# Your favourite non-tonal melodies.



## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

This thread is for the purpose of creating a thread of reference for the comunity.

Often when one does not "get" a work is because one can't find "the melody" in it. This is not to say works that entirely rely on other factors than melody are bad or impossible to get, but I think it helps as an introduction to a work that features melody prominently to simple point it out and then the ear having identified the object can follow it and or its transformations.

With non-tonal melodies the anchor of an unambiguously evident tonal center is not there, other factors play a major role: the scale/mode/set, the points of repose and movement, the enphasis on an interval, contour/shape, etc.

I'll start this collection mentioning *the famous simple flute melody that begins Debussy's Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune* and repeats tranformed throughout the piece. Notice the chromatic movement and the span of the tritone.

My second mention is *the complex flute melody that begins Takemitsu's From Me Flows What You Call Time*. Can you follow its gestures repeated throughout the piece?


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)




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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Those are two great selections in the OP, from pieces I consider tonal in the broader sense of the term. Both masterpieces in my view.

For me the difficulty I have with atonal music is not melodic but harmonic.

I like the melodies in Webern's _6 Pieces for Orchestra_ and Schoenberg's_ Chamber Symphony no. 2_. (The latter piece I don't think is atonal.)


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

This one's a favorite.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Plenty of good melodies in this one, from the starting one in the woodwinds that is echoed throughout the orchestra to the folowing one in the strings and so on. Here the detailed textural element accompanies and contrasts with the melodies:

*Boulez: Notations pour Orchestre - III. Très modéré*


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

^^^ Video not available.


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

Here's the third notation for those that, like me, live in the U, S, and A.






The whole video has the other Orchestral Notations as well. There's a certain level of orchestral layering and complexity in these pieces, but nevertheless melodically driven!


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

How about a Stockhausen lied


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

The tone row in Berg's _Lullu_.

The tone row in Carters _Variations for Orchestra_.

Some of the themes in Goldsmith's soundtrack for _Planet of the Apes._

Note: Just added the third movement of the Corigliano's _Clarinet Concerto._


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Another highly melodic work I love: George Benjamin, Three Inventions

It begins pointillistic and fragmentary then a more familiar style of melody dominates.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

schoenberg | violin concerto | ii. andante graciozo


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Throw in some quarter tones for good measure


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## Superflumina (Jun 19, 2020)

The very beginning of the final movement of Schoenberg's Piano Concerto has a great one.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I'm partial to Webern's Herr Jesus, Mein. It's angular, but it makes sense, and it doesn't overstay its welcome.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Manxfeeder said:


> I'm partial to Webern's Herr Jesus, Mein. It's angular, but it makes sense, and it doesn't overstay its welcome.


Webern was a very good writer of songs, his songs are to me every bit as attractive as Wolff's.


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## gregorx (Jan 25, 2020)

Berg Piano Sonata.






Also by Berg, Three Orchestral Pieces.


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