countersubject love

Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun music The secondary melody in contrapuntal music

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Bach's "Art of the Fugue", specifically the point where Bach inserts as a countersubject the notes corresponding to the letters of his own name.

    The Bob Dylan song that turned on Jimmy Carter is the one that Barack Obama calls a favorite. Ann Althouse 2008

  • Bach's "Art of the Fugue", specifically the point where Bach inserts as a countersubject the notes corresponding to the letters of his own name.

    The Bob Dylan song that turned on Jimmy Carter is the one that Barack Obama calls a favorite. Ann Althouse 2008

  • Hewitt clearly articulated and shaped every note, phrase, counterpoint, subject and countersubject.

    Thestar.com - Home Page John Terauds 2010

  • Hewitt clearly articulated and shaped every note, phrase, counterpoint, subject and countersubject.

    Thestar.com - Home Page John Terauds 2010

  • Scherzo shows off pianist Ian Brown's quicksilver, biting attacks -- as well as a vicious rasping in Lawrence Power's viola -- a passion that subdues only briefly in the countersubject, since there is no trio to relieve the visceral intensity of the composer's furor.

    Audiophile Audition Headlines 2009

  • In this sense the comparison to Bach and his counterpoint is an apt one, for in that music, too, both player and listener can always hear something new, the elegant course of a contrapuntal voice, the suddenly bold gesture of a countersubject somehow never noticed before.

    CounterPunch 2009

Comments

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  • In music, a countersubject is a melodic or thematic idea which is played against a primary subject of a fugue, ricercar, invention, sinfonia, or other contrapuntal piece of music. It's the secondary melody in contrapuntal music

    September 27, 2009