Definition of functional harmony
: a theory of tonal music that regards all harmonies as functioning as essentially tonic, dominant, or subdominant harmony
- In Riemann's interpretation Berlioz sought to destroy the fundamental unit of functional harmony, the cadence, by substituting ‘false’ functions.
- —Alexander Rehding, Hugo Riemann and the Birth of Modern Musical Thought, 2003
- Modal harmony can operate as a signifier of the historical period before the development of tonal functional harmony in the seventeenth century.
- —Annette Davison, Hollywood Theory, Non-Hollywood Practice, 2004
