Centric Melodies

Abstract

All the melodies we met so far, and indeed the overwhelming majority of melodic patterns, are steps or derive from steps. Only in the section on One-Step Melodies did we describe a recitativic variety of melodies based on a single, often repeated note. On a somewhat higher level, steps are by no means absent, but the melody, freely moving upward and downward, returns again and again to the same note in the middle, which is often starter and final as well as an ever recurring nucleus in the course of the tune. Let us call such melodies ‘centric’