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The term originates from the Latin punctus contra punctum meaning "point against point", i.e. "note against note". John Rahn describes counterpoint as follows: It is hard to write a beautiful song. It is harder to write several individually beautiful songs that, when sung simultaneously, sound as a more beautiful polyphonic whole.
Polyphony (/ p ə ˈ l ɪ f ə n i / pə-LIF-ə-nee) 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 or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ().
In music theory, contrapuntal motion is the general movement of two or more melodic lines with respect to each other. [1] In traditional four-part harmony, it is important that lines maintain their independence, an effect which can be achieved by the judicious use of the four types of contrapuntal motion: parallel motion, similar motion, contrary motion, and oblique motion.
Voice exchange is also used in Schenkerian analysis to refer to a pitch class exchange involving two voices across registers, one of which is usually the bass. In this sense, it is a common secondary structural feature found in the music of a wide variety of composers. [12]
Inventions originated from contrapuntal improvisations in Italy, especially from the form of the composer Francesco Antonio Bonporti. Bach adapted and modified the form to what is considered to be a formal invention. Bach wrote 15 inventions (BWV 772–786) as exercises for his son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.
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The very first sentence begins: "In music, a fugue (/fjuːɡ/ fewg) is a contrapuntal compositional technique". The words "contrapuntal" and "polyphonic" are largely synonymous, and in fact the situations in which they may be distinguished would leave fugue defined as contrapuntal but not polyphonic. However, this is a very specialized distinction.
The six-part fugue in the "Ricercar a 6" from The Musical Offering, in the hand of Johann Sebastian BachIn classical music, a fugue (/ f juː ɡ /, from Latin fuga, meaning "flight" or "escape" [1]) is a contrapuntal, polyphonic compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches ...