Counterpoint

[Fr. contrepoint; It. con trap punto. See COUNTERPANE.] ( Mus.) Literally, point against point; so called from the points formerly employed in music instead of notes, an important branch of musical science, which consists in the art of composing music in several parts, either for a variety of voices or instruments; now synonymous with harmony, and nearly so with composition; the only difference being. that composition implies more of invention and imagination than C. The invention of the latter is involved in great obscurity; by some it is attributed to Guido, who lived in the 10th century; but, although he was the first to write on this subject, which had made little progre before his time, it is obvious that it was known to several of the earlier composers. Primitive C. is now called plain or simple C., to distinguish it from the modern figured or florid C, in which the melody is beautified, and the general effect enriched by the frequent introduction of many succe ive notes in one part, against a single note in another. When the laws of C. began to be understood, vocal music came to be divided into four parts, the lowest of which was denominated tenor, the next counter - tenor, the third metotus, and the highest triplum and treble. About the middle of the 15th century these parts were increased to six, and were called ba , baritone, tenor, contralto, mezzo - soprano, and soprano. -A coverlet for a bed; - originally so written. See COUN TERPANE. IMG:content-0398.png:[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small] surety.