COUNTERPOINT. In music, the setting of one or more parts against a given melody, so that all the voices are of equal importance and independence. The name %vas first used in the fourteenth century. It suggested itself from the fact. that one note (punctits) was set against an other, punctus contra punctum. A counterpoint may be written in various ways against a given melody, as one, two, four, or even more notes against one of the eoliths. The counterpoint most useful in practical composition is one where the different parts are variously con structed, as in the following (Handel) : When two voices are used the counterpoint is called two-part: when three. three-part, etc. When the counterpoint lies uniformly above or below the eoliths it is single. If the parts be constructed in regard to one another so that they can he (-banged or transposed over or under each other. without alteration iu the movement, or injury to the harmony, it is then called double counterpoint, for example: The intervals most frequently used for trans position in double counterpoint are the octave, decima, and duodecimo. The following admits
of different transpositions: 'When three voices are constructed so that they can be exchanged one against the other, the counterpoint is triple; when four. quadruple. The first indications of counterpoint we find in the thirteenth century in the works of Adam de la Hale. The development of the art of contra puntal writing was then very rapid, and in the school of the Netherlands (in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) the acme of technical skill was reached. But. counterpoint was then less a genuine musical art than an exhibition of as tounding technical tricks. The great Italian schools (see PALESTRINA) returned to a simpler and artistic style. As a genuine art counter point culminated in the form of the fugue (q.v.). The latest and best. treatises on counterpoint are those of Delta, Richter, and Jadassolm.