Musical Elements: Melody

Fundamental Concepts

Melody refers to a sequence of single notes arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way.
It’s often described as the ‘tune’ of a piece of music, and it’s typically the most recognisable aspect.
Compositions may contain a single melody or multiple melodies (known as polyphony).

Conjunct motion occurs when the melody moves primarily by small intervals.
Disjunct motion involves leaps or jumps to non-adjacent notes, creating a more dramatic effect.
Static motion is when the melody remains on the same note for extended periods.

Phrase is a musical unit, often a component of a melody.
Two phrases together form a unit called an antecedent and consequent phrase pair, similar to question and answer.
A motif is a short musical idea that is developed and repeated throughout a piece.

Sequence is the repetition of a melodic phrase at different pitch levels.
Inversion flips the melody upside down, so ascending intervals become descending, and vice versa.
A retrograde melody is when the melodic phrase is played backward.
Augmentation involves repeating the melody but with longer note durations, whereas diminution shortens note durations.
Ornamentation embellishes a melody by adding extra notes, e.g., trills, grace notes, and mordents.

In classical music, composers typically use clear, tuneful melodies, often based on scales or modes.
Blues and jazz melodies often employ blue notes and improvisation.
Pop music generally features simple, catchy melodies, often repeated in a verse-chorus structure.
In folk music, melodies are often simple and designed to be easily sung by a group, with frequent use of pentatonic scales.
Serialism, a twentieth-century technique, uses tone row, where all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are organised into a specific order to create a melody.