Melody 37735 225700585 2008-07-14T23:45:50Z SchfiftyThree 556700 Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/24.84.169.134|24.84.169.134]] to last version by 0x6D667061 (using [[WP:HG|Huggle]]) :''This article is about melody in music. For other senses of this word, see [[melody (disambiguation)]].'' {{wiktionarypar|melody}} In [[music]], a '''melody''' (from [[Greek language|Greek]] ''μελῳδία'' - ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2366206 Meloidia, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', at Perseus]</ref>), also '''tune''', '''voice''', or '''line''', is a series of [[linear]] events or a [[succession]], not a [[simultaneity]] as in a [[chord (music)|chord]] (see [[harmony]]). However, this succession must contain change of some kind and be perceived as a single entity (possibly [[Gestalt]]) to be called a melody. Most specifically this includes patterns of changing [[pitch (music)|pitch]]es and [[duration]]s, while most generally it includes any interacting patterns of changing events or [[quality]]. "Melody is said to result where there are interacting patterns of changing events occurring in time."<ref name="DeLone">*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.</ref> Change is necessary for events "to be understood as related or unrelated." Melodies often consist of one or more musical [[Phrase (music)|phrase]]s, [[Motif (music)|motifs]], and are usually repeated throughout a [[song]] or [[piece (music)|piece]] in various forms. Melodies may also be described by their [[melodic motion]] or the pitches or the [[interval (music)|intervals]] between pitches (predominantly conjuct or disjunct or with further restrictions), pitch range, [[tension (music)|tension]] and release, continuity and coherence, [[cadence (music)|cadence]], and shape. "Many extant explanations [of melody] confine us [sic] to specific stylistic models, and they are too exclusive."<ref name="DeLone"/> ==Elements== {{Cleanup-section|date=June 2008}} The melodies in most European music written before the 20th century features recurring "events, often periodic, at all structural levels" and "recurrence of durations and patterns of durations" are also important in 20th century music.<ref name="DeLone"/> While in the 20th century pitch includes "those aspects of sound that are classed as having highness or lowness" earlier music included almost exclusively sounds having "fixed and easily discernible frequency patterns" and composers have "utilized a greater variety of pitch resources than has been the custom in any other historical period of Western music." While materials from the [[diatonic scale]] are still used, the [[chromatic scale|twelve-tone scale]] became "widely employed."<ref name="DeLone"/> DeLone states {{quote|The essential elements of any melody are duration, pitch, and quality [[[timbre]], texture, and loudness].}} .<ref name="DeLone"/> However, quality is not an ''essential'' element of melody, as the same melody is recognizable when played with a wide variety of timbres, textures, and loudness. Melodies in the 20th century where increasingly reliant "upon the qualitative dimensions" with those dimensions "in pre-twentieth century music were almost exclusively reserved for pitch and rhythm" such as being an "element of linear ordering" rather than a highlight to "the more predominant pitch and rhythmic aspects." See [[Klangfarbenmelodie]] and [[Musique concrète]].<ref name="DeLone"/> ==Examples== Different [[musical style]]s use melody in different ways. For example: * [[Rock music]], [[melodic music]], and other forms of [[popular music]] and [[folk music]] tend to pick one or two melodies ([[Verse_(popular_music)|verse]] and [[refrain|chorus]]) and stick with them; much variety may occur in the [[phrasing]] and [[lyrics]]. "Gino Stefani makes ''appropriation'' the chief criterion for his 'popular' definition of melody (Stefani 1987a). Melody, he argues, is music 'at hand'; it is that dimension which the common musical competence extracts (often with little respect for the integrity of the source), appropriates and uses for a variety of purposes: singing, whistling, dancing, and so on."{{Fact|date=November 2007}} [[Image:Pop Goes the Weasel melody.PNG|thumb|center|550px|"[[Pop Goes the Weasel]]" melody]] *In western [[European classical music|classical music]], [[composer]]s often introduce an initial melody, or [[theme (music)|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 [[Motif (music)|motifs]] or short melodic fragments, such as the opening of Beethoven's Fifth. [[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 (Crawford-Seeger)|String Quartet 1931]]'' (later [[orchestration|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 [[phonetic]]s create the [[linear]] form. [[Image:Webern Variations melody.PNG|thumb|center|550px|Melody from [[Anton Webern]]'s ''Variations for Orchestra'', Op. 30 (pp. 23-24)]] *[[Jazz]] [[musician]]s use the melody line, called the "lead" or "head", as a starting point for [[improvisation]]. *[[Indian music|Indian classical music]] relies heavily on melody and [[rhythm]], and not so much on [[harmony]] as the above forms. *[[Bali]]nese [[gamelan]] music often uses complicated variations and alterations of a single melody played simultaneously, called [[heterophony]]. ==See also== *[[Unified field]] *[[Parsons code]], a simple notation used to identify a piece of music through [[melodic motion]]—the motion of the [[Pitch (music)|pitch]] up and down. *[[Appropriation (music)]] ==Further reading== {{wikiquote}} *Apel, Willi. ''Harvard Dictionary of Music'', 2nd edition, p.517-19. Includes "a capsule definition of melody." (Delone et al 1975, p.270) *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== <div class="references-small"> <references /> </div> ==External links== * [http://www.melodyhound.com/ Melodyhound: A Search Engine for Melodies] * [http://www.tunespotting.com/ Tunespotting: Another Search Engine for Melodies] * [http://www.everity.com/~gheller DoDoSoSo: Yet another Search Engine for Melodies] * [http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/carryatuneweek.htm Carry A Tune Week List of Tunes] {{musical notation}} [[Category:Aspects of music]] [[Category:Musical techniques]] [[Category:Greek loanwords]] [[bs:Melodija]] [[bg:Мелодия]] [[ca:Melodia]] [[cs:Melodie]] [[da:Melodi]] [[de:Melodie]] [[et:Meloodia]] [[es:Melodía]] [[eo:Melodio]] [[fa:لحن (موسیقی)]] [[fr:Mélodie (succession de hauteurs)]] [[gl:Melodía]] [[hr:Melodija]] [[it:Melodia]] [[he:מלודיה]] [[lv:Melodija]] [[lt:Melodija]] [[ms:Melodi]] [[nl:Melodie]] [[ja:メロディ]] [[no:Melodi]] [[nn:Melodi]] [[pl:Melodia]] [[pt:Melodia]] [[ro:Melodie]] [[qu:Takina]] [[ru:Мелодия]] [[simple:Melody]] [[sk:Melódia (hudba)]] [[sl:Melodija]] [[sr:Мелодија]] [[fi:Melodia]] [[sv:Melodi]] [[uk:Мелодія]] [[zh:旋律]]