Abstract:
The harmonic procedures of contemporary jazz directly follow the traditional harmonic relationships of European classical music. Musical practice brought such harmonic models in jazz music, which were naturally tied to compositional and improvisational needs, but also to the style-making process itself. Therefore, their incorporation into the musical language, which was also undergoing its own development, came gradually, as if lagging behind the achievements of the harmony of classical music of the 20th century. However, contemporary jazz music in practice uses most of the viable harmonic elements of classical music as a natural part of its means of expression. They are organized into logical structures, forming part of the jazz language, which has its own specifics and is part of the living organism of contemporary jazz music. When examining harmonic relationships in jazz music, we use not only the possibilities of jazz terminology, but also important works of Slovak musicology – Jozef Kresánek’s Tonality, Miroslav Filip’s Developmental Laws of Classical Harmony, as well as Juraj Beneš’s study On Harmony.