Melody

A melody (from Greek melos song = and = Odé vocals) is in music a characteristically ordered sequence of tones. She is occurring through the intervals, the direction (falling, rising) and determined its rhythm. Mostly it is backed up in closed ( cf. period), divided into different sections ( motifs) and in vocal music from a text. Characteristic of a melody is also that it is perceived as an independent musical form.

General

The crucial property of the melody is the possibility of their recognition as well as their reproduction, regardless of the pitch in which they originally stood. For this reason, a melody is not a series of concrete pitches (although it is listed as a practical matter ), but their derived by a process of abstraction sequence of intervals.

Melodies are subject to certain education laws, which vary greatly depending on the history, style of music and culture from each other. In addition to harmonic aspects and phrasing examines the melody teaching particular initial and final training and the emphasis and arrangement of major and minor tones. Since music happens in time, a series of tones will only be to the tune when they are not only the amount, but also arranged in temporal durations (which includes breaks ), so has a certain rhythmic structure. As is known, the sequence of melody tone pitches and their temporal order, but not the tone durations.

Legal Issues

Since the melody is the subject of copyright protection to law and practice worldwide deal with her. The creation of a melody based intellectual, so intangible property, which may be violated by anyone. Legally, a tune must have creative features. It is a closed and orderly sequence of notes in it, which in itself creative peculiarity within the meaning of § 2 para 2 of the Copyright Act and at least the requirements of the so-called small coin - as copyright just protectable part of a work - is enough. Isolated from a melody - - For example, a single tone or sound, a single signal or a mere rhythm are not protected, but rather sound samplings when their components melodies within the meaning of § 24 para 2 of the Copyright Act.

The embodied herein melodies protection includes a prohibition to create a melody already protected an additional plant based ( objective criterion ) and a subjective aspect, which the composer of the new plant has known the older plant and resorted in his work it. Only coincidences the melodies are not covered by the melody protection according to the Federal Supreme Court. However, given the diversity of individual creative possibilities in the artistic field appears broad agreement of works that are based on selbständigem work, virtually ruled out by human experience. From this empirical law is in principle to be expected in the field of musical creation. The fact that there may be random matches with already protected melody passages in the composition, is legally almost impossible to make. There are substantial similarities in the melodic range, saith the prima facie case of unlawful removal. The double creation therefore is an exception and this so-called melodies protects a creative sequence of notes until the occurrence of a public domain, and even the unchanged removal of the melody in the sense of free use of works in accordance with § 24 Section 1 of the German Copyright Act is not permitted in this particular case. If violation of this melody protection, there is a plagiarism, which can cause damage claims. In numerous judgments had to decide in the last instance the Supreme Court on cases of plagiarism and left up to the objective criterion of the melody protection musicological experts, because often the differences between the musical works were only marginal.

Description

Melody in the narrower sense:

  • A generally singable, self-contained sequence of tones,
  • The way or a setting of a song and
  • A subject of a larger piece of music.

In classical music, melodies are often subject variativer or thematic- motivic work. In jazz, the melody is even before the harmonies the starting point for improvisation. In modern jazz, specifically in bebop, in addition to the terms of theme and melody also the technical term bebop head is common.

Melody in linguistics

The Linguistics familiar melody in a figurative sense as intonation, ie the modulation of the pitch during the utterance of a sentence (see also prosody, tonality ).

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