hangközösség

Hangközösség is a term in Hungarian music theory used to describe the network of interval relationships that give structure to a musical texture. It refers to how the various pitches in a melody and harmony relate to one another through intervals, and how these relations contribute to perceptual aspects such as consonance, dissonance, and tonal function. The word combines hang (sound) and közösség (community), highlighting that intervals form a connected set of sonorities within a piece.

In scholarly usage, hangközösség is employed to discuss both vertical relationships between simultaneous pitches (harmony) and horizontal relationships between successive pitches (melody). It complements more common terms such as hangköz (interval) and harmónia (harmony). The concept is used across tonal, modal, and folk repertoires, often with attention to octave equivalence and voice leading.

Analysts identify the hangközösség of a passage by listing the characteristic intervals between scale degrees, chord tones, or target pitches, noting interval quality (perfect, major, minor, augmented, diminished) and functional roles (tonic, dominant, subdominant). It serves as a descriptive tool for examining how interval structures contribute to cohesion, motion, and color in a musical work.

Example: in a passage in C major, the diatonic intervals between consecutive chord tones—such as the major third C–E, the minor third E–G, and the perfect fifth C–G—contribute to the passage’s hangközösség by shaping its consonance and harmonic direction.

See also: hangköz, harmónia, tonalitás. The term is mainly used in Hungarian-language scholarship; English-language translations vary with context.