I've been following with interest this thread I started some time ago,
and remain puzzled why a definition of melody seems so elusive -- or
perhaps, so exclusive.

All of us experience this thing we call "melody," and most of us I
think can identify a "melodic theme." Yet, when it comes to reaching a
respectable definition, every stab seems to be insufficient or overstated.

The Harvard Dictionary of Music define melody as "a coherent succession
of pitches," where pitches are understood to be a "stretch of sound whose
frequency is clear and stable enough to be heard as not noise; succession
means that several pitches occur; coherent means that the succession of
pitches in accepted as belonging together."

Not being a musician, I found this definition quite acceptable, perhaps
better than any idea I've come across thus far in this thread.  For the
sake of argument, it might be appropriate to take the Harvard definition
as normative, and then, attack its weaknesses or support its strengths.

D. Stephen Heersink
San Francisco
[log in to unmask]