melody, succession of single tones of varying pitch. Melody is the linear aspect of music, in contrast to harmony, the chordal aspect, which results from the simultaneous sounding of tones. Melody must be considered with rhythm rhythm, the basic temporal element of music, concerned with duration and with stresses or accents whether irregular or organized into regular patternings. The formulation in the late 12th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. ; they are the two necessary elements to music. Melody by itself, i.e., monophonic music, was the principal form of composition in Western cultures before the year 1000. It remains in folk song folk song, music of anonymous composition, transmitted orally. The theory that folk songs were originally group compositions has been modified in recent studies.
..... Click the link for more information. and in many non-Western cultures. From 1000 melody was combined with one or more different melodies. The polyphonic music thus created dominated composition until about 1600 when homophonic music, melody supported by harmonies, was developed in Italy and slowly spread throughout Europe in the following century. See polyphony polyphony (pəlĭf`ənē), music whose texture is formed by the interweaving of several melodic lines.
..... Click the link for more information. and harmony harmony, in music, simultaneous sounding of two or more tones and, especially, the study of chords and their relations. Harmony was the last in the development of what may be considered the basic elements of modern music—harmony, melody, rhythm, and tone
..... Click the link for more information. .

melody

Rhythmic succession of single tones organized as an aesthetic whole. The melody is often the highest line in a musical composition. Melodies may suggest their own harmony or counterpoint. As fundamental as rhythm and metre (and more so than harmony), melody is common to all musical cultures.

melody

Music

a. a succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence; tune

b. the horizontally represented aspect of the structure of a piece of music

melody (redirected from melodic)

melody

melody
(redirected from melodic)