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See also:MELODY (Gr. ,ueXw3ia, a choral See also:song, from name, tune, and gi6i, song)
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In musical See also:philosophy and See also:history the word "See also:melody "-must be used in a very abstract sense, as that aspect of See also:music which is concerned only with the See also:pitch of successive notes
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Thus a " melodic See also:scale " is a scale of a See also:kind of music that is not based on an See also:harmonic See also:system; and thus we See also:call See also:ancient See also:Greek music " melodic." The popular conception of melody is that of " See also:air " or " tune," and this is so far from being a See also:primitive conception that there are few instances of such melody in recorded music before the 17th See also:century; and even folk-songs, unless they are of See also:recent origin, deviate markedly from the criteria of tunefulness
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The See also:modern conception of melody is based on the interaction of every musical . See also:category
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For us a melody is the See also:surface of a See also:series of harmonies, and an unaccompanied melody so far implies See also:harmony that if it so behaves that See also:simple harmonies expressing dear See also: r . A theme is a melody, not necessarily or even usually See also:complete, except when designed for a set of See also:variations (q.v.), but of sufficient See also:independent coherence to be, so to speak, an intelligible musical See also:sentence . Thus a See also:fugue-subject is a theme, and the first and second subjects in sonata form are more or less. complex See also: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 See also:main resource by which fugues are carried on at those moments in which the subjects and See also:counter-subjects are not See also:present as wholes . In r6th-century polyphony melody consists mainly of figures thus broken off from a See also:canto See also:fermo (see CONTRAPUNTAL FORMS) . 3 . Polyphony is simultaneous multiple melody . In 16th-century music and in fugue-See also:writing every See also: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 See also: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 See also:outer melody, which it thus completes . This is especially See also:common in music for the See also:pianoforte, where the See also:tone of See also:long notes rrapidl)t fades; and the See also:works of See also:Chopin are full. of examples . , In See also:Bach s works for keyed instruments figures frequently have a See also:double meaning on this principle, as, for instance, in the See also:peculiar kind of counter.. subject in the 15th fugue of the 2nd See also:book of the Wohltemperirtat Klavier . A good See also:familiar example of a simple melody:. which, as written by the composer, would need two voices to sing it, is that which begins the secon'd subject of See also:Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata (Op . 53, first See also:movement, bars 35-42, where at the third See also:bar of the melody a See also:lower voice enters and finishes the phrase) . 4 (a) Conjunct movement is the movement of melody along adjacent degrees of the scale . A large proportion of Beethoven's melodies are conjunct (see Ex . 2, fig . B) . 4 (b) Disjunct movement, the opposite of conjunct, tends, though by no means always, to produce See also: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 See also:Brahms; and Ex . I . Barbara Allen" (showing the germ of binary form in the See also:balance between A' on the dominant .ats _0 See also:Im _ n' See also:ANN= B diminished . See also:Ea . 7 . Further development of B by diminution and contrary See also:motion (See also:inversion) . B inverted . AL 1—• r &c . 97 I See also:A2 l ma~ mom — i See also:Wagner, whose melodies are almost always of instrumental origin, is generally disjunct in diatonic melody and conjunct in See also:chromatic (Ex . 2, fig . C, is a disjunct figure not forming an arpeggio) . For various other melodic devices, such as inversion, See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also:Toy . Wagner, Das Rheingold . T Ex . 13: Walhalla . Ex.io . |
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