Coleman defined harmolodics as "the use of the physical and the mental of one's own logic made into an expression of sound to bring about the musical sensation of
unison executed by a single person or with a group". Applied to the particulars of music, this means that "harmony, melody, speed, rhythm, time and phrases all have equal position in the results that come from the placing and spacing of ideas". (see:
aspects of music) Harmolodics seeks to free musical compositions from any
tonal center, allowing harmonic progression independent of traditional European notions of tension and release (see:
atonality). Harmolodics may loosely be defined as an expression of music in which
harmony, movement of sound, and
melody all share the same value. The general effect is that music achieves an immediately open expression, without being constrained by tonal limitations, rhythmic pre-determination, or harmonic rules. Ronald Radano suggests that Coleman's concepts of harmonic unison and harmolodics were influenced by
Pierre Boulez's theory of
aleatory while
Gunther Schuller suggested that harmolodics is based on the superimposition of the same or similar
phrases, thus creating
polytonality and
heterophony. Coleman had been preparing a book called
The Harmolodic Theory since at least the 1970s, but this remains unpublished. The only other known explanation of harmolodics that was written by Coleman is a
DownBeat article called "Prime Time for Harmolodics" (1983). Proponents include
James Blood Ulmer and
Jamaaladeen Tacuma. Ulmer, who played and toured with Coleman during the 1970s, has adopted harmolodics and applied the theories to his approach to jazz and blues guitar (for example,
Harmolodic Guitar with Strings). == Record label ==