melody

1. A pleasing succession or arrangement of sounds.
2. Musical quality: the melody of verse.
3. Music.
   1. A rhythmically organized sequence of single tones so related to one another as to make up a particular phrase or idea.
   2. Structure with respect to the arrangement of single notes in succession.
   3. The leading part or the air in a composition with accompaniment.
4. A poem suitable for setting to music or singing.

[Middle English melodie, from Old French, from Late Latin melōdia, from Greek melōidiā, singing, choral song : melos, tune + aoidē, song.]

noun

A pleasing succession of musical tones forming a usually brief aesthetic unit: air, aria, strain², tune. Obsolete note. See sounds/pleasant sounds/unpleasant sounds/neutral sounds or silence.

Definition: harmony, tune
Antonyms: cacophony, disharmony

A series of musical notes arranged in succession, in a particular rhythmic pattern, to form a recognizable unit. Melody is a universal human phenomenon, traceable to pre-historic times. The origins of melodic thinking have been sought in language, in birdsong and other animal sounds, and in the crying and playing of young children. The early development of melody may have proceeded from one-step voice inflections through combinations of such small intervals as minor 3rds and major 2nds to pentatonic patterns (i.e.based on a five-note scale) such as are found in many parts of the world (including some quite highly developed forms of Western art music where they often serve as a basis).

The concept of melody differs widely across cultures. One might compare the intensity of detail in an Indian raga with the austere lines of Western ecclesiastical chant, or the static, repetitive melodies of Japanese noh plays with the expansively lyrical lines of a Schubert song or the motivically generated melodies of Beethoven. In some cultures, specific melodies are associated with particular texts, as in Japanese noh plays and Western plainchant. Most melodies display patterns of rise or fall, of motivic patterning and of final cadencing that are specific to their cultures. Often such matters are related to the key or mode in which they are cast, which is likely to dictate their final note.

Melody is traditionally considered, along with rhythm and harmony, as one of the three fundamental elements in music. It is an oversimplification to regard them as independent, however. Rhythm is an important element within melody itself, not only because each note of the melody has a duration but also because larger-scale rhythmic articulation gives shape and vitality to a melody; while, at least in Western music, harmony often plays a fundamental role in determining the contour and direction of a melodic line, and the harmonic implications of a line of melody may accordingly give it life. Ideas of what constitutes a melody, and in particular a beautiful melody, are constantly changing in Western music; almost every generation has criticized the next for producing music lacking in melody when it is simply that ideas of good melody are changing - a point strongly made by Wagner in Die Meistersinger (1868) where, incorporating melodic ideas from the mastersingers of the 16th century, Wagner opposed the conservative Beckmesser, who believes in a set of rules for the composition of melody, with the young knight Walther from Stolzing, who has a new, imaginative idea (as Wagner felt he did himself) of what melody can be. In vocal music, from the time of the medieval troubadours through the song composers of the late Renaissance and the composers of bel canto opera, melody has always been of primary importance, and it remained so particularly in the Classical and Romantic eras, in instrumental music as well as vocal. The breakdown of the tonal system in the 20th century, and the freer use of chromaticism and large leaps, has made melody less easy to apprehend.

For more information on melody, visit Britannica.com.

Melody from Anton Webern's Variations for Orchestra, Op. 30 (pp. 23-24)

This article is about melody in music. For other senses of this word, see Melody (disambiguation).

Look up melody in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A melody (from Greek μελῳδία - melōidía, "singing, chanting"^[1]), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity. In its most literal sense a melody is a sequence of pitches and durations, while more figuratively the term has occasionally been extended to include successions of other musical elements such as tone color.

Melodies often consist of one or more musical phrases or motifs, and are usually repeated throughout a song or piece in various forms. Melodies may also be described by their melodic motion or the pitches or the intervals between pitches (predominantly conjuct or disjunct or with further restrictions), pitch range, tension and release, continuity and coherence, cadence, and shape. "Many extant explanations [of melody] confine us to specific stylistic models, and they are too exclusive."^[2]

Contents 1 Elements 2 Examples 3 See also 4 Further reading 5 References 6 External links

Elements

The melodies existent in most European music written before the 20th century, and popular music throughout the 20th century, featured "fixed and easily discernible frequency patterns", recurring "events, often periodic, at all structural levels" and "recurrence of durations and patterns of durations".^[2]

Melodies in the 20th century have "utilized a greater variety of pitch resources than has been the custom in any other historical period of Western music." While the diatonic scale is still used, the twelve-tone scale became "widely employed."^[2] Composers also allotted a structural role to "the qualitative dimensions" that previously had been "almost exclusively reserved for pitch and rhythm". DeLone states, "The essential elements of any melody are duration, pitch, and quality (timbre), texture, and loudness.^[2] Though the same melody may be recognizable when played with a wide variety of timbres and dynamics, the latter may still be an "element of linear ordering"^[2]

Examples

"Pop Goes the Weasel" melody

Different musical styles use melody in different ways. For example:

• Jazz musicians use the melody line, called the "lead" or "head", as a starting point for improvisation.
• Rock music, melodic music, and other forms of popular music and folk music tend to pick one or two melodies (verse and chorus) and stick with them; much variety may occur in the phrasing and lyrics.
• Indian classical music relies heavily on melody and rhythm, and not so much on harmony as the above forms.
• Balinese gamelan music often uses complicated variations and alterations of a single melody played simultaneously, called heterophony.
• In western classical music, composers often introduce an initial melody, or theme, and then create variations. Classical music often has several melodic layers, called polyphony, such as those in a fugue, a type of counterpoint. Often melodies are constructed from motifs or short melodic fragments, such as the opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Richard Wagner popularized the concept of a leitmotif: a motif or melody associated with a certain idea, person or place.
• While in both most popular music and classical music of the common practice period pitch and duration are of primary importance in melodies, the contemporary music of the 20th and 21st centuries pitch and duration have lessened in importance and quality has gained importance, often primary. Examples include musique concrete, klangfarbenmelodie, Elliott Carter's Eight Etudes and a Fantasy which contains a movement with only one note, the third movement of Ruth Crawford-Seeger's String Quartet 1931 (later reorchestrated as Andante for string orchestra) in which the melody is created from an unchanging set of pitches through "dissonant dynamics" alone, and György Ligeti's Aventures in which recurring phonetics create the linear form.

See also

• Unified field
• Parsons code, a simple notation used to identify a piece of music through melodic motion—the motion of the pitch up and down.
• Appropriation (music)
• Klangfarbenmelodie
• Musique concrète

Further reading

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Melody

• Apel, Willi. Harvard Dictionary of Music
• Edwards, Arthur C. The Art of Melody, p.xix-xxx. Includes "a catalog of sample definitions." (ibid)
• Holst, Imogen. Tune, Faber and Faber, London, 1962.
• Smits van Waesberghe, J. A Textbook of Melody. Includes "an attempt to formulate a theory of melody." (ibid)

References

1. ^ Meloidia, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} *DeLone et al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music, chap. 4, p.270-301. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-049346-5.

External links

• Melodyhound: A Search Engine for Melodies
• Tunespotting: Another Search Engine for Melodies
• DoDoSoSo: Yet another Search Engine for Melodies
• Carry A Tune Week List of Tunes
• Access to IMSLP 12 collections of 1000 melodies arranged for solo instrument, with melody-specific historical notes

v • d • e Musical notation and development Staff Bar & Bar line · Clef · Da Capo · Dal Segno · Key signature · Ledger line · Musical mode · Musical scale · Rehearsal letter · Repeat sign · Time signature · Transposition · Transposing instrument Notes Accidental (Flat · Natural · Sharp) · Dotted note · Grace note · Note value (Beam · Note head · Stem) · Pitch · Rest · Interval  · Letter notation Articulation Dynamics · Ornament (Trill · Mordent · Grace note) · Ossia · Portato · Accent · Legato · Tenuto · Marcato · Staccato · Staccatissimo · Tie · Slur · Fermata Development Coda · Exposition · Harmony · Melody · Motif · Recapitulation · Rhythm (Beat · Meter · Tempo) · Theme · Tonality · Atonality Related Chord chart · Figured bass · Graphic notation · Lead sheet · Eye music · Modern musical symbols · Neume · Tablature

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - melodi, velklang

Nederlands (Dutch)
melodie, welluidendheid, woorden op melodie gezet

Français (French)
n. - mélodie

Deutsch (German)
n. - Melodie, Wohlklang

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (μουσ., μτφ.) μελωδία

Italiano (Italian)
melodia

Português (Portuguese)
n. - melodia (f), ária (f)

Русский (Russian)
мелодия, мелодичность

Español (Spanish)
n. - melodía

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - melodi, välljud

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
曲子, 曲调, 美的音乐

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 曲子, 曲調, 美的音樂

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 음, 가락

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 旋律, メロディー, 歌曲, 快い調べ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) لحن, تناغم وانسجام الأصوات‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮נעימה, לחן, מלודיה‬

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