harmonist
(ˈhɑːmənɪst)
[f. harmonize v.: see -ist; cf. F. harmoniste (18th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. One skilled in musical harmony. a. A player, singer, or composer of ‘harmonies’ or tuneful sounds; a musician. Also fig. A poet (cf. singer).
| 1742 Young Nt. Th. iii. 81 Sweet Harmonist! and beautiful as sweet! 1791 Huddesford Salmag. 83 Ballads I have heard rehears'd By harmonists itinerant. a 1800 Cowper Lines to Dr. Darwin 3 Sweet harmonist of Flora's court! 1828 Wordsw. Power of Sound xii, The Ocean is a mighty harmonist. |
b. A composer skilled in harmony (as distinguished from melody, etc.); one versed in the theory of harmony, a writer on harmony.
| a 1790 Adam Smith Imit. Arts ii. Ess. (1795) 174 A musician may be a very skilful harmonist, and yet be defective in..melody..and expression. 1873 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. 284 Milton was a harmonist rather than a melodist. 1880 E. Gurney Power of Sound 271 Modern harmonists are unwilling to acknowledge that the minor triad is less consonant than the major. |
c. One of a school of ancient Greek musical theorists who founded the rules of music on the subjective effects of tones, not on their mathematical relations, as the canonists did.
| 1570 Dee Math. Pref. 22 The Controuersie betwene the auncient Harmonistes, and Canonistes. |
2. One who collates and harmonizes parallel narratives, or the like; one who makes a harmony, esp. of the Gospels: see harmony 6.
| 1713 Nelson Life Bp. Bull (1714) 140 He chargeth the Harmonist with confounding the Terms of Scripture. 1871 Freeman Hist. Ess. (1872) 17 The..careful translator and harmonist of the English Chronicles. 1896 W. F. Adeney How to read the Bible 108 The temptation of the harmonist is to smooth away all differences between the accounts he has set himself to bring into line. |
3. One who reduces something to harmony, agreement, or concord; a harmonizer.
| 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1865) 78 The intelligence which..controls..occurrences, is..represented..under the name..of the supreme harmonist. 1840 Lytton Pilgr. Rhine xix, The swayers and harmonists of souls. 1876 Fairbairn in Contemp. Rev. June 140 The harmonists of science and religion he rated as little better than knaves. |
b. pre-established harmonist, one who accepts the doctrine of pre-established harmony: see harmony 1. (nonce-use.)
| 1838 Blackw. Mag. XLIV. 234 The occasionalists and pre-established harmonists. |
4. (with capital H.) One of a communistic religious body in the United States, founded by Geo. Rapp of Würtemberg in 1803; they settled in Pennsylvania, and founded a town called Harmony (whence their name), and another called Economy.
| 1824 Byron Juan xv. xxxv, When Rapp the Harmonist embargo'd marriage. 1875 N. Amer. Rev. CXX. 227 The followers of Rapp at Economy (the Harmonists). |