close harmony

American

[klohs] / kloʊs /

noun

Music.

harmony in which the voices, excluding the bass, occur within an octave or, sometimes, within the interval of a tenth.

close harmony British

/ kləʊs /

noun

a type of singing in which all the parts except the bass lie close together and are confined to the compass of a tenth

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of close harmony

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

close harmony

The mix of working in close harmony, but entirely individually, chimed with McMurtry.

From BBC ● Mar. 17, 2024

They sing in close harmony through the song, and Rexha adapts her voice to share Parton’s feathery vibrato, but Parton is upfront in the bridge.

From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 2023

We all know the answer, but when it’s posed this beautifully, in such impeccable close harmony, the obviousness of the question can be forgiven.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 5, 2019

Their backing band drops into the Lou Rawls standard “Fine Brown Frame” and they start singing in airtight close harmony.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2017

As we left the Temperant tent, the quartet was singing, in close harmony: .

From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023