A Melody

Introduction

Tune is a timely arranged  linear sequence of pitched sounds that the listener perceives as a single entity.

Tune is one of the most bones elements of music. A annotation is a sound with a particular pitch and duration. String a series of notes together, one after the other, and you have a tune. But the melody of a piece of music isn't just any string of notes. It's the notes that catch your ear as you lot mind; the line that sounds almost important is the melody. First of all, a melodic line of a piece of music is a succession of notes that make up a melody. Extra notes, such as trills and slides, that are not part of the main melodic line but are added to the melody either past the composer or the performer to make the melody more than circuitous and interesting are chosen ornaments or embellishments.

Examples of Melody:

There are some common terms used in discussions of melody that you may find information technology useful to know. Below are some more concepts that are associated with tune.

The Shape or Contour of a Tune

A melody that stays on the aforementioned pitch gets boring pretty rapidly. Equally the melody progresses, the pitches may become upwardly or downwardly slowly or quickly. Ane can motion picture a line that goes up steeply when the melody suddenly jumps to a much higher notation, or that goes downwards slowly when the melody gently falls. Such a line gives the contour or shape of the melodic line. Y'all can frequently get a good idea of the shape of this line by looking at the melody as information technology is written on the staff, only you can also hear it equally you lot heed to the music.

Arch shapes (in which the melody rises and and so falls) are like shooting fish in a barrel to discover in many melodies.

Yous tin as well draw the shape of a melody verbally. For example, you can speak of a "rising melody" or of an "curvation-shaped"phrase.

Listen: Ascending, Descending, and Curvation

Composer Richard Strauss's Don Juan is a good instance of ascending tune:

"Joy to the World" by composer George Frideric Handel demonstrated descending melody:

Composer Dmitri Shostakovich'south Romance exemplifies the arch shape, in which the melody rises and so falls.

Melodic Motion

Another gear up of useful terms describe how apace a melody goes up and down. A melody that rises and falls slowly, with only small pitch changes between one notation and the next, is conjunct. One may also speak of such a melody in terms of step-wise or scalar motion, since most of the intervals in the melody are half or whole steps or are office of a scale.

A melody that rises and falls chop-chop, with large intervals betwixt i note and the next, is a disjunct melody. Ane may besides speak of "leaps" in the melody. Many melodies are a mixture of conjunct and disjunct motility. A tune may evidence conjunct motion, with small changes in pitch from one note to the side by side, or disjunct motion, with big leaps. Many melodies are an interesting, fairly balanced mixture of conjunct and disjunct motion.

Mind: Conjunct and Disjunct Melody

Start listening at the 2:30 marker to Beethoven, "Ode to Joy" from Symphony No. nine and note how the pitch rises and falls slowly, creating conjunct tune.

A good instance of disjunct melody can be institute in Piazzolla's, "Leap" tango for violin, cello, and piano.

Can you tell whether Chopin'due south"Nocturne in Eastward-Flat Major," Op. 9 no. ii is conjunct, disjunct, or a combination of both?

Melodic Range

Range refers to the distance betwixt the highest and lowest notes found in a given melody. When a piece of music has wide range, there is a great distance between the highest and everyman pitches heard.  Conversely, when a piece of music has narrow range the altitude between the highest and lowest pitches is relatively small.

Wide Range

Narrow Range

Listen: Wide and Narrow Range

As you listen to Bach'southward Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, in D Major, 1st Move, note that the slice has a wide range in pitch.

Now mind to Brahms, Violin Concerto in D, 3rd movement, and note that information technology's range is narrow compared to the Brandenburg Concerto.

Melodic Phrases

Melodies are ofttimes described as existence made up of phrases. A musical phrase is actually a lot like a grammatical phrase. A phrase in a sentence (for example, "into the deep, dark wood" or "under that heavy volume") is a group of words that make sense together and express a definite idea, merely the phrase is not a consummate sentence by itself. A melodic phrase is a group of notes that make sense together and express a definite melodic "idea", but it takes more than one phrase to brand a complete melody.

How practise you spot a phrase in a melody? Just equally you often break between the different sections in a sentence (for example, when you say, "wherever you lot go, there you lot are"), the melody unremarkably pauses slightly at the end of each phrase. In vocal music, the musical phrases tend to follow the phrases and sentences of the text. For example, heed to the phrases in the melody of "The Riddle Song" and come across how they line upwards with the four sentences in the song.

The Riddle Song

This melody has four phrases, ane for each sentence of the text.

But even without text, the phrases in a melody can be very clear equally the notes are yet grouped into melodic "ideas."

Ane fashion that a composer keeps a piece of music interesting is past varying how strongly the end of each phrase sounds like "the cease". By varying aspects of the melody, the rhythm, and the harmony, the composer gives the ends of the other phrases stronger or weaker "ending" feelings. Oftentimes, phrases come in definite pairs, with the start phrase feeling very unfinished until it is completed by the second phrase, as if the 2d phrase were answering a question asked by the first phrase. When phrases come in pairs like this, the first phrase is chosen the ancestor phrase, and the second is called the consistent phrase.The rhythm of the first two phrases of "Auld Lang Syne" is the aforementioned, only both the melody and the harmony lead the beginning phrase to feel unfinished until it is answered by the second phrase.

Antecedent and Consequent Phrases

Of course, melodies don't e'er split into clear, separated phrases. Ofttimes the phrases in a tune volition come across each other, cut each other short, or overlap. This is ane of the things that keeps a melody interesting.

Listening Activity: Range, Motility and Contour

Define the melody of this composition in terms of range, motility, and contour. J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #6, showtime movement

Motive or Motif

Another term that usually refers to a piece of melody (although it can besides refer to a rhythm or a chord progression) is motive or "motif". A motive is a brusque musical idea – shorter than a phrase – that occurs often in a piece of music. A motive may merely consist of a few pitches or maybe divided in smaller cells.

The "fate motif" from the first movement of Beethoven'south Symphony No. v. This is a expert case of a brusk melodic idea that is used in many different ways throughout the movement.

Nigh figures and motifs are shorter than phrases, but some of the leitmotifs of Wagner's operas are long enough to be considered phrases. A leitmotif (whether information technology is a very short cell or a long phrase) is associated with a detail graphic symbol, place, thing, or thought in the opera and may exist heard whenever that character is on stage or that idea is an important part of the plot. Every bit with other motifs, leitmotifs may be changed when they render. For example, the aforementioned tune may sound quite dissimilar depending on whether the character is in dearest, beingness heroic, or dying.

A melodic phrase based on the Siegfried leitmotif, from Wagner's opera The Valkyrie.

Themes

A longer melody that at times keeps reappearing in the music – for example, in a "theme and variations" – is often chosen a theme. Themes generally are at least one phrase long and ofttimes have several phrases. Many longer works of music, such equally symphony movements, have more than one melodic theme.

Theme from Beethoven'southward Symphony No. nine. The tune of this theme will exist very familiar to nigh people, but you may want to mind to the entire last move of the symphony to hear the dissimilar means that Beethoven uses the melody again and again.

The musical scores for movies and television incorporate themes, which tin be developed as in a symphony or may exist used very much similar operatic leitmotifs. For example, in the music John Williams composed for the Star Wars movies, there are melodic themes that are associated with the main characters. These themes are oft complete melodies with many phrases, but a single phrase can exist taken from the tune and used as a motif. A single phrase of Ben Kenobi's Theme, for example, can remind yous of all the good things he stands for, even if he is non on the movie screen at the time.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/musicappreciation_with_theory/chapter/melody-an-overview/

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