Forum: music.stackexchange.com
Tags: <terminology>
Title: Is there any name for two melodies that are being played at the same time?
Question: Is there any name I can use for two melodies that are being played at the same time?  (The rhythmic part isn't identical) .  For Instance, there is Fables of Faubus by Charles Mingus which starts off with a melody:     and then on 0.15 starts another melody that is being played on top of the other.  How is this named?

Answers:
sents: text: As @user13484 pointed out, the general concept of two (or more!)
text: melodies sounding together is counterpoint ("note against note").
text: The term counterpoint is used when the melodies that are sounding simultaneously are independent and are more or less of equal importance.
text: Both rhythm, pitch but also timbre can be used to achieve independence.
text: The term is about a technique or texture, and as such it may be applied to a section, or a movement or even an entire composition.
text: "Independence" is not a matter of all or nothing.
text: Although the melodies might have a different rhythm, a melody might have the effect of emphasizing only particular accents of a main melody.
text: Or although a melody might be playing different pitches, it might do so in an identical rhythm.
text: So in those cases, the extra melody is not truly independent.
text: With regard to this piece, the parts that are entering at 0:15 do not really seem to carry a new or separate melody.
text: The new part serves mainly to give the piece a new rhythmic pulse.
text: The head of the new part serves to accentuate and repeats the same pitch a few times.
text: The tail of the phrase basically mimics the main melody (it's not exactly parallel since the rhythm is slightly different, but the pitches are).
text: So there is a certain lack of independence, and I'd argue the parts also aren't equally important, which is why I would not call this true counterpoint.
text: I'd call this simply "accompaniment".
text: At 1:30 though, something starts to evolve that does sound like true counterpoint, first in 2 parts, and then at 1:45 in at least three.
text: Here you can clearly here different parts that are independent in movement, curve, rhythm and pitch.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/8883/Roland Bouman
score: 12
sents: text: Formally, it would be counterpoint, but since the music is not as a whole constructed in that manner, I'd just call it a countermelody.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/13484/user13484
score: 11
sents: text: Quodlibet ( Latin: “what you will”) musical composition in which several well-known melodies are combined, either simultaneously or, less frequently, sequentially, for humorous effect.
text: Quodlibet can also refer to an amalgamation of different song texts in a vocal composition.
text: While simultaneous combinations of two or more melodies go back to the 13th century (motets using, for example, a chant melody and a secular tune), quodlibets were especially popular in the 15th and 16th centuries.
text: In Germany numerous instances are found in manuscript collections of polyphonic (multipart) songs.
text: Britannica.com:
text: Encyclopedia article about "quodlibet"
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/21872/Tanti
score: 6
sents: text: I think Mingus himself called this structure of melodies stacked on top of each other - in many of his pieces there are more than two, e.g. in Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting - a "pyramid".
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/10031/Jan Johannsen
score: 2
sents: text: In a general-usage sense, the word "counterpoint" could serve, though the word counterpoint names a very specific technical form that follows certain rules of construction.
text: Because of that, the two lines in Fables of Faubus fail to be "counterpoint" but are most definitely "countermelody."
text: They could be called "contrapuntal lines" without raising the "counterpoint pedant" alarm. :)
text: I think the word "mashup" is a horrible way to describe/think of the concept.
text: There's a big difference between two melodies that were written to work together, vs a pair of melodies that when played together exhibit a serendipitous congruence often enough to be surprisingly pleasant.
text: The thing is, a mashup is always countermelody, but countermelodies are not mashups.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/21900/dwoz
score: 1
sents: text: It may be better to use the term polyphony which could include counterpoint and fugues.
text: In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice which is called monophony, and in difference from musical texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords which is called homophony.
text: SOURCE
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/7306/Neil Meyer
score: 1
sents: text: This can be a Mashup.
text: A mashup is a song or composition created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/13492/Zato
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
The term counterpoint is used when the melodies that are sounding simultaneously are independent and are more or less of equal importance. Quodlibet  ( Latin: “what you will”) musical composition in which several well-known melodies are combined, either simultaneously or, less frequently, sequentially, for humorous effect.  Mingus himself called this structure of melodies stacked on top of each other - in many of his pieces there are more than two, e.g. in Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting - a "pyramid".  Accompaniment and Mashup is other terms used.
There are a number of different terms that may describe this concept, including "counterpoint", "quodlibet", "accompaniment" or a "mashup".