Harmony

Everybody speaks of "Harmony": A harmonic marriage, harmonic furniture, harmony in the team (e.g. football) is great, the movement of your hands were not quite harmonic, the courses in that menu were un-harmonic (that's the worst one!) etc.
Once more people speak about something the haven't got a clue. The definition of harmony: a simultaneous sound of two or more notes. That's it. That sound can be consonant or dissonant. Consonance and dissonance are primarily a matter of listening habits and therefore a matter of taste. As you might know, I have a degree in music and for me too much consonance is simply boring. But music generally cannot be without dissonance, it's IMPOSSIBLE. Some styles have more some less. But what makes the music interesting is the change between tension (dissonance) and release (consonance). But that's all HARMONIC. Okay? Generally the difference between a consonant sound and a dissonant sound can be explained by physics (acousics). It has to do with the wavelength ratio.
So back to this "harmonic marriage" crap: A marriage is always (always!) harmonic! As a harmony is the simultaneous sound of two or more notes. A marriage can be dissonant (the couple argueing) or consonant (the couple... well... you imagine). Could it be that the key to a good marriage is to accept that the interaction of tension and release eventually makes it interesting?

Now another one is: "the harmony in the team is great". A harmony cannot be great. A harmony is. It's the simultaneous sound of two or more notes. Therefore the harmony in a team can simply be consonant or dissonant. Even worse ist this "harmonic movement"-crap. A movement can never (NEVER!) be harmonic. As it has nothing to do with the simultaneous sound of two or more notes. And the worst one: A menu cannot be un-harmonic. Unless you just serve one item wihout anything, not even herbs or salt. "Un-harmony" or "Disharmony" do not exist. As soon as we are talking about two menu items, they will always be harmonic. They can be heavily dissonant such as a hamburger with whipped cream, chocolate sauce and roasted garlic.

Got it?