Melody
This article is about melody in music. For other senses of this word, see melody (disambiguation).In
music, a
melody or
tune is a series of
linear events or a
succession, not a
simultaneity as in a
chord. However, this succession must contain change of some kind and be perceived as a single entity (possibly
Gestalt) to be called a melody. Most specifically this includes patterns of changing
pitches and
durations, while most generally it includes any interacting patterns of changing events or
quality. "Melody may be said to result where there are interacting patterns of changing events occurring in time." (DeLone et. al. (Eds.) 1975, p.270-1) A melody is a single succession of pitches, not to be confused with harmony. (Two or more pitches sounding simultaneously.)
"The events occurring in time must involve change of some kind to be understood as related or unrelated...The essential elements of any melody are duration, pitch, and quality
[timbre, texture, and loudness]" Melodies often consist of one or more musical
phrases,
motifs, and is usually repeated throughout a song or piece in various forms. Melodies may also be described by their
melodic motion or the pitches or the intervals between pitches (predominantly conjuct or disjunct or with further restrictions), pitch range, tension and release, continuity and coherence, cadence, and shape (ibid, p.290-301).
"Many extant explinations [of melody] confine us [sic] to specific stylistic models, and they are too exclusive." (ibid, p.270) Different musical styles use melody in different ways. For example:
*
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. "Gino Stefani makes
appropriation the chief criterion for his 'popular' definition of melody (Stefani 1987a). Melody, he argues, is music 'at hand'; it is that dimension which the common musical competence extracts (often with little respect for the integrity of the source), appropriates and uses for a variety of purposes: singing, whistling, dancing, and so on." (Middleton, p.96)
|
"Pop Goes the Weasel" melody |
* 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 Ninth.
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 concrete,
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
reorchestrated 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
phonetics create the
linear form. Melodies take form through constant motion and movement.
|
Melody from Anton Webern's Variations for Orchestra, Op. 30 (pp. 23-24) |
*
Jazz musicians use the melody line, called the "lead" or "head", as a starting point for
improvisation.
*
Indian classical music relies heavily on melody and
rhythm, and not so much on
harmony as the above forms.
*
Balinese
gamelan music often uses complicated variations and alterations of a single melody played simultaneously, called
heterophony.
"The continuity and
diegetic function of almost all vocal melody draw us along the
linear thread of the song's
syntagmatic structure, producing a 'point of perspective' from which the otherwise disparate parts of the
musical texture can be placed within a coherent '
image'." (Middleton 1990, p.264) Melodies form pictures, images and ideas in the minds of the listeners. Each composer uses many techniques in their melodies to draw pictures.
*
unified field*
Parsons code a simple notation used to identify a piece of music through
melodic motionâ€"the motion of the
pitch up and down.
*Apel, Willi.
Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd edition, p.517-19. Includes "a capsule definition of melody." (Delone et al 1975, p.270)
*Edwards, Arthur C.
The Art of Melody, p.xix-xxx. Includes "a catalog of sample definitions." (ibid)
*Smits van Waesberghe, J.
A Textbook of Melody. Includes "an attempt to formulate a theory of melody." (ibid)
References
*DeLone et. al. (Eds.) (1975).
Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music, chap. 4. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0130493465.
*Middleton, Richard (1990/2002).
Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0335152759.
*
Melodyhound: A Search Engine for Melodies*
Tunespotting: Another Search Engine for Melodies
