A melody consists of a succession of: (2024)

Introduction

Melodic Motion

Anotherset of useful terms describe how quickly a melody goes up and down. A melody that rises and falls slowly, with only small pitch changes between one note 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 part of a scale.

A melody that rises and falls quickly, with large intervals between one note and the next, is a disjunct melody. One may also speak of“leaps” in the melody. Many melodies are a mixture of conjunct and disjunct motion.A melody may show conjunct motion, with small changes in pitch from one note to the next, or disjunct motion, with large leaps. Many melodies are an interesting, fairly balanced mixture of conjunct and disjunct motion.

Listen: Conjunct andDisjunct Melody

Start listening at the 2:30 mark to Beethoven, “Ode to Joy” from Symphony No. 9 and note how the pitchrises and falls slowly, creating conjunct melody.

A good example of disjunct melody can be found in Piazzolla’s, “Spring” tango for violin, cello, and piano.

Can you tell whether Chopin’s“Nocturne in E-Flat Major,” Op. 9 no. 2 isconjunct, disjunct, or a combination of both?

Melodic Range

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

Wide Range

Narrow Range

Listen:Wide and Narrow Range

As you listen to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, in D Major, 1st Movement, note that the piece has a wide range in pitch.

Now listen to Brahms, Violin Concerto in D, 3rd movement, and note that it’s range is narrow compared to the Brandenburg Concerto.

MelodicPhrases

Melodies are often described as being 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 forest” or “under that heavy book”) is a group of words that make sense together and express a definite idea, but the phrase is not a complete 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 phraseto make a complete melody.

How do you spot a phrase in a melody? Just as you often pause between the different sections in a sentence (for example, when you say, “wherever you go, there you are”), the melody usually 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, listen to the phrasesin the melody of “The Riddle Song” and see how they line up with the four sentences in the song.

The Riddle Song

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

But even without text, the phrases in a melody can be very clearasthe notes are still grouped into melodic“ideas.”

One way that a composer keeps a piece of music interesting is by varying how strongly the end of each phrase sounds like “the end”. 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. Often, phrases come in definite pairs, with the first phrase feeling very unfinished until it is completed by the second phrase, as if the second phrase were answering a question askedby the first phrase. When phrases come in pairs like this, the first phrase is called the antecedent phrase, and the second is called the consequent phrase.The rhythm of the first two phrases of “Auld Lang Syne” is the same, but both the melody and the harmony lead the first phrase to feel unfinished until it is answered by the second phrase.

Antecedent and Consequent Phrases

Of course, melodies don’t always divide into clear, separated phrases. Often the phrases in a melody will run into each other, cut each other short, or overlap. This is one of the things that keeps a melody interesting.

Listening Activity: Range, Motion and Contour

Define the melody of thiscomposition in terms of range, motion, and contour.J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #6, first movement

Motive or Motif

Another term that usually refers to a piece of melody (although it can also refer to a rhythm or a chord progression) is motive or “motif”. A motive isa short musical idea – shorter than a phrase – that occurs often in a piece of music. A motive may only consist ofa few pitches or maybe divided in smaller cells.

The “fate motif” from the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. This is a good example of a short melodic ideathat is used in many different ways throughout the movement.

Most figures and motifs are shorter than phrases, but some of the leitmotifs of Wagner’soperas are long enough to be considered phrases. A leitmotif (whether it is a very short cell or a long phrase) is associated with a particular character, place, thing, or idea in the opera and may be heard whenever that character is on stage or that idea is an important part of the plot. As with other motifs, leitmotifs may be changed when they return. For example, the same melody may sound quite different depending on whether the character is in love, being heroic, or dying.

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

Themes

A longer melody that at timeskeeps reappearing in the music – for example, in a “theme and variations” – is often called a theme. Themes generally are at least one phrase long and often have severalphrases. Many longer works of music, such as symphony movements, have more than one melodic theme.

Theme from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. The tune of this theme will be very familiar to most people, but you may want to listen to the entire last movement of the symphony to hear the different ways that Beethoven uses the melody again and again.

The musical scores for movies and television containthemes, which can be developed as in a symphony or may be used very much like operatic leitmotifs. For example, in the music John Williams composed for the Star Warsmovies, there are melodic themes that are associated with the main characters. These themes are often complete melodies with many phrases, but a single phrase can be taken from the melody and used as a motif. A single phrase of Ben Kenobi’sTheme, for example, can remind you of all the good things he stands for, even if he is not on the movie screen at the time.