Counterpoint

There is counterpoint when there are two or more simultaneous melodies, and counterpoint is the art of writing them (Lacerda 1966, ch. XXV). The name comes from the Latin punctus contra punctum, point against point, note against note: for each note of one voice, a note of the other.

The definition looks simple, but it hides a demand. Blatter makes it explicit: counterpoint is the result of two or more independent and equally significant musical lines sounding at the same time (Blatter 2007, part 4, art. 1). Putting two melodies together is not enough; each has to go on being heard as a melody.

What makes a line independent

In tonal music the lines of a counterpoint meet certain expectations: they establish and maintain a harmonic framework, respond to one another, and prepare, reach and resolve dissonances (Blatter 2007, part 4, art. 1).

Each line, above all a vocal one, has to be singable. So lines move mainly by step, and the leaps they make are the easiest to sing: thirds, perfect fourths and fifths and, mostly in the bass, octaves (Blatter 2007, part 4, art. 1).

And independence depends on how the voices move against each other. Contrary motion separates the lines most; parallel fifths and octaves are avoided because they fuse two voices into one. Both subjects have a topic of their own, voice motion.

Note against note

The most basic relationship between two voices is note against note. One voice, the cantus firmus, the given melody, is accompanied by another, the counterpoint, with one note for each of its notes and only consonances between the two (Blatter 2007, part 4, art. 1). A counterpoint above a cantus firmus. The upper voice:

Hear the passage

The cantus firmus:

Hear the passage

The intervals between the voices are a fifth, a third, a third, a sixth and an octave, all consonant. The beginning and end sit on perfect consonances; the middle uses thirds and sixths for variety. Almost the whole way is in contrary motion, and the ending, a major sixth opening to the octave, is the most typical cadence of two-voice counterpoint.

This is the first of the species of counterpoint, the traditional method that adds one difficulty at a time: after note against note come two notes against one, four against one, the suspension and finally florid counterpoint. The method has a topic of its own. Blatter notes that it lies beyond the scope of his book, but that its principles underpin part writing throughout Western music (Blatter 2007, part 4, art. 1).

Chords that are counterpoint

Four-part writing, soprano, alto, tenor and bass, looks as if it were made of chords, and to a beginner it sounds like a string of blocks. Blatter points out that it is in fact contrapuntal: each of the four voices is a line, and the rules that govern it are rules of counterpoint (Blatter 2007, part 4, art. 1).

So counterpoint and harmony are not opposites. In a tonal piece the independent lines move within a harmonic framework, the axis between tonic and dominant, and all harmonic motion comes from it and returns to it (Blatter 2007, part 4, art. 1). Harmony says which notes sound together; counterpoint says how each voice gets there.

Counterpoint and polyphony

The texture counterpoint produces is polyphony, in which the lines are of equal, or nearly equal, importance and it is hard to say which is the main one (Blatter 2007, part 5, art. 1). A melody with chordal accompaniment is not counterpoint; two melodies competing for the listener's attention are.

Between the two extremes there are many shades. A countermelody, a second tune that goes along with the main one without taking its place, is counterpoint on a small scale, and it is everywhere: in the second voice of a vocal duo, in the walking bass of choro, in the line a saxophone plays under a singer.

What comes next

Counterpoint has one technique that organises it in a special way: imitation, in which one voice repeats what another has just done. Taken strictly, imitation gives the canon, and at its highest level, the fugue.