Unison |

ital. unisono, from lat. unus – one and sonus – sound; French unisson; English unison

1) Simultaneous sounding of two or more sounds of the same pitch.

2) Performance of a melody on instruments or voices in prima (unison in prima; for example, unison of violinists, cellists or choristers), as well as in one or several. octave (unison to octave); often found in chamber, orchestral, choral and opera productions. Unison, depending on the context, serves as a means of recreating decomp. images – from celebrations. archaic (for example, the chorus “Mysterious Lel” in Glinka’s “Ruslan and Lyudmila”) to tragedy (for example, the 2nd part of Shostakovich’s 11th symphony).

3) Music performance. prod. simultaneously (synchronously) on two fp. or other tools.

4) Doubling the solo part with the accompanying accompaniment voice.

The accepted identification of unison and pure prima is associated with the introduction to the beginning. 18th century even temperament system (see Temperament). Thanks to the division of a pure octave into 12 equal semitones of muses. the system acquired a closed character, as a result of which each sound of the octave received several. enharmonic equal values. This led to the appearance of an interval of increased prima, enharmonically equal to a small second, and therefore melodic. (when repeating a sound) and harmonic. the sound of the unison of any degree of the scale began to be called pure prima. In 2-goal. in strict counterpoint, the unison (prima) is usually the initial or final. interval.

V. A. Vakhromeev