Melodic motion is the quality of movement of a

melody A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most liter ...

, including nearness or farness of successive pitches or

notes Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * Notes (album), ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) sho ...

in a

. This may be described as conjunct or disjunct, stepwise, skipwise or no movement, respectively. See also

contrapuntal motion In music theory, contrapuntal motion is the general movement of two melodic lines with respect to each other. In traditional four-part harmony, it is important that lines maintain their independence, an effect which can be achieved by the judicio ...

. In a conjunct melodic motion, the melodic phrase moves in a stepwise fashion; that is the subsequent notes move up or down a semitone or tone, but no greater. In a disjunct melodic motion, the melodic phrase leaps upwards or downwards; this movement is greater than a whole tone. In popular Western music, a melodic leap of disjunct motion is often present in the chorus of a song, to distinguish it from the verses and captivate the audience.

Bruno Nettl Bruno Nettl (14 March 1930 – 15 January 2020) was an ethnomusicologist who was central in defining ethnomusicology as a discipline. His research focused on folk and traditional music, specifically Native American music the music of Iran an ...

describes various types of melodic movement or contour (Nettl 1956, 51–53): *Ascending: Upwards melodic movement *Descending: Downwards melodic movement (prevalent in the New World and Australian music) *Undulating: Equal movement in both directions, using approximately the same intervals for ascent and descent (prevalent in Old World culture music) *Pendulum: Extreme undulation that covers a large range and uses large intervals is called pendulum-type melodic movement *Tile, terrace, or cascading: a number of descending

phrases In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...

in which each phrase begins on a higher pitch than the last ended (prevalent in the North American Plain Indians music) *Arc: The melody rises and falls in roughly equal amounts, the curve ascending gradually to a climax and then dropping off (prevalent among Navaho Indians and North American Indian music) *Rise: may be considered a

musical form In music, ''form'' refers to the structure of a musical composition or musical improvisation, performance. In his book, ''Worlds of Music'', Jeff Todd Titon suggests that a number of organizational elements may determine the formal structure of a ...

, a contrasting section of higher pitch, a "musical plateau". Other examples include: * Double tonic: smaller pendular motion in one direction These all may be

modal frame A modal frame in music is "a number of types permeating and unifying Music of Africa, African, Music of Europe, European, and Music of the United States, American song" and melody., quoted in Richard Middleton (1990/2002). ''Studying Popular Musi ...

s or parts of modal frames.

Sources

*Nettl, B. (1956). ''Music in Primitive Culture''. United States of America: Harvard University Press. {{music-theory-stub