In music, the simultaneous combination of two or more melodic strands; distinct from harmony, which implies (in general terms) a chordal texture accompanying one or more melodic lines. In invertible counterpoint, any of the melodic strands can form a satisfactory bass line for the others.
In music, counterpoint is a texture involving the simultaneous sounding of separate melodies or lines "against" each other, as in polyphony.
General principles
In all eras, writing of music organised contrapuntally has been subject to rules, sometimes strict. however, chordal, harmonic, "vertical" features are considered secondary and almost incidental when counterpoint is the predominant textural element. Counterpoint focuses on melodic interaction rather than harmonic effects generated when melodic strands sound together.
The separation of harmony and counterpoint is not absolute. Bach's counterpoint, often considered the most profound synthesis of the two dimensions ever achieved, is extremely rich harmonically, and tonally always clearly directed, while his lines remain fascinating.
Development
Counterpoint was elaborated extensively in the Renaissance period, but composers of the Baroque period brought counterpoint to a kind of culmination, and it may be said that, broadly speaking, harmony then took over as the predominant organising principle in musical composition. The late Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach wrote most of his music incorporating counterpoint, and explicitly and systematically explored the full range of contrapuntal possibilities in such works as The Art of Fugue.
Given the way terminology in music history has evolved, such music created from the Baroque period on is described as contrapuntal, while music from before Baroque times is called polyphonic.
Homophony, by contrast with polyphony, features music in which chords or vertical intervals work with a single melody without much consideration of the melodic character of the added accompanying elements, or of their melodic interactions with the melody they accompany.
In musical composition, contrapuntal techniques are important for enabling composers to generate musical ironies that serve not only to intrigue listeners into listening more intently to the spinning out of complexities found within the texture of a polyphonic composition, but also to draw them all the more into hearing the working out of these figures and interactions of musical dialogue.
Excellent examples of counterpoint in jazz include Gerry Mulligan's Young Blood, Bill Holman's Invention for Guitar and Trumpet and his Theme and Variations, as well as recordings by Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, Johnny Richards, and Jimmy Giuffre.
Species counterpoint
Species counterpoint is a type of so-called strict counterpoint, developed as a pedagogical tool, in which a student progresses through several "species" of increasing complexity, always working a very plain given part in the cantus firmus (Latin for "fixed melody"). The student gradually attains the ability to write free counterpoint (that is, less rigorously constrained counterpoint, usually without a cantus firmus) according to the rules at the given time. Zacconi, unlike later theorists, included a few extra contrapuntal techniques as species, for example invertible counterpoint. As the basis for his simplified and often over-restrictive codification of Palestrina's practice (see General notes, below), Fux described five species:
Note against note; All the first four species together, as "florid" counterpoint.Considerations for all species
Students of species counterpoint usually practice writing counterpoint in all the modes except Locrian (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian and Aeolian). The following rules apply to melodic writing in each species, for each part:
The final must be approached by step. If writing two skips in the same direction—something which must be done only rarely—the second must be smaller than the first, and the interval between
the first and the third note may not be dissonant. The interval of a tritone in three notes is to be avoided (for example, an ascending melodic motion F - A - B natural), as is the interval of a
seventh in three notes.
And, in all species, the following rules apply concerning the combination of the parts:
The counterpoint must begin and end on a perfect consonance. The interval of a tenth should not be exceeded between two adjacent parts, unless by necessity.First species
In first species counterpoint, each note in every added part (parts being also referred to as lines or voices) sounds against one note in the cantus firmus. Notes in all parts are sounded simultaneously, and move against each other simultaneously. The species is said to be expanded if any of the added notes is broken up (simply repeated).
In the present context, a "step" is a melodic interval of a half or whole step.
A few further rules given by Fux, by study of the Palestrina style, and usually given in the works of later counterpoint pedagogues, are as follows. and avoid "hidden" parallel fifths or octaves: that is, movement by similar motion to a perfect fifth or octave, unless one part (sometimes restricted to the higher of the parts) moves by step. (In practice Palestrina and others frequently allowed themselves such progressions, especially if they do not involve the lowest of the parts.) Avoid moving in parallel thirds or sixths for very long.
In the following example in two parts, the cantus firmus is the lower part. Each is in the Dorian mode.)
Short example of "First Species" counterpoint Listen to this counterpoint (file info) — play in browser (beta) First Species Problems listening to the file? See media help.Second species
In second species counterpoint, two notes in each of the added parts work against each longer note in the given part. The species is said to be expanded if one of these two shorter notes differs in length from the other.
Additional considerations in second species counterpoint are as follows, and are in addition to the considerations for first species:
It is permissible to begin on an upbeat, leaving a half-rest in the added voice. They must not be used as part of a sequential pattern. Short example of "Second Species" counterpoint Listen to this counterpoint (file info) — play in browser (beta) Second Species Problems listening to the file? See media help.Third species
In third species counterpoint, four (or three, etc.) notes move against each longer note in the given part. As with second species, it is called expanded if the shorter notes vary in length among themselves.
Short example of "Third Species" counterpoint Listen to this counterpoint (file info) — play in browser (beta) Third Species Problems listening to the file? See media help.Fourth species
In fourth species counterpoint, some notes are sustained or suspended in an added part while notes move against them in the given part, often creating a dissonance on the beat, followed by the suspended note then changing (and "catching up") to create a subsequent consonance with the note in the given part as it continues to sound. As before, fourth species counterpoint is said to be expanded when the added-part notes vary in length among themselves.
Short example of "Fourth Species" counterpoint Listen to this counterpoint (file info) — play in browser (beta) Fourth Species Problems listening to the file? See media help.Florid counterpoint
In fifth species counterpoint, sometimes called florid counterpoint, the other four species of counterpoint are combined within the added parts. In the example, the first and second bars are second species, the third bar is third species, and the fourth and fifth bars are third and embellished fourth species.
Short example of "Florid" counterpoint Listen to this counterpoint (file info) — play in browser (beta) Fifth Species Problems listening to the file? See media help.General notes
It is a common and pedantic misconception that counterpoint is defined by these five species, and therefore anything that does not follow the strict rules of the five species is not "proper" counterpoint. Fux's book and its concept of "species" was purely a method of teaching counterpoint, not a definitive or rigidly prescriptive set of rules for it.
Contrapuntal derivations
Since the Renaissance period in European music, much music which is considered contrapuntal has been written in imitative counterpoint. In imitative counterpoint, two or more voices enter at different times, and (especially when entering) each voice repeats some version of the same melodic element. The fantasia, the ricercar, and later, the fugue (the contrapuntal form par excellence) all feature imitative counterpoint, which also frequently appears in choral works such as motets and madrigals. Imitative counterpoint has spawned a number of devices that composers have turned to in order to give their works both mathematical rigor and expressive range. See Inversion in counterpoint; it is not a kind of imitation, but a rearrangement of the parts.) Retrograde refers to the contrapuntal device whereby notes in an imitative voice sound backwards in relation to their order in the original. Augmentation is when in one of the parts in imitative counterpoint the notes are extended in duration compared to the rate at which they were sounded when introduced. Diminution is when in one of the parts in imitative counterpoint the notes are reduced in duration compared to the rate at which they were sounded when introduced.
Dissonant counterpoint
Dissonant counterpoint was first theorized by Charles Seeger as "at first purely a school-room discipline," consisting of species counterpoint but with all the traditional rules reversed. First species counterpoint is required to be all dissonances, establishing "dissonance, rather than consonance, as the rule," and consonances are "resolved" through a skip, not step. Other aspects of composition, such as rhythm, could be "dissonated" by applying the same principle (Charles Seeger, "On Dissonant Counterpoint," Modern Music 7, no.
Seeger was not the first to employ dissonant counterpoint, but was the first to theorize and promote it. Other composers who have used dissonant counterpoint, if not in the exact manner prescribed by Charles Seeger, include Ruth Crawford-Seeger, Carl Ruggles, Dane Rudhyar, Fartein Valen, and Arnold Schoenberg.
Counterpoint in American Popular Music
Irving Berlin wrote three well-known songs that were true examples of counterpoint in American popular music.
Another more recent example is from the musical Rent.The composer Jonathan Larson incorporates counterpoint in the shows finale (Finale B).
In literature
Palestinian-American post-colonial critical theorist Edward Said, himself a pianist and music critic, wrote extensively about how literature could be contrapuntal.
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