Melody Characteristics Of Early Western Music

The thesis is undertaken to study the melody characteristics and itdevelopment of early western music from monophony to polyphony from three aspects,namely, mode, melody style and melody composition. The author proposed that theancient Greek mode,8kinds of church modes and dodecachordon are successive. Thechanting style, syllabic style, neumatic style and melismatic style in monophonicperiod continue their development in polyphonic style, such as simple organum,melismatic organum, discant and copula, and developed melody thought based on cantusfirmus. The characteristic of early western melody composition is that the idea ispresented as short motive and runs through the phrase and period in repetition andvariants. Form is mainly based on contrast and unity of two kinds of material. Themelody characteristic of early western music is presented as a series of rationalconstruction, but ultimately, it stems from the sentimental demand of people of allwalks of life in a special social context of a given historical period. It is closelyassociated with people’s moods, feelings and expression of thoughts.