The importance of melody.

Authors Avatar

Melody is a series of notes of varying pitches, organised and shaped to make musical sense to the listener. Music is made up of ingredients and some people would say that melody is the most important one. Melody may best be described as what you find yourself humming when a piece of music is brought to mind. When people comment that they "can't get that tune out of their head", they are referring to melody. Many people regard it as the most essential ingredient in music (Sir George Martin said ‘Melody is the single most important element in music).It is why we remember great music), as it is often the most memorable aspect (it sticks in your head the most) and can evoke a wide range of emotions. Melodies can make us happy or sad, and they can be very thought-provoking, the listener's response being a wholly personal one (everyone has a different opinion because a piece of music may make musical sense to one listener but me a meaningless jumble of notes to another. Also what may make one person express their emotions may leave another totally unmoved).Melody itself has many characteristics and is built up with a number of different things.

A melody is characterised by a number of elements, namely:

  • shape / contour (the rise and fall of the notes)
  • range of notes used (difference between the highest and lowest notes)
  • intervals used (does the melody move mostly by step, leap, or a combination of both)
  • structure and phrasing (this may involve repetition and/or variation of distinctive note-patterns, sequences, cadences, answering-phrases, climax of the melody)
  • the type of scale on which the notes are based
Join now!

Contour

Contour or shape is the rise and fall of the notes, the way in which-now upwards now downwards-they curve along in musical space and time. Some pieces of music have steep contours and others flatter ones. For example the first part of Greensleeves has a contour like this:

Range

The range (lowest note to highest note) can be narrow (small range) medium (medium range) or wide (large range). For example ‘Panorama’ from the ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, by Tchaikovsky uses a narrow range of notes whereas Symphony No.4 in E minor ...

This is a preview of the whole essay