contramelody

Updated: May 7, 2025

Indeed, one of Nevin's best songs, "Lehn deine Wang an meine Wang," is actually little more than a vocal accompaniment to a piano solo. His accompaniments are always richly colored and generally individualized with a strong contramelody, a descending chromatic scale in octaves making an especially frequent appearance. Design, though not classical, is always present and distinct.

Rupert Hughes - Contemporary American Composers: Being a Study of the Music of This Country, Its Present: Conditions and Its Future, with Critical Estimates and: Biographies of the Principal Living Composers; and an: Abundance of Portraits, Fac-simile Musical Autographs, and: Compositions

The last of these songs, "Put by the Lute," is possibly Smith's best work. It is superb from beginning to end. It opens with a most unhackneyed series of preludizing arpeggios, whence it breaks into a swinging lyric, strengthened into passion by a vigorous contramelody in the bass. Throughout, the harmonies are most original, effective, and surprising.

Rupert Hughes - Contemporary American Composers: Being a Study of the Music of This Country, Its Present: Conditions and Its Future, with Critical Estimates and: Biographies of the Principal Living Composers; and an: Abundance of Portraits, Fac-simile Musical Autographs, and: Compositions