In
Schenkerian analysis
Schenkerian analysis is a method of musical analysis, analyzing tonal music based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker (1868–1935). The goal is to demonstrate the organic coherence of the work by showing how the "foreground" (all notes in the sco ...
, unfolding (German: ''
Ausfaltung'') or compound melody is the implication of more than one
melody
A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a 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 (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...
or
line by a single voice through
skipping
Skipping may refer to:
* Skipping (gait), a rhythmic form of locomotion combining stepping and hopping
* A game or form of exercise using a skipping rope
* Exon skipping, in molecular biology
* Stone skipping, throwing a stone so that it bounces ...
back and forth between the
notes
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versi ...
of the two melodies. In
music cognition
The psychology of music, or music psychology, is a branch of psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and/or musicology. It aims to explain and understand musical behaviour and experience, including the processes through which music is percei ...
, the phenomenon is also known as
melodic fission
In music cognition, melodic fission (also known as melodic or auditory streaming, or stream segregation), is a phenomenon in which one line of pitches (an auditory stream) is heard as two or more separate melodic lines. This occurs when a phrase ...
.
The term "compound melody" may have its origin in Walter Piston's ''Counterpoint'' (New York, Norton, 1947), under the form "compound melodic line" (London edition, 1947, p. 23). In the context of Schenkerian analysis, it appears among others in Forte & Gilbert, ''Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis'' (1982), Chapter 3, pp. 67–80. Manfred Bukofzer, ''Music in the Baroque Era'', New York, Norton, 1947, had spoken of "implied polyphony".
Unfolding is "a
prolongation
In music theory, prolongation is the process in tonality, tonal music through which a pitch (music), pitch, interval (music), interval, or triad (music), consonant triad is considered to govern spans of music when not physically sounding. It is a ...
by means of the unfolding of intervals horizontally." Though the notes skipped between, those heard, may be considered near the
foreground, the
dyads, those implied, are in the middle or background. Middleground dyads are "unfolded" in the foreground: "intervals conceptually heard as sounding together are separated in time, unfolded, as it where, into a melodic sequence."
[Samarotto, Frank (2009). "The Divided Tonic in the First Movement of Beethoven's Op. 132", ''Keys to the Drama: Nine Perspectives on Sonata Forms'', p.5. Sly, Gordon, ed. Ashgate. .]
See also
*
Bariolage
Bariolage is a musical technique used with bowed string instruments that involves rapidly playing alternated notes on adjacent strings, one of which is generally left open,Stowell, Robin (1990). ''Violin Technique and Performance Practice in the L ...
*
Counterpoint
In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...
*
Monophony
In music, monophony is the simplest of texture (music), musical textures, consisting of a melody (or "tune"), typically sung by a single singer or played by a single instrument player (e.g., a flute player) without accompaniment, accompanying har ...
*
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 chord ...
References
Melody
Schenkerian analysis
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