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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MEC-MIC |
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MELODY (Gr. ,ueXw3ia, a choral song, from name, tune, and gi6i, song) . In musical philosophy and history the word "melody "-must be used in a very abstract sense, as that aspect of music which is concerned only with the pitch of successive notes. Thus a " melodic scale " is a scale of a kind of music that is not based on an harmonic system; and thus we call
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series of harmonies, and an unaccompanied melody so far implies harmony that if it so behaves that simple harmonies expressing dear key-relationships would be difficult to find for it, we feel it to be strange and vague. Again, we do not feel music as melodious unless its rhythm is symmetrical; and this, taken together with the harmonic rationality of modern melody, brings about 'an equally intimate connexion between melody on a large scale and form on a small scale. In the article on SONATA FORMS it is shown that there are gradations between the form of some kinds of single melody like " Barbara
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We may here define a few technicalities which may be said to come more definitely under the head of melody, than any ;other; but see also HARMONY and RHYTHM. r. A theme is a melody, not necessarily or even usually complete, except when designed for a set of variations (q.v.), but of sufficient independent coherence to be, so to speak, an intelligible musical sentence. Thus a fugue-subject is a theme, and the first and second subjects in sonata form are more or less. complex groups of themes. 2. A figure is the smallest fragment of a theme that can he recognized when transformed' or detached from its'' surroundings. The grouping of figures into new melodies is the most obvious resource of " development " or " working-out ". in the sonata-forms (see Ex. 2-7), besides being the main resource by which fugues are carried on at those moments in which the subjects and counter-subjects are not present as wholes. In r6th-century polyphony melody consists mainly of figures thus broken off from a canto
3. Polyphony is simultaneous multiple melody. In 16th-century music and in fugue-writing every part is as melodious as Teary other. The popular cry for melody as an antidote to polyphony is thus really a curious perversion of the complaint that one may have too much of a good thing. Several well-known classical melodies are polyphonically composite, being formed by an inner melody appearing as it were through transparent places 'in the outer melody, which it thus completes. This is especially common in music for the pianoforte, where the tone of long notes rrapidl)t fades; and the works of Chopin are full. of examples. , In Bach s works for keyed instruments figures frequently have a double
which begins the secon'd subject of Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata (Op. 53, first movement
4 (a) Conjunct movement
4 (b) Disjunct movement, the opposite of conjunct, tends, though by no means always, to produce arpeggio types of melody, i.e. melodies which move up and down the notes of a chord. Certain types of such nnelody are highly characteristic of Brahms; and Ex. I. Barbara
.ats _0 Im _ n' ANN= B diminished. Ea. 7. Further development of B by diminution and contrary motion (inversion). B inverted. AL 1 r &c. 97 I A2 l ma~ mom i Wagner, whose melodies are almost always of instrumental origin, is generally disjunct in diatonic melody and conjunct in chromatic (Ex. 2, fig. C, is a disjunct figure not forming an arpeggio). For various other melodic devices, such as inversion, augmentation and diminution, see CONTRAPUNTAL FORMS. We subjoin some musical illustrations showing the treatment of figures in melody as a means of symmetry (Ex. I), and*development ( Ex. 2-7), and (En. 8-13) some modern melodic transformations, differing from earlier methods in being immediate instead of gradual. (D. F. T.) and A2 on the tonic). Ex. 2. Main theme of the first movement of Beethoven's Trio in B I), Op. 97. 1 B2 ICam 1 Ex. 3. Figure A of above developed in a new polyphonic 4-bar phrase. Al 1 J J J b_a +~ J J I ~ As Ex. 5. Development of C with B. X XI C - B Ex. 6. Further development of B by diminution, in combination with the trills derived from C. I B2 I I C' Ex. 4. Further sequential developments 4fp 4(P of A. C2 r tr i Ex. 9. A and B2 diminished. Ex.. 8. BRAHMS, Quintet, Op. 34. I Ba Ex. i I. The Rheindaughter''s Toy. Wagner, Das Rheingold. T Ex. 13: Walhalla. Ex.io. End of Article: MELODY (Gr. ,ueXw3ia, a choral song, from name, tune, and gi6i, song) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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