You also might think of it as a single musical line. Transcript. A melody can move up by step, down by step, up by leap, or down by leap.The exact combination of these four motions that a melody possesses gives it its contour. Strophe is another word for. Learn about the four types of melodic motion, and analyze the contours of some famous melodies to find out what makes them so special. However, examine the contour: up a fifth, up a step, down a step. flashcard sets, {{courseNav.course.topics.length}} chapters | As mentioned previously, several databases use this representation alone. As a melody progresses, the pitches usually move up or down. One can picture a line that goes up steeply when the melody suddenly jumps to a much higher note, or that goes down slowly when the melody gently falls. Understanding melodies by their contour can be useful because reproducing the contour will reproduce the melody, even in different keys. Melodic motion is the quality of movement of a melody, including nearness or farness of successive pitches or notes in a melody. repeating the same melodic shape, is another way to introduce repetition. Compound Intervals: Definition & Concept, Over 83,000 lessons in all major subjects, {{courseNav.course.mDynamicIntFields.lessonCount}}, Melody vs. Harmony: Definitions and Examples, Understanding and Building Musical Scales: Definitions & Types of Scales, Chromatic Music: Definition, Scale & Harmony, Key Signature in Music: Definition & Concept, How to Determine Major Key Signatures in Music, How to Determine Minor Key Signatures in Music, Understanding the Circle of Fifths: Explanation & Chord Progression, Minor Scale: Patterns, Chords & Intervals, What Is a Tetrachord? Melody is distinct from harmony, in that a melody is heard as single notes, one right after the other, while harmony features notes sounding simultaneously. The line gives us information about the melody’s balance between up, down, step, and leap. The pattern made by the upward/downward movement of those notes is called melodic contour. | {{course.flashcardSetCount}} All melodies have contour and it’s one of the properties that’s most useful for identifying and cataloguing melodies. Melodic contour is the direction of tones ascending and descending in a melody without regard to the rhythm of the actual notes. So this melody gets its beautiful, expressive quality in a large part from its contour. For example, they'll often have diverse contours involving all four types of melodic motion in each gesture. There are a few things about its contour that we might notice right away. In other words, contour is a measurement of how a melody moves between individual notes. That keeps us engaged in the music and makes the melody even more soulful and unique. A melody that stays on the same pitch too long is not very interesting to listen to. Create your account. Often, the melody is sung by a vocalist, or played by a solo instrument. Melodic Contour Melodies move up and down. lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. Good melodies will also often feature opposite pairs of motion. What types of motion are next to each other? first two years of college and save thousands off your degree. All … Stanza. To begin, good melodies tend to have diverse contours; that is, they tend to make balanced use of all different types of melodic motion. This may be described as conjunct or disjunct, stepwise, skipwise or no movement, respectively. That’s all four types of motion, making for a very diverse contour right off the bat. Such a line gives the contour or shape of the melodic line. Second, Williams makes use of large leaps, giving the music a longing, emotional quality. Or it can name exact intervals, allowing the melody to be transposed by applying the contour from any starting note.Great melodies like John Williams’ ‘Leia’s Theme’ from Star Wars tend to favor certain contour elements. The result is a memorable, expressive melody that goes down in history as one of the greatest. Take a moment and examine this melody. 's' : ''}}. Great melodies will also often feature opposite pairs, such as a leap followed by a step, an upward motion followed by a downward motion, or both. Think of, for example, your favorite nursery rhyme or your country's national anthem. Music is made up of several different elements, but one that we all recognize is melody. Create an account to start this course today. A step is the distance from one pitch to the next pitch in a diatonic scale. Think of, for example, your favorite nursery rhyme or your country’s national anthem. Williams uses a variety of melodic motions and seldom uses the same type of motion twice. The participants with amusia were impaired in discriminating and identifying melodic contour. 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Melodic Contour & Related Terms Melodic Countour: also known as melodic movement. As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over 83,000 The line gives us information about the melody's balance between up, down, step, and leap. Experiments have shown that interval direction alone (i.e. You can often get a good idea of the shape of this line by looking at the melody as it is written on th… In this melody the contour begins with a leap upwards (disjunct motion), then a gradual descent using smaller intervals (conjunct motion) that finishes on the original pitch. A melodic line has several key characteristics, including contour, range, and scale. I first made it a puzzle for us to put together. This lesson teaches you about melodic contour, which helps musicians understand how melodies rise and fall. Or it can name exact intervals, allowing the melody to be transposed by applying the contour from any starting note. Get access risk-free for 30 days, So, if a melodic line begins by moving up a leap, the composer can make it expressive and memorable by moving down (the opposite of up) or by step (the opposite of the leap), or both. Study.com has thousands of articles about every © copyright 2003-2021 Study.com. Draw a staff on the board and have students volunteer to draw or place dots on various lines and spaces on the staff. However, before you can put a song puzzle together, you have to know the song. The melody can be played on a keyboard or whistled or sung to the computer. Good melodies will also often feature opposite pairs of motion. Melodies can be built of as few as two notes and they often stretch for hundreds of notes.There are millions of different possible melodies. We'll begin with this melody by John Williams, from the sci-fi classic Star Wars, known as 'Leia's Theme.'. Now an opposite pair is created: up versus down. According to Wikipedia, melodic contour is: "the quality of movement of a melody, including nearness or farness of successive pitches or notes in a melody. In other words, contour is a measurement of how a melody moves between individual notes. 6. 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