Lesson 6 Melody and counterpoint
Melody and counterpoint
Part I-Texture
Melody-A succession on pitches that create a distinct sence of orginization and a logical whole
Textures:
Monophonic-Literally 'One sound.' texture where only one note is sung or played at a time in unison or octaves. An example is Gregorian Chant.
Notice how all of the voices are singing the same pitch at the same time. This is monophony
Homophonic-Several lines of notes moving together on the same rhythm. One voice will have the melody and the others will be accompniment. An example is a Hymn
Notice how one voice has the melody for the majority of the piece. While the other voices are accompaniment
Polyphonic-Several lines each of the same musical importance that move indipendantly of each other to create a musical wholean example is a fugue
See how once all of the voices are playing, they seem to move completely independent of each other?
(Fugues are an extremely complex musical form and we will discuss all of the different elements of a fugue in that lesson).
Part II-Melody
Melodic movement
In general, when writing a melody it is prefered to continuue movement in the same direction.
Fig.1 Melodic movement.
As a simple example, think of the melody of "Mary Has a Little Lamb" The melody follows stepwise motion.
