l organism. Before man was the ebb and flow of nature had
its rhythm. On this elementary rhythm, the one model music finds in
nature, the inventive mind of man has builded the wonderfully impressive
art rhythms existing in the masterpieces of music.

Melodies are made up of smaller fragments, known as motives, phrases
and periods, or sentences, all of which are judiciously repeated and
varied, and derive their individuality from the characteristics of their
intervals and rhythms.

A motive is the text of a musical composition, the theme of its
discourse. The most simple motive, with proper handling, may grow into a
majestic structure. In Beethoven's Fifth Symphony three G flats in
eighth notes, followed by an E flat in a half note, form a text, as of
Fate knocking at the door, which, when developed, leads to tremendous
conflict ending in victory. Those notes that repeat and modify the
motive and are combined under one slur constitute the phrase, which is
similar to a clause in a sentence of words. A period, or sentence, in
music, comprises a musical idea, complete in itself, though of a nature
to produce, when united with other harmonious ideas, a perfect whole.

A simple melody is usually composed of eight measures, or some number
divisible by four. There are exceptions, as in "God Save the King," our
"America," of which the first part contains six measures, the second
part eight.

Habit and instinct show us that no melody can end satisfactorily without
some cadence leading to a note belonging to the tonic or key chord. Very
often the first part of a melody will end on a note of the dominant
chord, from which a progression will arise in the second part that leads
satisfactorily to a concluding note in the tonic chord.

Counterpoint, literally point against point, is the art of so composing
music in parts that several parts move simultaneously, making harmony by
their combination. During the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries the masters of counterpoint shaped the musical
materials in use to-day. So anxious were they to attain perfection of
form they often lost sight of the spirit which alone can give vitality
to musical utterances. The great Bach infused this into his fugues, the
highest manifestation of the contrapuntal, or polyphonic music of old.

Meanwhile the growth of the individual led to the growth of monophony
in music, in which one voice stands out prominently, with an
accompanim