Counterpoint - Contrapuntal Derivations

Contrapuntal Derivations

Since the Renaissance period in European music, much contrapuntal music has been written in imitative counterpoint. In imitative counterpoint, two or more voices enter at different times, and (especially when entering) each voice repeats some version of the same melodic element. The fantasia, the ricercar, and later, the canon and fugue (the contrapuntal form par excellence) all feature imitative counterpoint, which also frequently appears in choral works such as motets and madrigals. Imitative counterpoint spawned a number of devices that composers use to give their works both mathematical rigor and expressive range. These devices include:

• Melodic inversion

The inverse of a given fragment of melody is the fragment turned upside down—so if the original fragment has a rising major third (see interval), the inverted fragment has a falling major (or perhaps minor) third, etc. (Compare, in twelve tone technique, the inversion of the tone row, which is the so-called prime series turned upside down.) (Note: in invertible counterpoint, including double and triple counterpoint, the term inversion is used in a different sense altogether. At least one pair of parts is switched, so that the one that was higher becomes lower. See Inversion in counterpoint; it is not a kind of imitation, but a rearrangement of the parts.)

• Retrograde

whereby an imitative voice sounds the melody backwards in relation the leading voice.

• Retrograde inversion

where the imitative voice sounds the melody backwards and upside-down at once.

• Augmentation

when in one of the parts in imitative counterpoint the note values are extended in duration compared to the rate at which they were sounded when introduced.

• Diminution

when in one of the parts in imitative counterpoint the note values are reduced in duration compared to the rate at which they were sounded when introduced.