John Bell Young wrote:
>.... But beyond its form, there's another concept that's no less
>important to acknowledge, and that is the idea of the CONTRAPUNTAL MELODY.
>What this refers to is the essential texture and disposition of what at
>first glance seems to be a single, unbroken melodic figure, whatever its
>formal structure. A "melody" may in fact imply (and almost always does in
>the elaborately harmonized constructs of the western classical canon,) more
>than one voice; as its pitch material dovetails in and out of itself,
>alighting upon different registers, the harmonic implications become as
>various as wines in season. ...
As an ardent Schenkerian, I agree with you 100%. To make yet another
analogy with language, in the same way that words don't relate to each
other *only* if they are adjacent, so it is also true of notes in a single
line. For instance, we can say, "I threw the ball". If we add modifiers,
and say, "I threw the round, red, striped ball", this does not alter the
fact that "threw" and "ball" are related and, with the addition of the
definite article, form a short sentence embedded in the longer one. Just
so with music. What this means is that in an 8-note melody (for example),
it is possible that notes 1, 3, and 5 are connected, which means, in
essence, that they form a line that operates simultaneously with the 8-note
tune that is on the "surface"; i.e., there is (at least) a two-part
counterpoint embedded within what appears to be a single melodic line.
Counterpoint within a single line is *one* of the elements that
distinguishes a great tune from one that is not so great; what makes things
interesting is that this counterpoint is often not immediately apparent
(as, for example, in the theme of a Chopin Nocturn). Thanks to Heinrich
Schenker, we have a notational system that is able to show this clearly
in an analysis.
Leslie Kinton,
Piano Faculty, The Glenn Gould Professional School,
Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto,
Anagnoson and Kinton duo website: http://www.pianoduo.com
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