On melody and voice alignment
A personal diagram of textural types (and their coefficients) as basis for future visualizations | License: CC BY-SA 4.0
The sequence of sounds and the trace they leave in our memory constitute core components of music perception. Melody, the "pitched sounds arranged in musical time,” 1 is a key element in work identification. Another definition of melody, that of the prominent sequence of sounds that can be easily distinguished from other synchronous sequences (often of a supporting nature and known as accompaniment ) is also significant.
The exact note-to-note representation of melodies is not prerequisite for extracting musical patterns and contours of a work. As a side note, before the invention of modern music notation (that is, before Guido von Arezzo's Micrologus de disciplina artis musicae in 1025), 2 notation itself was used as an approximate indication of melody, consisting of neumes that didn't provide an exact representation of pitch but rather an indication of movement in up- or downwards directions.
Additionally, apart from the horizontal sequence of sounds, there is also a vertical dimension across the different voices or instruments of a work, which defines the texture of music and has an impact on its perception. The ways the voices / instruments 3 connect to each other can be various, as indicated by the following indicative list: 4
- monophonic type/alignment: a single melodic line with no accompaniment
- biphonic type/alignment: two lines, one being the melody, the other being a constant pitch or pattern as accompaniment
- polyphonic type/alignment: multiple melodic lines, independent from one another
- homophonic type/alignment: polyphonic type with the melody line being harmonically accompanied by the rest of voices
- counterpoint / contrapuntal type/alignment: polyphonic type with the lines interwoven with one another
1 "Melody," Grove Music Online, accessed February 12, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.18357
2 In this work, Guido von Arezzo describes for the first time a notational system that comprises a four-line staff and uses clefs.
3 Voices and instruments are used here interchangeably.
4 Based on: Bruce Benward and Marilyn Nadine Saker, Music: In Theory and Practice, seventh edition, vol. 1. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003.
Visual precedents and sketches
1. Image from the Symphony Graphique website shop. Visual Listening Guide, © Hannah Chan-Hartley | Image used with permission
2. Field Condition, © Khoa Vu | Image used with permission
3. Page 131 from Treatise (1967), Cornelius Cardew | No copyright owner was identified
4. Page 30 from Treatise (1967), Cornelius Cardew | No copyright owner was identified
5. Sound sequences. Personal sketch | License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6. Voice alignment. Personal sketch | License: CC BY-SA 4.0
