A melody, from the Greek word melōidía meaning "singing" or "chanting," is a series of musical notes that a listener hears as one complete part of a song. In its simplest form, a melody includes both pitch (how high or low a note sounds) and rhythm (how notes are timed). Sometimes, the term can also include other features, such as tonal color (how a note sounds in terms of brightness or darkness). A melody is the main part of a song, while other parts provide background support. A line or part in a song does not always have to be the main melody.

Melodies are often made up of one or more musical phrases or short patterns called motifs. These are repeated in different ways throughout a piece of music. Melodies can also be described by how the notes move (such as smoothly or with large jumps), the range of pitches used, how tension and relaxation in the music feel, how connected or clear the melody is, the way it ends (called cadence), and its overall shape.

Function and elements

Johann Philipp Kirnberger argued:
— Johann Philipp Kirnberger (1771)

The Norwegian composer Marcus Paus has argued:

Because melodies include many different elements and styles, some explanations of melody focus only on specific styles and are too limited. Paul Narveson wrote in 1984 that more than three-quarters of melodic topics had not been studied in detail.

Melodies in most European music written before the 20th century and in popular music during the 20th century often had "clear and easy-to-identify patterns of sound," repeated "events, often happening regularly, at all levels of structure," and repeated "lengths of notes and patterns of note lengths."

In the 20th century, melodies used a wider range of musical notes than was common in any other period of Western music. While the diatonic scale was still used, the chromatic scale became "widely used." Composers also gave an important role to "qualities" such as tone color and loudness, which had previously been mainly connected to pitch and rhythm. Kliewer stated, "The basic parts of any melody are duration, pitch, and quality (timbre), texture, and loudness. Even though a melody can still be recognized when played with many different tones and volumes, these features may still help organize the melody in order."

Examples

Different types of music use melody in various ways. For example:

• In jazz, musicians use the words "lead" or "head" to describe the main melody. This melody serves as a starting point for creating new, improvised music.
• In rock music and other forms of popular and folk music, songs usually have one or two main melodies (called the verse and chorus). Sometimes, a third melody (called a bridge or middle eight) is added. These melodies are repeated, but the way they are sung or played can change.
• In Indian classical music, melody and rhythm are very important. Harmony, which involves using chords, is not used because the music does not include chord changes.
• In Balinese gamelan music, a single melody is played at the same time by different instruments. These versions of the melody are often complex and different from each other.
• In Western classical music, composers often begin with a main melody or theme and then create variations of it. Classical music may include many layers of melodies, called polyphony, such as in a fugue, which is a type of counterpoint. Melodies are often built from short, repeated musical ideas called motifs. For example, the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony uses a simple motif. Richard Wagner introduced the idea of a leitmotif, which is a short melody or motif linked to a specific idea, person, or place.
• In most popular music and classical music from the common practice period, pitch and rhythm are the most important parts of a melody. However, in modern music from the 20th and 21st centuries, pitch and rhythm are less important, and the quality of sound has become more important. Examples include musique concrète, klangfarbenmelodie, Elliott Carter’s Eight Etudes and a Fantasy (which includes a movement with only one note), the third movement of Ruth Crawford-Seeger’s String Quartet 1931 (later re-orchestrated as Andante for string orchestra), which creates a melody using only changes in volume, and György Ligeti’s Aventures, where repeated sounds form the structure of the music.