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contrary motion

American  

noun

Music.
  1. melodic motion in which one part rises in pitch while the other descends.


Example Sentences

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Octaves in contrary motion smoked with ferocity in the Hindemith, and sforzandos in the Beethoven reintroduced audiences to the elemental wildness of a composer of repertory standards.

From New York Times Mar. 8, 2024

In the reprise, a bass line moves in contrary motion, further tweaking the chords above.

From The New Yorker Jan. 1, 2016

Sleater-Kinney songs often have the two guitars chasing each other along jagged trajectories, wrangling back and forth, racing in contrary motion or blitzing with bursts of noise.

From New York Times Dec. 31, 2014

He’s clearly spent some of the interim thinking more about harmony and structure than hooks: these songs, passive-aggressive as they may be, contain strong major-to-minor movements, irregular shapes, contrary motion between voice and guitars.

From New York Times Feb. 4, 2013

The first of these made himself known to the Royal Society, by some 'New Experiments relating to the different, and sometimes contrary motion of the Sap;' which were printed in the Phil.

From On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening, with Biographical Notices of Them, 2nd edition, with considerable additions by Felton, Samuel

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