This article is about melody in music. For other senses of this word, see melody (disambiguation).

In music, a melody (from Greek μελῳδία - melōidía, "singing, chanting"^[1]), also tune, voice, or line, is a series of linear events or a succession, not a simultaneity as in a chord (see harmony). Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The word linear comes from the Latin word linearis, which means created by lines. This article describes musical chords in traditional Western styles In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously and chords actual or implied in Music. 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. Pitch represents the perceived Fundamental frequency of a sound A tone may be sustained for varying lengths of time. duration is a property of tone that becomes one of the bases rhythem or an amount of Time or a particular time In the vernacular quality can mean a high degree of excellence (“a quality product” a degree of excellence or the lack of it (“work of average quality” or a property of "Melody is said to result where there are interacting patterns of changing events occurring in time. "^[2]

Change is necessary for events "to be understood as related or unrelated. " Melodies often consist of one or more musical phrases, motifs, and are usually repeated throughout a song or piece in various forms. In Music a phrase ( Greek φράση, sentence expression, see also Strophe) is a section of music that is relatively In Music, a motif or motive is a perceivable or salient recurring fragment or succession of notes that may be used to construct the entirety or parts A song is a Musical composition. Songs contain vocal parts that are performed 'sung' and generally feature Words ( Lyrics) commonly followed Musical composition is an original piece of Music the structure of a musical piece the process of creating a new 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. Melodic motion is the quality of movement of a Melody, including nearness or farness of successive pitches or notes in a Melody. In Music theory, the term interval describes the relationship between the pitches of two Notes Intervals may be described as vertical In Music, tension is the perceived need for relaxation or release created by a listener's expectations In Western Musical theory, a harmonic cadence (Latin cadentia, "a falling" is a formula of two chords that conclude "Many extant explanations [of melody] confine us [sic] to specific stylistic models, and they are too exclusive. "^[2]

Contents 1 Elements 2 Examples 3 See also 4 Further reading 5 References 6 External links

Elements

The melodies in most European music written before the 20th century features recurring "events, often periodic, at all structural levels" and "recurrence of durations and patterns of durations" are also important in 20th century music. ^[2]

While in the 20th century pitch includes "those aspects of sound that are classed as having highness or lowness" earlier music included almost exclusively sounds having "fixed and easily discernible frequency patterns" and composers have "utilized a greater variety of pitch resources than has been the custom in any other historical period of Western music. " While materials from the diatonic scale are still used, the twelve-tone scale became "widely employed. In Music theory, a diatonic scale (from the Greek διατονικος, meaning " through tones" also known as the heptatonia prima and The chromatic scale is a Musical scale with twelve pitches each a Semitone or Half step apart "^[2]

DeLone states "The essential elements of any melody are duration, pitch, and quality [timbre, texture, and loudness]. In Music, timbre (ˈtæm-bər' like timber, or, from Fr timbre tɛ̃bʁ is the quality of a Musical note or sound that distinguishes different ". ^[2] However, quality is not an essential element of melody, as the same melody is recognizable when played with a wide variety of timbres, textures, and loudness.

Melodies in the 20th century where increasingly reliant "upon the qualitative dimensions" with those dimensions "in pre-twentieth century music were almost exclusively reserved for pitch and rhythm" such as being an "element of linear ordering" rather than a highlight to "the more predominant pitch and rhythmic aspects. " See Klangfarbenmelodie and Musique concrète. Klangfarbenmelodie ( German for tone-color-melody is a Musical technique that involves breaking up a musical line or Melody out from one Musique concrète ( French; literally "concrete music" is a style of Avant-garde music that relies on recorded sounds including natural ^[2]

Examples

Different musical styles use melody in different ways. A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other 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. Rock music is a genre of Popular music often though not necessarily employing Electric guitar, Bass guitar, and Drums. Melodic music is a term that covers various genres of non-classical music which are primarily characterised by the dominance of a single strong Melody line Popular music is Music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more Folk music can have a number of different meanings including Traditional music: The original meaning of the term "folk music" was synonymous The structures or Musical forms of Songs in Popular music are typically sectional forms such as Strophic form. A refrain (from Vulgar Latin refringere, "to repeat" and later from Old French refraindre) is the Line or lines that are In music a phrase (Greek φράση sentence expression see also strophe is a section of music that is relatively self contained and coherent over a medium time scale Lyrics (in singular form Lyric) are a set of words that accompany music either by speaking or singing "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. "

"Pop Goes the Weasel" melody

• In western classical music, composers often introduce an initial melody, or theme, and then create variations. "Pop Goes the Weasel" is a Jig, often sung as a Nursery rhyme, that dates back to 17th century England, and was spread across the Empire Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to mainstream music produced in or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and Secular music A composer (literally meaning 'one who puts together' is a person who creates Music, usually in the medium of notation, for Interpretation and Performance In Music, a theme is the initial or primary Melody. The Encyclopédie Fasquelle (Michel 1958–61 defines a theme as follows "Any Classical music often has several melodic layers, called polyphony, such as those in a fugue, a type of counterpoint. In Music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent Melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice ( Monophony In Music, a fugue (ˈfjuːg is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred In Music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and Rhythm, and interdependent in Harmony Often melodies are constructed from motifs or short melodic fragments, such as the opening of Beethoven's Fifth. In Music, a motif or motive is a perceivable or salient recurring fragment or succession of notes that may be used to construct the entirety or parts Richard Wagner popularized the concept of a leitmotif: a motif or melody associated with a certain idea, person or place. A leitmotif (ˌlaɪtmoʊˈtiːf (also leitmotiv; lit "leading motif" is a recurring Musical theme, associated with a particular person 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. Popular music is Music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more The common practice period, in the history of European Art music (broadly called Classical music) spanning the Baroque, Classical, and In the broadest and popular sense Contemporary music is any music being written in the present day 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. Musique concrète ( French; literally "concrete music" is a style of Avant-garde music that relies on recorded sounds including natural Klangfarbenmelodie ( German for tone-color-melody is a Musical technique that involves breaking up a musical line or Melody out from one Elliott Cook Carter Jr (born in New York City on December 11, 1908) is an American Composer from New York City. Ruth Crawford Seeger ( 3 July 1901 - 18 November 1953) born Ruth Porter Crawford was a Modernist Composer and an American Ruth Crawford 's String Quartet (1931 is "regarded as one of the finest modernist works of the genre" (Hisama 2001 p Orchestration is the study or practice of writing Music for Orchestra (or more loosely for any Musical ensemble) or of adapting for orchestra music composed Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech The word linear comes from the Latin word linearis, which means created by lines.

Melody from Anton Webern's Variations for Orchestra, Op. WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> Anton Webern (December 3 1883 &ndash September 15 1945 was an Austrian Composer 30 (pp. 23-24)

• Jazz musicians use the melody line, called the "lead" or "head", as a starting point for improvisation. Jazz is an American Musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States A musician is a person who plays or writes Music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music An instrumentalist plays a Improvisation (also called extemporization) is the practice of acting singing talking and reacting of making and creating in the moment and in response to the stimulus of

• Indian classical music relies heavily on melody and rhythm, and not so much on harmony as the above forms. Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός - rhythmos, "any measured flow or movement symmetry" is the variation of the length and accentuation of In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously and chords actual or implied in Music.

• Balinese gamelan music often uses complicated variations and alterations of a single melody played simultaneously, called heterophony. Bali is an Indonesian Island located at, the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to A gamelan is a musical ensemble of Indonesia typically featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones xylophones drums and gongs bamboo flutes bowed and In Music, heterophony is a type of texture created through the simultaneous variation of a melodic line

See also

• Unified field
• Parsons code, a simple notation used to identify a piece of music through melodic motion—the motion of the pitch up and down. This article is about the musical subject You may be looking for the Unified field theory in Physics. The Parsons code, formally named the Parsons Code for Melodic Contours, is a simple notation used to identify a piece of music through Melodic motion —the motion Melodic motion is the quality of movement of a Melody, including nearness or farness of successive pitches or notes in a Melody. Pitch represents the perceived Fundamental frequency of a sound
• Appropriation (music)

Further reading

• Apel, Willi. In Music, appropriation is the use of borrowed elements ( aspects or techniques) in the creation of a new piece. 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)
• Holst, Imogen. Tune, Faber and Faber, London, 1962.
• Smits van Waesberghe, J. A Textbook of Melody. Includes "an attempt to formulate a theory of melody. " (ibid)

References

External links

• Melodyhound: A Search Engine for Melodies
• Tunespotting: Another Search Engine for Melodies
• DoDoSoSo: Yet another Search Engine for Melodies
• Carry A Tune Week List of Tunes

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