What Is Counterpoint in Music? Free Lessons
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O6lc_ym12U

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0:07 Hi, this is livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com. I'm Robert Estrin and the question today what is counterpoint? You may have heard this
0:16 term before and wondered exactly what that means. You probably have a vague idea that it has something to do with the Baroque era of music primarily.
0:24 We're going to cover this today and I'll give you some examples so you can get your head around it and maybe get more insights if you already are familiar
0:30 with what counterpoint is. Counterpoint is simply music that is built linearly. That is there are several different musical lines that can
0:38 interweave one another at least two because if you only have one line you have monophonic music. Once you have polyphony you have more than one note
0:47 you can have the possibility of counterpoint. However, not all music really works with counterpoint. For example, if you play Mozart you have a
0:54 clear melody and harmony. For example, in the C major famous C major sonata K. 545 the left hand is just broken chords where the right hand is the melody.
1:17 The left hand by itself really doesn't have much of a melody to remember. That's all that's going on there. So, it's all about the melody.
1:34 You have a melody and accompaniment. Same thing is true with later music in Chopin like his E minor prelude.
1:59 You have a gorgeous melody on top, which is supported with these changes of harmony underneath. Clear delineation of function of these different parts. In
2:09 counterpoint, you have equal melodies. You have melodies interweaving. So, for example, in the Bach in minor toccata in the second
2:17 movement, notice how all the parts are equal. They're equal in importance and they should be played equally, too. You should bring out the important lines and
2:28 they can be anywhere. They can be at the top, the bottom, or the middle. Listen to the difference of music that relies on counterpoint instead of melody and
2:35 harmony. You can't really pick anyone part as being the melody or the harmony. They're
3:27 all melodies. Somehow Bach can interweave them together. He has two-part inventions where two lines just play around one another and
3:36 dance beautifully, three-part sinfonias, and then fugues, which can be three, four, or sometimes even five voices. That is five separate lines
3:45 interweaving. We'll have another show for you about what is a fugue. A fugue is It's an amazing composition in the hands of a master like Bach or Handel,
3:54 Telemann, and others. Thanks so much for joining me. Robert Ester here at livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com.
4:00 Look forward to more shows.