Hauptstimme

[2] The terms are used primarily by Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern, but are not uncommon in scores for string quartet.

In a footnote to a musical score, Schoenberg wrote, "The human voice is always Hauptstimme [when present].

A counter-melody performs a subordinate role, and is typically heard in a texture consisting of a melody plus accompaniment.

In marches, the counter melody is often given to the trombones or horns (American composer David Wallis Reeves is credited with this innovation in 1876.

[8]) The more formal term countersubject applies to a secondary or subordinate melodic idea in a fugue.