V.com weekend vote: Melody or Harmony?

August 24, 2025 at 06:19 AM · I'm chiefly a melody man. There are so many ways a phrase can be inflected and I'll spend a lot of time (and get a lot of satisfaction) trying to find the best one.

August 24, 2025 at 08:38 AM · I can't say which I like the best - but I like singing harmony, or descant occasionally - when I feel it's called for. I do wish I could sing basso profundo convincingly - I don't seem to get much resonance, and that's a voice that demands resonance.

August 24, 2025 at 05:52 PM · Between those two I go with melody. But the question is incomplete. Our music teacher had a standard lesson that he always taught when taking on a new class: The Elements of Music i.e. rhythm, melody, harmony, sound (Klangfarbe as we call it in German). Among those four I am a rhythm person, melody comes second with harmony not far behind and sound actually not terribly important.

August 24, 2025 at 06:38 PM · I love polyphony, so I guess a bit of both. I'm a sucker for good fugues, and one of my life goals with violin is to record and perform obscure solo (unaccompanied) violin works. This appreciation definitely comes from my piano lessons growing up.

I never find pure melody the most compelling; to me the best pieces have some good structure underneath and some interplay between voices. It's why I generally don't like violin/piano reductions of concertos; a large reason I enjoy the concertos I do is the orchestration and interaction of the soloist with other parts of the orchestra.

That said, in orchestra or chamber music I don't love playing just the inner lines as a 2nd violin; I like it when pieces for an ensemble have good parts and moments for every section.

August 24, 2025 at 09:11 PM · As from ~ Elisabeth Matesky {Reply #5}

As an Original artist pupil of Jascha Heifetz's 7, I rather enjoy the Harmony of each Violin Piece or Violin Concerto and also relish the underneath-it- all harmonies always loving when playing in an orchestra which I did much of when growing up & at Idyllwild's Arts Foundation USC Affiliated at Summer Music Camp due to such truly wonderful Music Orchestra Director's sharing/teaching many of us their own favourite Symphonic Repertoire and informing all of us whether in the 1st or 2nd Violin Sections of the very important role that Harmony always did and does play having greatly fine nurturing melody lifted and shall forever Lift up the theme or Thematic Material known usually as Melody which, of course is Prime in Symphonic literature yet IMO after playing violin for now 72 years, I revel in lush rich Harmonies of exotic orchestral works like the GOAT Aram Khachaturian's "Spartacus" or his "Gayne Suite"and his Ballet No. 1 in 3 movements and which this Composer used rare & at the time of composition harmonic fusions of exotic Colours or key signatures enhanced by his Khachaturian roots preference for rarely used harmonic accompaniments yet following Aram Khachaturian's Score which was so 'successful' (and not Hollywood Glam) it won him the coveted Award of the French Legion de' Honeur, Grand Croix, for his remarkable Score of "Spartacus" in the Ballet Score which has those oh so Special Moments of aching beauty & so gorgeous it goes straight to any human heart and Soul and especially in darker times in this Life ...

I voted preferring Harmony due to an Ear Curiosity for rare harmonic and beautiful yet often not so beautiful yet accompanying realistic sorts of Harmonic content in scores like the early Twentieth Century Korngold Violin Concerto which is filled with his own Twentieth Century 'new' ideas of non pre-existing prior mutations of varied harmonic content and which when first heard publicly here and abroad elicited a 'Hummm' affect from not used to hearing Korngold's Rare Ideas of strummed Harp against starry eyed focus on the Upper Heavens notations in the orchestral score above 'Mother Earth'! All or most Violin Soloists now play/carry the Korngold Violin Concerto in their Seasonal Violin Concerti Repertoire due to its having become a Favourite of many audiences in both Europe and certainly here in America and I wish to pay my own Tribute to now injured Hilary Hahn in this regard for Ms Hahn early in her becoming global Concert Career first played the Korngold Violin Concerto magnificently via TV plus recording it first time w/Loren Maazel on disc to the enchantment of many Music Critics globally! In this regard I wish Hilary Hahn a truly complete recovery from a Nerve in her neck Injury with a Team of Genuine Experts finding the root cause of it all and providing one of GOAT Younger Violin Soloists so wonderfully adept at offering beloved Great Masterworks in Violin to her audiences a Second Chance Twenty First Quarter Century rebirth Violin Soloist Career ...

To continue, I do think Harmony the Under Dog in Music thus far or more recently due to an accent on social media now in These Recent Times leaning to the Obvious instead of the more deferred in a corner yet with immense personal 'power' as it were in the musical compositional blue prints of Composers both in the Twentieth Opening of that Century, i.e., Stravinsky; Schoenberg for sure!; Alban Berg; Sergei Prokofiev and in his 1st Violin Concerto particularly; Shostakovich later on in mid Century to getting later in his First Violin Concerto in a minor, Opus 99, and again, Aram Khachaturian, in his 1940s Violin Concerto and dedicated to Globally renowned Violinist, "King" David Oistrakh, his Soviet Union then revered Colleague. As the Twentieth Century continued and after WWII, composition seemed to wander about in British known Composer's Benjamin Britten and a Must Say, 'Opera Glorious,' "Peter Grimes" having played this treasure of an Opera Score, and others including the sudden burst of New Life of Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" which 'hit' America and US Broadway by Storm with the scintillating harmonies of Leonard Bernstein, American as it Gets Composer, with his vivid imagination neon + highlighting the West Side of his beloved NYC yet Gangs almost creating them as Idols of the Mid Twentieth Century and via his youth Vunderlust harmonies in the Score so beloved and continuing in its popularity with both classical and semi-classical music audiences!! The Harmony of All Composers both here and abroad seem to reflect the Times we live in and hence when the British Lads from Liverpool captured America and American gals, they suddenly became Cultural Icons via their unusual Harmonies of a "Yesterday" and "Yellow Submarine" plus "Eleanore Rigby' when a recording in London came out with never before included Brass instrumentation of a Horn (played by fabled British 1st Hornist in the RPO, LPO, LSO and New Philharmonia 'Big Five' London Orchestras, *Barry Tuckwell) on a Beatles Recording playing a Horn Solo in the ever beautiful "Eleanor Rigby" which Sold Out on every "Pop Chart" globally with audiences and even the classical music world Audience catching on to a newer youth music with rare harmonies 'movement'!

I suppose Music and Canvas Art have forever reflected the Times lived in by Grand Artists and by those lesser known artists in the 'corner' of "Power" so removed from the foreground going nearly un noticed, yet Harmony is Alive and Well and I, for one pray it dominates ever more in this now approaching Quarter of the Twenty First Century and going forward to Mid Twenty First Century which will certainly outlive many of us on Editor, Laurie Niles' Violinist.com but never fear, 'our' Laurie Niles with her marvellous Team in Presentation of website allowing easy Reply's will hopefully out last even the first One Half of this Twenty First Century with Harmony featured on Center Stage!!

~ ~ ~ Musically from Chicago ~ ~ ~

............ Elisabeth Matesky ............

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August 25, 2025 at 09:55 AM · If I absolutely had to choose between melody and harmony, I would choose melody. I think melody plays a major role in characterizing a piece of music.

For reference, I also regard things like arpeggiated chords as a form of melody.

August 25, 2025 at 10:00 AM · I was torn about how to vote, then cheated and read your comments. I used to do the same - sing along, but deliberately picking the harmony , or inventing one as I went .

In our beginners orchestra, I play second violin, partly as it’s easier, but also because everyone wants to play first. They confess as it’s the melody line, it’s sometimes easier to play. I do confess to getting a thrill when the harmonies blend in to a total greater than the sum of the parts.

August 25, 2025 at 12:14 PM · I consider the violin to be a primarily melodic instrument, usually one note at a time and even double stops continuing to move along as sweetened melodic notes. Because I almost always play alone I am never harmonizing. I yearn for continuo players to put the harmony in these sonatas.

August 25, 2025 at 05:03 PM · I voted harmony, as I find it much easier to harmonise a new melody than to remember it, but there are exceptions, e.g. I much prefer playing the first violin part of Brahms 4 slow movement than the second, but that isn't as compelling now that the G-string tone on my violin has been compromised by a graft because the repairer either didn't know about (it was the 1990s - if anyone tells me on here that they should have known, I shall release the identity of the repairer), or kept quiet about the use of hot sand to restore the shape of a plate that has sunk.

But there is a third alternative that I might have voted for had it been listed: Counterpoint (at which I was better than my late father, though he was better than myself at harmony)

August 30, 2025 at 09:59 PM · I voted for melody. From childhood, I’ve had a feel for melody and could easily pick it out when listening to ensemble pieces.

My orchestra experience spanned only 7 years, from early high school till about 1 year before I finished my degree program - although I’d already started playing violin in elementary school. Before I began orchestra, my teacher told me, “They’ll probably start you on 2nd violin,” which they did - not surprising, given my youth and lack of ensemble playing up to that point. From the next semester onward, though, I played 1st. I felt ready for it and found that I preferred it, especially since I already had position-playing in my arsenal.

For chamber music, on the other hand, I’m happy to play either 2nd or 1st. 2nd offers more low notes, where I like to get a dark viola sound; while 1st makes me step up and play a leading role - and more melody.