Counterpoint



I  INTRODUCTION

Counterpoint, the simultaneous combination of two or more melodies. The word counterpoint is derived from the Latin punctus contra punctum-literally, "point against point," or note against note, but meaning melody against melody. Although counterpoint is nearly synonymous with polyphony; a musical texture containing two or more melodies simultaneously, the two words differ slightly in common usage. Polyphony refers to textures in general (polyphonic versus homophonic) and to early music (medieval polyphony), whereas counterpoint commonly refers to texture in later music (Johann Sebastian Bach's counterpoint) or to the techniques of composing polyphony (16th-century counterpoint).

One familiar instance of counterpoint is the round, a simple kind of canon. In a round each part (or voice) has the same melody, but the second and succeeding parts begin one after another, as in "Row, Row, Row Your Boat". In a monophonic texture, which has only one voice, or in a homophonic texture, which has a melody with chordal accompaniment, the listener focuses on the melody in the highest voice; in a round, the listener follows the melodic activity from one voice to another.

To some extent, all music with more than one part sounding at a time contains counterpoint. Even in a homophonic texture, counterpoint occurs between the melody and the accompanying parts. But the true spirit of counterpoint arises when the different parts are equally interesting melodies and are independent of one another, both in melodic direction (rising or falling in pitch, or remaining on the same pitch) and in rhythmic activity.

The voices all have melodies of equal interest. When one voice has a sustained or repeated note, often the other voice has an ascending or descending motion; this combination of sustained pitch with rising or falling pitch is called oblique motion. When one voice ascends or descends, often another voice moves in the opposite direction, a combination called contrary motion. Only rarely do two voices ascend or descend together, a movement that is called similar motion. Similarly, the rhythms of each voice remain distinct at all times.

Counterpoint enlivens musical textures as varied as the rhythmically repetitious medieval polyphony of the French composer Perotin; the perfect balance of melody and harmony in the golden-age polyphony of the Italian Giovanni da Palestrina, the Flemish Orlando di Lasso, and other 16th-century composers; the monumental architecture in sound created by J. S. Bach in the early 18th century; the vigorous contrapuntal textures during transitional and developmental passages in music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven in the classical period (late 18th and early 19th century); the dissonant clashes between melodies in the music of 20th-century composers such as the Hungarian Béla Bartók and the Russian-born Igor Stravinsky; and the free flow of a jazz improvisation over a bass.



II  IMITATIVE COUNTERPOINT

Counterpoint can be imitative or nonimitative. In imitative counterpoint, the various voices share the same melodic patterns (or motives), imitating one another as in a canon. Imitative counterpoint occurs primarily in genres such as the canon or the fugue and is most characteristic of certain historical periods in Western music (chiefly, the 16th through 18th century). In nonimitative counterpoint, each voice has it own motives.

In imitative counterpoint, several techniques are used to produce variety. The second and following voices can enter on the same pitch as the first (as in a round), or they can enter at a higher or lower pitch. The second and following voices can imitate the first voice exactly or can vary its motives. Sometimes the answering voice is much slower than the first (augmentation, that is, use of longer notes) or much faster (diminution, or use of shorter notes). Sometimes the second voice does not wait for the first to complete its motives, but enters early; such overlapping is called stretto. The answering voice can also turn the motives upside down, imitating every ascending interval by a descending interval, and imitating every descending interval by an ascending interval; this practice is called inversion.



III  HISTORY

Counterpoint in Western music arose in the late medieval period as composers took a preexisting melody, called a cantus firmus (Latin, "fixed melody"), and added one or more parts against it. Over several centuries composers gradually learned to create independent melodies that fit well with one another harmonically and rhythmically. Contrapuntal techniques were perfected in the 16th-century golden age of polyphony. In the music of Palestrina, Lasso, and others, each voice is a well-formed melody; the use of imitation is persistent; and between voices, both rhythm and motion are carefully controlled. The cool, classic perfection of the polyphony of this period has never been equaled, and the style has remained a basis for instruction in counterpoint.

Counterpoint flowered again during the first half of the 18th century in the music of J. S. Bach, the German-English composer George Frideric Handel, and others, but it did so under the harmonic demands of the newly developed major and minor keys. In the classical and romantic periods (late 18th and 19th century), composers turned to the more direct emotional expression afforded by combining melody with varying harmonic accompaniments; counterpoint was considered a learned craft, relegated mostly to developmental passages.

Interest in counterpoint underwent a resurgence in the 20th century, manifested partly in imitations of older styles (neoclassicism) and partly in new ways. The late 19th-century disintegration of the system of tonality based on major and minor keys led in the 20th century to greater freedom from earlier harmonic norms. As a result, in 20th-century music the individual parts in contrapuntal textures are freer to pursue their own melodic tendencies.



IV  TEACHING OF COUNTERPOINT

The writing of successful counterpoint in any style requires careful control over the individual voices and their interactions. The contrapuntal style of the 16th century has remained one pedagogical model from that time to the present day. In this music, the voices remain within a maximum compass of an octave and a fifth, and the compass of each voice lies a fourth or fifth lower or higher than that of its neighbors. Within these voices the melodies may move stepwise or by certain skips-those of a third (such as from C up to E or A down to F), a perfect fourth and fifth, an ascending minor sixth, and an octave with the larger skips used sparingly. Voices form only consonant (stable, nonclashing) intervals with one another, except in specific melodic-harmonic patterns (classified as passing tones, neighbors, anticipations, suspensions, and so forth); such patterns of dissonance (unstable, clashing intervals) are allowed only in certain clearly defined instances. Except for suspensions, such dissonances generally occur in short rhythmic values and on unaccented beats or divisions of beats. Even motion among consonances is regulated in this music, with perfect fifths and octaves arising only when two voices move by oblique or contrary motion. The rhythmic flow within individual voices is smooth, with no abrupt starts or stops, and with no short syncopations (offbeat rhythms).

Counterpoint is often taught by several species, or types of situations, a method perfected by the German composer Johann Fux in 1725 in a text that is still in use. In such teaching exercises, the basis is a cantus firmus with notes of equal duration. In first species, the counterpoint composed against this cantus firmus has one note for each note in the cantus; in second species each note of the cantus is set against two equal-length notes, and in third species, against four equal-length notes. In fourth species the notes of cantus and counterpoint are the same length, but they begin on different beats. In fifth species notes of unequal value are used in the counterpoint.

In the 18th and 19th centuries counterpoint was composed to conform to a commonly accepted system of harmony. In the 20th century, under the influence of the German theorist Heinrich Schenker, counterpoint has come to be viewed as a basis for all tonal harmony. Schenker demonstrated that all manner of harmonies could be heard as elaborations of the interaction of voices, as in species counterpoint. In other words, counterpoint is considered the primary process; harmonies, even when an elaborate harmonic system exists, are considered one result of combining different voices in counterpoint.

See Harmony.



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