Melody - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2/7/15 7:54 AM

Melody
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A melody (from Greek , melida,

"singing, chanting"),[1] also tune, voice, or
line, is a linear succession of musical tones
that the listener perceives as a single entity. In
its most literal sense, a melody is a
combination of pitch and rhythm, while more
figuratively, the term can include successions
of other musical elements such as tonal color.
It may be considered the foreground to the
background accompaniment. A line or part
need not be a foreground melody.
Melodies often consist of one or more musical
phrases or motifs, and are usually repeated
throughout a composition in various forms.
Melodies may also be described by their
melodic motion or the pitches or the intervals
between pitches (predominantly conjunct or
disjunct or with further restrictions), pitch
range, tension and release, continuity and
coherence, cadence, and shape.

A bar from J. S. Bach's

Fugue No. 17 in A-flat,
BWV 862, from The WellTempered Clavier (Part I),
an example of
counterpoint. Play The
two voices (melodies) on
each staff can be
distinguished by the
direction of the beams.
Voice 4 , Voice 3 ,
Voice 2 , Voice 1

The true goal of musicits proper enterpriseis melody. All the

parts of harmony have as their ultimate purpose only beautiful
melody. Therefore, the question of which is the more significant,
melody or harmony, is futile. Beyond doubt, the means is
subordinate to the end.
Johann Philipp Kirnberger (1771)[2]
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Contents
1 Elements
2 Examples
3 See also
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

Elements
Given the many and varied elements and styles of melody "many extant
explanations [of melody] confine us to specific stylistic models, and they
are too exclusive."[3] Paul Narveson claimed in 1984 that more than threequarters of melodic topics had not been explored thoroughly.[4]
The melodies existing in most European music written before the 20th
century, and popular music throughout the 20th century, featured "fixed
and easily discernible frequency patterns", recurring "events, often
periodic, at all structural levels" and "recurrence of durations and patterns
of durations".[3]
Melodies in the 20th century "utilized a greater variety of pitch resources
than ha[d] been the custom in any other historical period of Western
music." While the diatonic scale was still used, the chromatic scale
became "widely employed."[3] Composers also allotted a structural role to
"the qualitative dimensions" that previously had been "almost exclusively
reserved for pitch and rhythm". Kliewer states, "The essential elements of
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reserved for pitch and rhythm". Kliewer states, "The essential elements of
any melody are duration, pitch, and quality (timbre), texture, and
loudness. [3] Though the same melody may be recognizable when played
with a wide variety of timbres and dynamics, the latter may still be an
"element of linear ordering" [3]

Examples
Different
musical
styles use
melody in
different
ways. For
example:
Jazz

"Pop Goes the Weasel" melody

Play

Melody from Anton Webern's Variations for orchestra, Op. 30 (pp.

2324)[5]

Play

musicians use the term "lead" or "head" to refer to the main melody,
which is used as a starting point for improvisation.
Rock music, melodic music, and other forms of popular music and
folk music tend to pick one or two melodies (verse and chorus) and
stick with them; much variety may occur in the phrasing and lyrics.
Indian classical music relies heavily on melody and rhythm, and not
so much on harmony, as the music contains no chord changes.
Balinese gamelan music often uses complicated variations and
alterations of a single melody played simultaneously, called
heterophony.
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heterophony.
In western classical music, composers often introduce an initial
melody, or theme, and then create variations. Classical music often
has several melodic layers, called polyphony, such as those in a fugue,
a type of counterpoint. Often, melodies are constructed from motifs or
short melodic fragments, such as the opening of Beethoven's Fifth
Symphony. Richard Wagner popularized the concept of a leitmotif: a
motif or melody associated with a certain idea, person or place.
While in both most popular music and classical music of the common
practice period pitch and duration are of primary importance in
melodies, the contemporary music of the 20th and 21st centuries pitch
and duration have lessened in importance and quality has gained
importance, often primary. Examples include musique concrte,
klangfarbenmelodie, Elliott Carter's Eight Etudes and a Fantasy
(which contains a movement with only one note), the third movement
of Ruth Crawford-Seeger's String Quartet 1931 (later re-orchestrated
as Andante for string orchestra), which creates the melody from an
unchanging set of pitches through "dissonant dynamics" alone, and
Gyrgy Ligeti's Aventures, in which recurring phonetics create the
linear form.

See also
Appropriation (music)
Hocket
Parsons code, a simple notation used to identify a piece of music
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through melodic motionthe motion of the pitch up and down.

Sequence (music)
Unified field

References
1. ^ Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott. "-
(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?
doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dmelw%7Cdi%2Fa)".
Melodia. A GreekEnglish Lexicon (Perseus project).
2. ^ Forte, Allen (1979). Tonal Harmony in Concept & Practice, p. 203. ISBN
0-03-020756-8.
3. ^ a b c d e Kliewer, Vernon (1975). "Melody: Linear Aspects of TwentiethCentury Music", Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music, pp. 270301. Wittlich,
Gary (ed.). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-0493465.
4. ^ Narveson, Paul (1984). Theory of Melody. ISBN 0-8191-3834-7.
5. ^ Marquis, G. Weston (1964). Twentieth Century Music Idioms, p. 2.
Prentice-Hall, Inc., Inglewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Further reading
Apel, Willi. Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed., p. 51719.
Edwards, Arthur C. The Art of Melody, p. xixxxx.
Holst, Imogen (1962/2008). Tune, Faber and Faber, London. ISBN 0571-24198-0.
Smits van Waesberghe, Joseph (nl) (1955). A Textbook of Melody: A
course in functional melodic analysis, American Institute of

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course in functional melodic analysis, American Institute of

Musicology.
Szabolcsi, Bence (1965). A History Of Melody, Barrie and Rockliff,
London.
Trippett, David (2013). Wagner's Melodies. Cambridge University
Press.

External links
The dictionary definition of melody at
Wiktionary
Quotations related to Melody at

Wikimedia
Commons has
media related to
Melody.

Wikiquote
Carry A Tune Week, list of tunes
(http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/carryatuneweek.htm)
Creating and orchestrating a coherent and balanced melody
(http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/showthread.php/59076Lesson-8-Melody-amp-Orchestration)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Melody&oldid=641819466"
Categories: Musical texture Harmony Melody Polyphonic form
Formal sections in music analysis
This page was last modified on 10 January 2015, at 02:48.
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