ABSTRACT
In a series of lectures he delivered to a small group of dilettantes at a private Vienna residence in 1932-33, Anton Webern expressed the view that harmony is derived primarily from the harmonic series.1 This line of reasoning gave him the foundation he needed on which to build a theory of contemporary harmony:
we must understand that consonance and dissonance are not essentially different-that there is no essential difference between them, only one of degree. Dissonance is only another step up the scale [harmonic series], which goes on developing further.2
