Melody

Definition of Melody
The word "melody" means many things to many people. Arias, songs, motifs, themes, even recitative, can be included in the all-encompassing word "melody". But, for the present, it will be convenient to limit ourselves to what we know as "songs" and, for now, the simpler the better. Once basic principles have been established, there will be ample time to examine the more complex, often incomplete forms of "melodic" material. Our choice of songs will evidently be arbitrary, but we have attempted to examine songs of different origins, all old enough and popular enough to have proven their worth. Our goal was to choose examples well-known to the average visitor.

Dimensions of Melody
There are three dimensions within each melody.
     1. The specific note-values of the melody,
               which we will call its "Melo-Rhythm".
     2. The harmonic chord pattern of the melody, often called the "changes",
               which we will call its "Melo-Harmony".
     3. The specific choice of Voice-leading lines (V-L), taken from the Melo-Harmony,
          which will be incorporated in the "spaces" of the melo-rhythm, and
               which we will call its Melo-Lines.

You might like to read about The Langer Hinge.