CH 6- Melody and Counterpoint

Characteristics of melody

  • melody is a succession of pitches that create a distinct sense of organization and logical whole

    • most notable aspect of music; characteristics can be studied, analyzed, and adapted to create new melodies

    • Built around some recognizable shape, feature, or contour

  • Texture is the interaction of melodic lines with other melodies and harmony; 3 primary types

    • Monophonic: Stands alone without accompaniment

    • Homophonic:

      • Several harmonies often with same rhythm (ex. hymn)

      • Soprano line is the primary focus

      • Only one line at a time will play main melody

    • Polyphonic: Several lines of melody at the same time, moving independently from one another

  • Voices are the individual lines of notes within a score

  • Range is the span of pitches lowest to highest that limit what each voice can play/ sing (soprano, alto, tenor, bass)

  • Tessitura is the range where the majority of the pitches are written

  • Conjunct and Disjunct refer to the prevelance of steps (intervals of seconds), or leaps (intervals of third or greater) within a melody

    • Stepwise = conjunct

    • Leaps= Disjunct

  • The first characteristic of good melody writing includes the directional tendencies of specific scale degrees

  • Voice leading is the study of how melody moves within its horizontal line of notes

  • The second, fourth, sixth, and seventh scale degrees have tendencies to move in certain directions

    • Considered to be restless and demand resolution

Typical notes of Resolution of Active Scale Degrees

Primary Resolution

Secondary Resolution

Supertonic (re)

do

mi

Subdominant (fa)

Mi

sol

Submediant (la)

sol

ti

Leading tone

do

  • Secondary resolutions are often used when a melody moves stepwise in a specific direction

    • Ex. If fourth degree is next to last note of melody, it will typically move downward by step to its primary note of resolution

    • Ex. If fourth degree is part of a rising pattern of melodic notes, its movement upward to secondary note of resolution (fifth degree) will sound very logcial

  • Remaining scale degrees are used to imply a sense of completion in a melody

    • First, third, and second scale degrees

  • A leap in one direction is often countered by a step or leap in the opposite direction

  • Two leaps in the same direction are usually part of the same triad

  • In general, a leap followed by a step is preferable to a step followed by a leap

  • melodic minor scales are more common in passages including minor scales- No augmented second

    • Augmented second not used in melodic writing

    • Tritone is handled with care

  • Diminished fifths occur in major/minor scales between fourth degree and leading tone

  • Downward leap from fa to ti → leading tone resolves stepwise in opposite direction to do

  • Voice leading is useful with augmented fourth, fa to ti as leap cannot be resolved in stepwise movement in opposite direction

  • Rhythm plays a large role in the perception of a melody

  • The same melodic contour can sound quite different if placed in two different meters and given different values

  • Melodies often use repition of elements, including pitch and rhythm, to create coherence and memorability

  • Melodic sequence is the repitition of a melody with a small degree of variation such as higher or lower pitch level

    • Found in classical styles ex. polyphony/ Bach

    • Combine sense of familiarity, from having heard same contour, with sense of building tension as. the pattern raises in pitch

  • A phrase is a musical sentence with a beginning, middle, and end

    • Often held together by a slur

    • Not every note of phrase must be related to the parts of the phrase that are sequenced

  • A candence is the sequence of chords/ notes that bring phrase/section/ entire piece to an end

  • A period is two phraases that follow each other and have similar elements

    • Second phrase usually has stronger sense of competition

Counterpoint

  • Simultaneous melodic lines playing as equal importance

  • Punctus Contra Punctum “Point Against Point”

  • “Contrapuntal” technique

  • Melodic lines interact through five distinct ways: Parallel, Similar, oblique, contrary, and stationary motion

Parallel

  • Melodies moving Parallel move in the same direction, by the same interval

  • parallel are perfect 5ths, octaves and primes

Similar

  • Similar melodies move in the same direction, but by different intervals

Oblique

  • Once voice remains stationary, while the other voice moves

Contary

  • Two voices that move in the opposite direction of each other

  • One of the most preferable ways to handle voice leading between two voices

    • Preserves individuality of vocal lines and avoids parallelism

Stationary

  • Lack of any motion between the notes

  • Four-voice harmony

  • NOT PARALLEL

Contrapuntal Composition

  • Consonant Intervals: M3/m3, M6/m6, P5, and octaves

  • Dissonant intervals: M2/m2, M7/m7, perfect fourth, tritone (Aug 4/ Dim5)

  • Minor second and major seventh rarely used in counterpoint

  • Cactus Firmus “Fixed voice”- Once voice usually given to you as you begin a first-species counterpoint exercise

    • Typically written as lowest note

    • Usually a gregorian chant melody

    • A second line is composed as companion following rules of motion and voice leading

      • Should have its own contour and independence

  • Open score printing separates voices to see each line as separate melodic line

  • tendency to begin/end with perfect octave or unison or perfect fifth (rare)

  • Voices should not cross

    • Lower voice should maintain positive relative to the upper voice and not cross to a note higher than upper voice