In
Schenkerian analysis Schenkerian analysis is a method of analyzing tonal music based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker (1868–1935). The goal is to demonstrate the organic coherence of the work by showing how it relates to an abstracted deep structure, the ''Ursatz' ...
, unfolding (German: ''
Ausfaltung'') or compound melody is the implication of more than one
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 ...
or
line
Line most often refers to:
* Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity
* Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system
Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to:
Arts ...
by a single voice through
skipping back and forth between the
notes of the two melodies. In
music cognition, the phenomenon is also known as
melodic fission
In music cognition, melodic fission (also known as melodic or auditory streaming, or stream segregation), is a phenomenon in which one line of pitches (an auditory stream) is heard as two or more separate melodic lines. This occurs when a phrase ...
.
The term "compound melody" may have its origin in Walter Piston's ''Counterpoint'' (New York, Norton, 1947), under the form "compound melodic line" (London edition, 1947, p. 23). In the context of Schenkerian analysis, it appears among others in Forte & Gilbert, ''Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis'' (1982), Chapter 3, pp. 67-80. Manfred Bukofzer, ''Music in the Baroque Era'', New York, Norton, 1947, had spoken of "implied polyphony".
Unfolding is "a
prolongation by means of the unfolding of intervals horizontally." Though the notes skipped between, those heard, may be considered near the
foreground, the
dyads, those implied, are in the middle or background. Middleground dyads are "unfolded" in the foreground: "intervals conceptually heard as sounding together are separated in time, unfolded, as it where, into a melodic sequence."
[Samarotto, Frank (2009). "The Divided Tonic in the First Movement of Beethoven's Op. 132", ''Keys to the Drama: Nine Perspectives on Sonata Forms'', p.5. Sly, Gordon, ed. Ashgate. .]
See also
*
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
*
Monophony
In music, monophony is the simplest of musical textures, consisting of a melody (or "tune"), typically sung by a single singer or played by a single instrument player (e.g., a flute player) without accompanying harmony or chords. Many folk son ...
*
Polyphony
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
References
Melody
Schenkerian analysis
{{music-theory-stub