The Skeleton
notion
A common notion concerning melody construction is that melodies consist
of ‘structural’ and
'ornamental' tones. The structural tones form the skeleton of the
melody
which may be elaborated by ornamental tones. Here are
a few examples:
Figure 1. A melody and its underlying
skeleton.
Figure 2. Upper line: First phrase
(soprano) of the Gavotte of the English Suite #3 by J.S. Bach. Lower
line: underlying skeleton.
A more farfetched interpretation of the skeleton notion is from Salzer
(1982, p. 44)) who claims that the three melodies below have the same
underlying skeleton (as indicated by the red colored notes).
Figure 3. Underlying skeleton of 3
melodies, from top to bottom: Haydn Minuet, Folk Tune, Schumann Album
leaves Op. 124 No. 16, according to Salzer.
References
Salzer, F. (1982, Originally published 1952). Structural Hearing: Tonal
coherence in music. New York: Dover
SkeletonNotion.html (last update 6.5.2008)
Created in SeaMonkey
© D.J. Povel, 2008