counterpoint, in music, the art of combining melodies each of which is independent though forming part of a homogeneous texture. The term derives from the Latin for "point against point," meaning note against note in referring to the notation of plainsong plainsong or plainchant, the unharmonized chant of the medieval Christian liturgies in Europe and the Middle East; usually synonymous with Gregorian chant, the liturgical music of the Roman Catholic Church.
..... Click the link for more information. . The academic study of counterpoint was long based on Gradus ad Parnassum (1725, tr. 1943) by Johann Joseph Fux (1660–1741), an Austrian theorist and composer. This work formulates the study of counterpoint into five species—note against note, two notes against one, four notes against one, syncopation, and florid counterpoint, which combines the other species. Countless textbooks have followed this method, but since the early 20th cent. several theorists have based their courses in counterpoint on a direct study of 16th-century contrapuntal practice. The early master composers of contrapuntal music include Palestrina Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da (jōvän`nē pyārl
..... Click the link for more information. , Lasso Lasso, Orlando di (ōrlän`dō dē läs`sō), 1532–94, Franco-Flemish composer, b.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Byrd Byrd, William, 1543–1623, English composer, organist at Lincoln Cathedral and, jointly with Tallis, at the Chapel Royal. Although Roman Catholic, he composed anthems and services for the English Church in addition to his great Roman masses and Latin motets.
..... Click the link for more information. . Polyphonic forms were later given a most brilliant and sophisticated expression during the baroque baroque, in music, a style that prevailed from the last decades of the 16th cent. to the first decades of the 18th cent. Its beginnings were in the late 16th-century revolt against polyphony that gave rise to the accompanied recitative and to opera .
..... Click the link for more information. era in the works of J. S. Bach Bach, Johann Sebastian (sābäs`tyän bäkh), 1685–1750, German composer and organist, b.
..... Click the link for more information. . See also polyphony polyphony (pəlĭf`ənē), music whose texture is formed by the interweaving of several melodic lines.
..... Click the link for more information. ; imitation imitation, in music, a device of counterpoint wherein a phrase or motive is employed successively in more than one voice. The imitation may be exact, the same intervals being repeated at the same or different pitches, or it may be free, in which case numerous types
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

See W. Piston, Counterpoint (1947); H. Searle, Twentieth Century Counterpoint (1954).

counterpoint

Art of combining different melodic lines in a musical composition. The term is often used interchangeably with polyphony (music consisting of two or more distinct melodic lines), but counterpoint more specifically refers to the compositional technique involved in the handling of these melodic lines. The first recorded use of two melodic lines simultaneously was in 9th-century treatises showing examples of organum (a type of music for multiple voices), though improvised counterpoint—in which the voices probably moved mostly parallel to each other, and thus failed to convey an impression of independence—may date back to some centuries earlier. The desire to ensure pleasant consonances and avoid unpleasant dissonances when improvising (see consonance and dissonance) called for principles of simultaneous vocal motion (voice leading). Because the relative movement of voices approaching and leaving given intervals was thought to produce effects that were more or less pleasing, rules were created to govern various types of relative motion. The “vertical” aspect of counterpoint—the relationship between the melodic lines—came to be studied as harmony, especially from the 18th century. Though harmony and counterpoint are intimately intertwined, most of the multivoiced music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is considered essentially polyphonic or contrapuntal—that is, consisting of a combination of relatively independent and integral melodic lines. In the Baroque era, with the invention of figured bass and the continuo, the balance began to shift toward a harmonic orientation.

counterpoint

1. the technique involving the simultaneous sounding of two or more parts or melodies

2. a melody or part combined with another melody or part

3. the musical texture resulting from the simultaneous sounding of two or more melodies or parts

4. strict counterpoint the application of the rules of counterpoint as an academic exercise

5. Prosody the use of a stress or stresses at variance with the regular metrical stress

counterpoint (redirected from Kontrapunkt)

Bibliography

counterpoint

counterpoint
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