contrary motion

American  

noun

Music.

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

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Example Sentences

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

Then he saw that it was describing a contrary motion to the rushing water—an upward backward motion.

From The Bell in the Fog and Other Stories by Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn