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about|melody in music|other senses of this word|Melody (disambiguation)A melody (from Greek language|Greek µe??d?a - meloidía , "singing, chanting"),cite web |url= http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text? doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dmelw|di%2Fa |title=Melodia |author=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott |work=A Greek-English Lexicon publisher=Perseus project also tune , voice , or line , is a Linearity|linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch (music)|pitch and rhythm , while, more figuratively, the term has occasionally been extended to include successions of other musical elements such as tone color . It may be considered the foreground to the background accompaniment . A line or part (music)|part need not be a foreground melody.
Melodies often consist of one or more musical Phrase (music)|phrase s or Motif (music)|motifs , and are usually repeated throughout a song or piece (music)|piece in various forms. Melodies may also be described by their melodic motion or the pitches or the interval (music)|intervals between pitches (predominantly steps and skips|conjunct or disjunct or with further restrictions), pitch range, tension (music)|tension and release, continuity and coherence, cadence (music)|cadence , and shape.
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." Paul Narveson claimed in 1984 that more than three-quarters of melodic topics had not been explored thoroughly.Narveson, Paul (1984). Theory of Melody . ISBN 0-8191-3834-7.
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".
Melodies in the 20th-century classical music|20th century "utilized a greater variety of pitch resources than had been the custom in any other historical period of Western culture|Western Classical music|music ." While the diatonic scale was still used, the chromatic scale became "widely employed."Kliewer, Vernon (1975). "Melody: Linear Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music", Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music , p.270-301. Wittlich, Gary (ed.). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-049346-5. 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 any melody are duration, pitch, and quality ( timbre ), texture, and loudness. 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"
Part
A part is the music played by an individual musical instrument|instrument or singer|voice (or group of identical instruments or voices) within a larger work, such as a melody. It also refers to the printed copy of the music for each instrument, as distinct from the musical score|score , which holds the music for all instruments in an musical ensemble|ensemble . For example in a string ensemble you would have separate parts for Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola and Cello, even though there might be several of each instrument (and therefore several copies of each part).
Parts may be an outer part , the two on the top and bottom, or inner part , those in between. Part-writing is the composition of parts in consideration of harmony and counterpoint . Melody can be distinguished from harmony from the fact that Melody can be described as "Notes Over Time" whereas Harmony can be described as "Notes At One Time".
A part in great Highland Bagpipe music is a musical sentence (music)|sentence . Usually each part consists of four phrases , either one or two bars long. Several sentences combine to produce a paragraph or complete work or tune.
In a polyphony|polyphonic context the term voice is used to denote a single melodic line or texture (music)|textural layer. The term is wikt:generic|generic , and is not meant to imply that the line should necessarily be singing|vocal in character, instead referring to instrumentation (music)|instrumentation or simply to register (music)|register .
Examples
Different musical style s use melody in different ways. For example:
Jazz 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 (popular music)|verse and refrain|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.
Bali nese gamelan music often uses complicated variations and alterations of a single melody played simultaneously, called heterophony .
In western European classical music|classical music , composer s often introduce an initial melody, or theme (music)|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 Motif (music)|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 concrète , 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 (Crawford-Seeger)|String Quartet 1931 (later orchestration|re orchestrated as Andante for string orchestra ) in which the melody is created from an unchanging set of pitches through "dissonant dynamics" alone, and György Ligeti 's Aventures in which recurring phonetic s create the linear form.
See also
Appropriation (music)
Counterpoint
Hocket
Klangfarbenmelodie
Line (poetry)
Melodic pattern s
Musique concrète
Parsons code , a simple notation used to identify a piece of music through melodic motion —the motion of the Pitch (music)|pitch up and down.
Sequence (music)
Unified field
References
Reflist
Further reading
wikiquote
Apel, Willi. Harvard Dictionary of Music , 2nd ed., p.& nbsp;517-19.
Edwards, Arthur C. The Art of Melody , p.xix-xxx.
Holst, Imogen (1962/2008). Tune , Faber and Faber, London. ISBN 0-571-24198-0.
Smits van Waesberghe, J. (1955). A Textbook of Melody: A course in functional melodic analysis , American Institute of Musicology.
Szabolcsi, Bence (1965). A History Of Melody , Barrie and Rockliff, London.
External links
wiktionary|melody
http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/carryatuneweek.htm Carry A Tune Week List of Tunes
http://imslp.org/wiki/User:Clark_Kimberling/Historical_Notes_1 Access to IMSLP 12 collections of 1000 melodies arranged for solo instrument, with melody-specific historical notes
Melody (music)musical notationtexture (music) Category:Musical texture Category:Harmony Category:Melody Category:Polyphonic form Category:Greek loanwords Category:Formal sections in music analysis
