Melody type

"Melody type" is a fundamental notion for understanding a nature of Western and non-Western musical modes, according to Harold Powers' seminal article "Mode" in the first edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Powers 1980, 12:376–77, 379, et passim).

One of the challenges of folk song research, of course, is to find all the variants of the tune and to try to trace the family relationships.

Here the melody type is similar to a church mode: a scalar configuration with a preferential order of tones.

Melody types are found mostly in the music of ancient peoples—the Greeks, Hebrews, and others—and of Eastern peoples—the Arabs, Persians (Iranians), Indians, and others.

For...example... raga.In most cases, these melody types are associated with extra-musical implications, particularly emotions (see Indian rasa, for instance).

Passamezzo and Romanesca melodic formula [ 1 ] on D Play ⓘ .
Ancient type-melodies for 8 church ('Gregorian') tones. Transcribed from the South-French tonary of the 10th century (Ms.: F-Pn lat. 1121, fol. 201v-205v). Pseudo-liturgical verses with initial numerals ( primum..., secundum..., tertia... etc.) helped singers to associate a current model with a 'real' chant (such as antiphon) of the same tone. These type-melodies were probably conceived as didactic, to adjust ear for typical melodic formulae, reciting tones, finals etc. They should not be confused with psalm tones, which represent an exact scheme for modulating psalms and canticles. [ 7 ]