What is Counterpoint?

If you’ve studied classical music you are probably familiar with this term. Most people would associate it with the Baroque era of music and while it is certainly featured prominently in that era, counterpoint is something that permeates through lots of types of music throughout history.

Counterpoint is music that is built linearly. That is to say that there are several musical lines that interweave with one-another and form a coherent piece. If you have one line of music, it is simply monophonic, but once you bring in two or more voices, you get polyphonic music and the possibility of creating counterpoint.

However, not all polyphonic music utilizes counterpoint; for example, if you’re playing Mozart you have a clear melody and harmony. In the famous C major sonata K545 you have a melody in the right hand but only broken chords in the left hand. The left hand by itself doesn’t really have much of a melody to it, it’s simply an accompaniment to the right hand melody. The same is true in Chopin’s E minor Prelude – you have clear delineation between the parts in the right and the left hands – one is the melody and the other is the harmony which supports it. These are not examples of counterpoint even though they are polyphonic (more than one note at a time).

Counterpoint has at least two melodies that interweave with one-another. For example, in the Bach E-minor Toccata you have multiple parts that are played with equal importance. It switches freely between the top, the middle, and the bottom and it’s up to you as the player to bring out the most important melody wherever it occurs. Bach used counterpoint freely in his music and as time went on it became extremely complex. There are Bach fugues which have up to five lines of melody that interweave with one-another throughout the music!

I hope this was helpful and if you have any more questions please feel free to contact me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729