When a composition uses only one or a few harmonic components throughout the entirety of a piece, a space is opened up to address alternative roles harmony may play in composed music. Harmonic activity can be designed not just to provide the architecture of a piece, but to also act as an agent of atmosphere in which temporal and timbral perception are brought to the fore. I explore this idea through an analytical lens of Streichquartett II by Swiss composer Jürg Frey and my own work, half-diminished returns.