The definition of melody is a musically satisfying sequence of notes and in western music it is the most memorable feature of the song; like Rebecca's blacks incredibly painfully catchy song 'its friday', the melody is always stuck in your head no matter what you do to try and get rid it.
melody can with words or without and tends to always have a meaning behind it whether it be a place, feeling, character or story etc.
melodies can be distinguished by the use of different instruments for example, in a choir you normally get the soprano's singing the melody and the altos singing the counter melody also in an string orchestra you normally get the violins playing the melody and the viola playing the counter melody with the cello,piano and double bass playing the accompaniment. every instrument that plays a melody and every individual will bring their own individual flavour to it to make it unique to them and to distinguish it from others.
there are different ways in which melody can interpret different emotions. one way, for example is a rising intonation of the melody represents a happy and uplifting mood whereas a descending intonation of the melody represents a sad and gloomy mood.
“I believe that this [communication] is such a fundamentally important function
of music that it may
even have been the root of the first song.” (Levitin,
2009: 141-2)
For example in the piece... The use of intonation on an ascending and descending scale distinguishes the difference in characters. A happy and major key with a rising intonation portrays the chirpy little boy and the minor lover intonation shows the wolf.
For example in the piece... The use of intonation on an ascending and descending scale distinguishes the difference in characters. A happy and major key with a rising intonation portrays the chirpy little boy and the minor lover intonation shows the wolf.
