A melody (from
Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a
linear
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship ('' function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear ...
succession of
musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of
pitch and
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular re ...
, while more figuratively, the term can include other musical elements such as
tonal color. It is the foreground to the background
accompaniment
Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in different genres and styles o ...
. A line or
part need not be a foreground melody.
Melodies often consist of one or more musical
phrases or
motifs, and are usually repeated throughout a
composition in various forms. Melodies may also be described by their
melodic motion or the pitches or the
intervals between pitches (predominantly
conjunct or disjunct or with further restrictions), pitch range,
tension and release, continuity and coherence,
cadence, and shape.
Function and elements
Johann Philipp Kirnberger argued:
The Norwegian composer
Marcus Paus
Marcus Nicolay Paus (; born 14 October 1979) is a Norwegian composer and one of the most performed contemporary Scandinavian composers. As a classical contemporary composer he is noted as a representative of a reorientation toward tradition, tonal ...
has argued:
Given the many and varied elements and styles of melody "many extant explanations
f melodyconfine 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''. .]
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
The 20th (twentieth) century began on
January 1, 1901 ( MCMI), and ended on December 31, 2000 ( MM). The 20th century was dominated by significant events that defined the modern era: Spanish flu pandemic, World War I and World War II, nucle ...
"utilized a greater variety of pitch resources than ha
been the custom in any other historical period of
Western music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
." While the
diatonic scale
In music theory, a diatonic scale is any heptatonic scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole st ...
was still used, the
chromatic scale became "widely employed."
[Kliewer, Vernon (1975). "Melody: Linear Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music", ''Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music'', pp. 270–301. Wittlich, Gary (ed.). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. .] 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."
Examples
Different
musical style
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the n ...
s use melody in different ways. For example:
*
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
musicians use the term "lead" or "head" to refer to the main melody, which is used as a starting point for
improvisation.
*
Rock music
Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States a ...
, and other forms of
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...
and
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...
tend to pick one or two melodies (
verse and
chorus
Chorus may refer to:
Music
* Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse
* Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound
* Chorus form, song in which all verse ...
, sometimes with a third, contrasting melody known as a
bridge or middle eight) and stick with them; much variety may occur in the phrasing and
lyrics
Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...
.
*
Indian classical music relies heavily on melody and
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular re ...
, and not so much on
harmony, as the music contains no chord changes.
*
Balinese
gamelan music often uses complicated variations and alterations of a single melody played simultaneously, called
heterophony.
*In western
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...
,
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Def ...
s often introduce an initial melody, or
theme, and then create variations. Classical music often has several melodic layers, called
polyphony
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, ...
, 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 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
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...
and classical music of the
common practice period pitch and duration are of primary importance in melodies, the
contemporary music
Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included se ...
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 1931'' (later
re-orchestrated as ''Andante for string orchestra''), which creates the melody from an unchanging set of pitches through "dissonant dynamics" alone, and
György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century ...
's ''Aventures'', in which recurring
phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
create the linear form.
See also
*
Hocket
*
Parsons code, a simple notation used to identify a piece of music through
melodic motion—the motion of the
pitch up and down.
*
Sequence (music)
In music, a sequence is the restatement of a motif or longer melodic (or harmonic) passage at a higher or lower pitch in the same voice.Benward and Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I'', p.111-12. Seventh Edition. . It is o ...
*
Unified field
References
Further reading
*
Apel, Willi. ''Harvard Dictionary of Music'', 2nd ed., pp. 517–19.
*Cole, Simon (2020). just BE here – the guide to musicking mindfulness
*Edwards, Arthur C. ''The Art of Melody'', pp. xix–xxx.
*
Holst, Imogen(1962/2008). ''Tune'', Faber and Faber, London. .
* (1955). ''A Textbook of Melody: A course in functional melodic analysis'',
American Institute of Musicology
The American Institute of Musicology (AIM) is a musicological organization that researches, promotes and produces publications on early music. Founded in 1944 by Armen Carapetyan, the AIM's chief objective is the publication of modern edition ...
.
*
Szabolcsi, Bence (1965). ''A History of Melody'', Barrie and Rockliff, London.
* Trippett, David (2013). ''Wagner's Melodies''. Cambridge University Press.
*Trippett, David (2019). "Melody" in ''The Oxford Handbook to Critical Concepts in Music Theory''. Oxford University Press.
External links
*
*
Carry A Tune Week, list of tunesCreating and orchestrating a coherent and balanced melody
{{Authority control
Musical texture
Harmony
Polyphonic form
Formal sections in music analysis