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10ndaYii

Joined: 11/04/12
Posts: 94

Double C's new

#991130 - 03/06/12 04:36 PM

how is counterpoint different from counter melody

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Hugh Robjohns
SOS Technical Editor

Joined: 25/07/03
Posts: 18383
Loc: Worcestershire

Re: Double C's new

[Re: 10ndaYii]
#991134 - 03/06/12 05:12 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpoint

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countermelody

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Anonymous
Unregistered

Re: Double C's [Re: 10ndaYii]
#991148 - 03/06/12 08:09 PM

Counterpoint might refer to rhythmic counterpoint (polyrhythm) not just to tonal counterpoint (polyphony).

A melody with a bass line could be considered a form of melody with a counter-melody. Schoenberg considered the bass line to be a 'secondary' melody.

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Aurongroove

Joined: 26/08/12
Posts: 33
Loc: West Ireland

Re: Double C's new

[Re: ]
#1005567 - 26/08/12 10:14 PM

all counter melody is counterpoint, but not all counterpoint is counter melody.

counterpoint can be rhythmic, harmonic, melodic or textural etc.
Also, in classical music theory, 'counterpoint' has strong designations in referring particularly to system of composition used in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, so you have "Renaissance counterpoint" and "baroque counterpoint" as actual styles of music composition.

If you were studying counterpoint in a music degree it is quite likely you would be writing fugues in the style of Bach(baroque era), or making polyphonic vocal pieces in the style of Palestrina (Renaissance) etc.

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Edited by Aurongroove (26/08/12 10:18 PM)

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Exalted Wombat

Joined: 06/02/10
Posts: 4206

Re: Double C's new

[Re: 10ndaYii]
#1006083 - 29/08/12 12:10 PM

Quote 10ndaYii:

how is counterpoint different from counter melody

Whenever two or more instruments play, not in unison, there is counterpoint. When no attention is paid to whether each part has a coherent musical line (as in a badly-harmonised hymn tune, where the lower voices are merely filling in the harmony) it's bad counterpoint. When one instrument has a line of comparable interest to the melody, and is scored in a way that lets it be heard with equal prominence, it could be called a "counter-melody". You could even have more than one counter-melody (Wagner has a good example in his overture to "Meistersinger") though it's arguable that combining more than two prominent melodies can easily become merely confusing.

Google "melody counter melody" for more opinion and examples.

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