What is a counterpoint in music terms?
Counterpoint, art of combining different melodic lines in a musical composition. The word counterpoint is frequently used interchangeably with polyphony.
How do you explain counterpoint?
Counterpoint is a style of musical writing which involves intertwining two or more melodies. Each individual melody (also called a “voice” or “part”) is an independent, musical idea, and the emphasis is on the separate strands of melody, on the horizontal axis, rather than on the harmony, or vertical axis.
What’s a counterpoint in an essay?
A counterpoint is something that contrasts, and to counterpoint is to provide a contrast. When a composer writes a piece of music using voices that follow different rhythms or pitches but ultimately come together harmonically, she uses counterpoint.
How do you write a counterpoint essay?
You could begin each body paragraph with an opposing view, and then make the contents of that paragraph be the counterpoint to that opposing view. You could have two of your paragraphs present reasons for your position, and then in the third, summarize an opposing view and counter it.
How do you start a counterpoint?
In first species counterpoint, we begin with a cantus firmus (new or existing) and compose a single new line—called the counterpoint—above or below the cantus firmus. That new line contains one note for every note in the cantus: both the cantus firmus and the counterpoint will be all whole notes.
Which is the best definition of counterpoint in music?
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. As a compositional technique, counterpoint is found in many musical styles including Medieval music, gamelan, and the music of West Africa.
Who are some composers who use dissonant counterpoint?
Other composers who have used dissonant counterpoint, if not in the exact manner prescribed by Charles Seeger, include Johanna Beyer, John Cage, Ruth Crawford-Seeger, Vivian Fine, Carl Ruggles, Henry Cowell, Carlos Chávez, John J. Becker, Henry Brant, Lou Harrison, Wallingford Riegger, and Frank Wigglesworth.
What kind of music is polyphonic or contrapuntal?
If more than one independent melody is occurring at the same time, the music is polyphonic. Rounds, canons, and fugues are all polyphonic. (Even if there is only one melody, if different people are singing or playing it at different times, the parts sound independent.) Much Baroque music is contrapuntal, particularly the works of J.S. Bach.
What kind of music did Mozart write with Beethoven?
Some of Beethoven’s works have direct models in comparable works by Mozart, and he wrote cadenzas (WoO 58) to Mozart’s D minor piano concerto K. 466. For further details see Mozart and Beethoven. A number of composers have paid homage to Mozart by writing sets of variations on his themes.