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Of the nature of melody; relating to, containing, or made up of, melody; melodious.

The department of musical science which treats of the pitch of tones, and of the laws of melody.

Florid; figurative; involving passing discords by the freer melodic movement of one or more parts or voices in the harmony; as, figurate counterpoint or descant. Figurate counterpoint or descant (Mus.), that which is not simple, or in which the parts do not move together tone for tone, but in which freer movement of on…

Flowery; ornamental; running in rapid melodic figures, divisions, or passages, as in variations; full of fioriture or little ornamentations.

Relating to harmony, -- as melodic relates to melody; harmonious; esp., relating to the accessory sounds or overtones which accompany the predominant and apparent single tone of any string or sonorous body.

g unity and consistency in polyphonic composition; the repetition of essentially the same melodic theme, phrase, or motive, on different degrees of pitch, by one or more of the other parts of voises. Cf. Canon.

n of G. leitmotif] (Mus.), a guiding theme; in the modern music drama of Wagner, a marked melodic phrase or short passage which always accompanies the reappearance of a certain person, situation, abstract idea, or allusion in the course of the play; a sort of musical label. -- Leading note (Mus.), the seventh note or…

The art of forming melody; melody; -- now often used for a melodic passage, rather than a complete melody.

interval, or three semitones, between the sixth and seventh, as, 6/F, 7/G#, 8/A. But, for melodic purposes, both the sixth and the seventh are sometimes made major in the ascending, and minor in the descending, scale, thus: --See Major. -- Minor term of syllogism (Logic), the subject of the conclusion.…

ich is reproduced and varied through the course of a comor a movement; a short figure, or melodic germ, out of which a whole movement is develpoed. See also Leading motive, under Leading. [Written also motivo.]

Consisting of several tone series, or melodic parts, progressing simultaneously according to the laws of counterpoint; contrapuntal; as, a polyphonic composition; -- opposed to homophonic, or monodic.

A melodic embellishment consisting of the quick alternation of a principal tone with an auxiliary tone above it, usually the next of the scale; --called also the inverted mordente.

ich a phrase or passage is successively repeated, each time a step or half step higher; a melodic sequence.

A melodic phrase or passage successively repeated one tone higher; a rosalia.