice-leading]] rules of classical harmony, as in [[string quartet]]s or [[Bach chorales]], or proceed in [[contrapuntal motion|parallel motion]] with the melody in [[Third (chord)|thirds]] or [[Sixth chord|sixths]].