close harmony

American  

[klohs] / kloʊs /

noun

Music.

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

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close harmony British  

/ kləʊs /

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of close harmony

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

close harmony

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

From BBC ● Mar. 17, 2024

Singing close harmony in what could almost be a nursery-rhyme melody, they add percussion and synthesizer bass lines over what sounds like marching feet.

From New York Times ● Jul. 15, 2022

The sisters, who began singing in church in Ohio during the 1930s, had an uncanny sense of timing and close harmony matched by a perky, ever-smiling stage manner.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 2, 2021

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

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

From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck