Editing Counterpoint (section)

{{Short description|Polyphonic music with separate melodies}}
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{{Redirect|Contrapuntal Forms|the sculpture|Contrapuntal Forms (Hepworth)}}
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{{Listen|type=music
| header       = [[File:BachFugueBar.png|frameless|center]]
| filename     = BachBWV862Bar.mid
| title        = Sample of counterpoint
| description  = Extract from [[Fugue]] no. 17 in A-flat major, [[BWV]] 862, from book 1 of ''[[The Well-Tempered Clavier]]'' by [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]]
}}

In [[music theory]], '''counterpoint''' is the relationship of two or more simultaneous [[Part (music)|musical lines]] (also called voices) that are [[harmonically]] dependent on each other, yet independent in [[rhythm]] and [[Pitch contour|melodic contour]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Laitz|first1=Steven G.|title=The Complete Musician|date=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press, Inc.|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-530108-3|page=96|edition=2nd}}</ref><!--This doesn't sound like it applies to organum, conductus, discant, English discant, or fauxbourdon, all of which are contrapuntal forms--or even to contrapuntal practice generally in the 13th and 14th centuries.--> The term originates from the [[Latin]] ''punctus contra punctum'' meaning "point against point", i.e. "note against note". [[John Rahn]] describes counterpoint as follows:

{{blockquote|It is hard to write a beautiful song. It is harder to write several individually beautiful songs that, when sung simultaneously, sound as a more beautiful polyphonic whole. The internal structures that create each of the voices separately must contribute to the emergent structure of the polyphony, which in turn must reinforce and comment on the structures of the individual voices. The way that is accomplished in detail is ... 'counterpoint'.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last= Rahn|first= John|author-link= John Rahn
 |others= intro. and comment. by [[Benjamin Boretz]]
 |title= Music Inside Out: Going Too Far in Musical Essays
 |year= 2000 |publisher= G+B Arts International
 |location= Amsterdam |isbn= 90-5701-332-0
 |oclc= 154331400|page= 177
}}
</ref>
}}

Counterpoint has been most commonly identified in the [[classical music|European classical tradition]], strongly developing during the [[renaissance music|Renaissance]] and in much of the [[common practice period]], especially in the [[Baroque music|Baroque period]]. In Western [[Music education|pedagogy]], counterpoint is taught through a system of species (see below).

There are several different forms of counterpoint, including imitative counterpoint and free counterpoint. Imitative counterpoint involves the repetition of a main melodic idea across different vocal parts, with or without variation. Compositions written in free counterpoint often incorporate non-traditional harmonies and chords, [[chromaticism]] and [[Consonance and dissonance|dissonance]].