Editing Cruciform (section)

== Cruciform melody ==
<!-- This section is linked from [[BACH motif]], [[Cross motif]], and [[Musical cryptogram]] -->
In music, a [[melody]] of four pitches where a straight line drawn between the outer pair bisects a straight line drawn between the inner pair, thus forming a cross. In its simplest form, the cruciform melody is a [[changing tones|changing tone]], where the melody ascends or descends by [[steps and skips|step]], skips below or above the first pitch, then returns to the first pitch by step. Often representative of the Christian cross, such melodies are cruciform in their retrogrades or inversions. [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], whose last name may be represented in tones through a [[musical cryptogram]] known as the [[BACH motif]] that is a cruciform melody, employed the device extensively. The subject of the [[Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor, BWV 849|fugue in c-sharp minor]] from ''[[The Well-Tempered Clavier]]'' Book I is cruciform. See also: [[Cross motif]].