1. A musical system and compositional approach developed by Ornette Coleman that emphasizes harmonic freedom, collective improvisation, and the absence of a fixed harmonic center or chord progression.
Usage: music theory; jazz; often used in plural or as a mass noun; named after its creator Ornette Coleman

Examples

• Ornette Coleman's harmolodics revolutionized jazz by allowing musicians to improvise without adhering to traditional chord changes.
• The principles of harmolodics emphasize that all instruments can play lead roles simultaneously.
• Many avant-garde jazz musicians have been influenced by harmolodics and its approach to collective improvisation.
• Harmolodics challenges the conventional hierarchy of melody, harmony, and rhythm in Western music.
• Understanding harmolodics requires listeners to abandon expectations of traditional harmonic resolution.