This restriction keeps a melody focused in a limited portion of the pitch spectrum, enabling the listener to follow along with the musical discourse. 2 - The pitch range of great melodies is often no more than an octave and a half. However, the hierarchical structure of melodies (and of music, in general) goes way beyond the scope of this article, and is certainly worth looking at in a separate discussion. As you can see, repetition can happen at different levels of a melody, from tiny motifs to quite extended musical periods. The effect of this pitch variation is refreshing and it plays with our expectations (see later). The pitch material, on the other hand, is slightly varied, although the overall inverted-U shape (i.e., contour) of the melodic unit remains the same. By contrast, in the вЂњyвЂќ music unit only the rhythm pattern (i.e., short-short-long) is kept the same. Both the duration and the pitch of the вЂњxвЂќ phrase are cloned. In the case of this melody, a musical phrase вЂњxвЂќ is repeated exactly the same, twice. What are the musical dimensions of a melody that are part of repetition? As we can see in the main Undertale theme above, repetition can involve both the pitch and the rhythm content of a melody. Undertale main theme from Once Upon a Time (0вЂќ to 28вЂќ in the track above). Every time we listen to the same pattern we can focus on a different musical aspect. Repetition can also influence how we perceive and process musical materials. As psychologist Elizabeth Margulis suggests, based on the results of her long-standing research in music perception, repetition вЂњtends to draw us into a participatory stance so that weвЂ™re imagining the next note before it happensвЂќ.

IsnвЂ™t repetition boring, though? Apparently not. The same applies to classical music, where melodies are reiterated time and again. In pop music, for example, there are usually two main sections, the chorus and the verse, which tend to repeat throughout the duration of a song. Almost any melody you can think of has elements of repetition. Repetition helps listeners identify meaningful musical patterns and provides clues about the musical relationships present in a melody. 1 - Great melodies often use repeating elements. For an in-depth analysis of the soundtrack of Undertale, have a look at Jason M. But I will showcase a few of its melodies as practical examples to highlight some of the features. I wonвЂ™t delve into the details of the thematic relationships of the Undertale soundtrack, as that would require another article (or indeed, another blog). The music has a complex web of themes that are nested in and reused throughout the game. The soundtrack, entirely composed by Toby Fox, is a little masterpiece characterised by a mix of (sometimes clashing) genres ranging from chiptune to folk music. The entertaining game dynamics, engaging story and cartoonishly simple pixelated graphics make for a deeply satisfying experience. Critics raved at its release, while the game garnered a cult following, and rightly so. Undertale is a role-playing game released in September, 2015, by the indie developer Toby Fox. To demonstrate the features that make a melody great, IвЂ™ll showcase sample melodies drawn from the soundtrack of Undertale. (Although, judging by modern standards, some classical music composers seem not to have learned the lesson from their musical ancestors).

Over the history of music, musicians (subconsciously?) tailored melodies to please the sound-processing hardware weвЂ™re all born with. So, the reason why some melodies are great may ultimately be rooted in our cognition.

Some of them are backed up by the latest research in music cognition, as weвЂ™ll see later. Is there a reason why some melodies sound better than others? Also, are there common traits that good melodies share? Hundreds of years of music practice and musicological analysis has helped us to distill a number of these вЂfeaturesвЂ™. But a melody also comprises note durations, rhythmic and metrical elements, accents, structural relationships between the different subsets of the melody, articulations and dynamics. Pitch content is perhaps the most obvious of these. Indeed, a melody is a complex musical construct involving many musical components cooperating at once. It happens so naturally that we neglect how many simultaneous elements are contributing to the overall experience. The underlying cognitive processing used to arrive at such an assessment - although extremely sophisticated - is carried out at an almost subconscious level. When we listen to a melody, it only takes a few notes to know whether we like it or not. The lovably memorable cast of Undertale, by indie developer Toby Fox.

Undertale the musical once upon a time