anharmonie

Anharmonie is a term used in music theory, primarily in German-language sources, to denote disharmony or dissonance—the sound combinations that are unstable within a given tonal framework. In contrast to harmonic consonance, anharmonie describes intervals, chords, or textures that create tension and typically seek resolution to a consonant sonority.

In tonal practice, dissonances are often prepared or approached and resolved according to the rules of counterpoint. Common dissonances include minor seconds and major sevenths, diminished and augmented intervals, and the tritone. Earlier medieval and Renaissance theory treated dissonance with stricter rules; by the common-practice period, dissonances were allowed in specific contexts and resolved stepwise to consonances.

With the expansion of Western music in the 19th and 20th centuries, anharmonie also became associated with broader nonfunctional or nontraditional sonorities, including advanced chromaticism, atonality, and polytonality, where functional harmony is minimized or abandoned. In these contexts, the term can describe a deliberate departure from established harmonic norms rather than a temporary tension within a tonal center.

Today, anharmonie is used in German-language scholarship to discuss dissonance as a structural element of music and in debates about harmony and color. In English-language discourse, the terms dissonance or disharmony are more common, but anharmonie remains a standard descriptor within discussions of nonconsonant sonorities, how they function, and how they influence musical meaning.