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Counterpoint   /kˈaʊntərpˌɔɪnt/  /kˈaʊnərpˌɔɪnt/   Listen
noun
Counterpoint  n.  An opposite point (Obs.)



Counterpoint  n.  (Mus.)
(a)
The setting of note against note in harmony; the adding of one or more parts to a given canto fermo or melody.
(b)
The art of polyphony, or composite melody, i. e., melody not single, but moving attended by one or more related melodies.
(c)
Music in parts; part writing; harmony; polyphonic music. See Polyphony. "Counterpoint, an invention equivalent to a new creation of music."



Counterpoint  n.  A coverlet; a cover for a bed, often stitched or broken into squares; a counterpane. See 1st Counterpane. "Embroidered coverlets or counterpoints of purple silk."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Counterpoint" Quotes from Famous Books



... difficult things written for the violin, excepting Ernst and Paganini. Not that they are hard in a modern way: Bach knew nothing of harmonics, pizzicati, scales in octaves and tenths. But his counterpoint, his fugues—to play them well when the principal theme is sometimes in the outer voices, sometimes in the inner voices, or moving from one to the other—is supremely difficult! In the last sonatas there is a larger number of small movements—- ...
— Violin Mastery - Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers • Frederick H. Martens

... indispensable rudiments of the art, and are not for a moment to be mistaken for its ultimate and incommunicable secrets. Beethoven could not have composed the Ninth Symphony without a mastery of harmony and counterpoint; but there are thousands of masters of harmony and counterpoint who could not compose ...
— Play-Making - A Manual of Craftsmanship • William Archer

... contradistinguish the ancient literature from the modern generally, but which more especially appear in prominence in the tragic drama. The ancient was allied to statuary, the modern refers to painting. In the first there is a predominance of rhythm and melody, in the second of harmony and counterpoint. The Greeks idolized the finite, and therefore were the masters of all grace, elegance, proportion, fancy, dignity, majesty—of whatever, in short, is capable of being definitely conveyed by defined forms or ...
— Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher • S. T. Coleridge

... Freiburg, Du bist ein Musikant, Top-sawyer on de counterpoint Und buster in discánt, To dee de soul of musik All innerly ish known, Du canst mit might fullenden ...
— The Breitmann Ballads • Charles G. Leland

... before I hear from old Howe in America, and longer before I hear from Henslowe, and already I've spent twenty francs on food. Can't make it this way. Then, in real possessions, I have one volume of Villon, a green book on counterpoint, a map of France torn in two, ...
— Three Soldiers • John Dos Passos


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