I wonder if anyone educated in music theory and composition knows if there's a term to describe the following:

Take a given melodic phrase, say a run of the notes c-d-e-d-c-d-e-d-c-c-d-e-d-c-d-e-d-c-c-d-e-d-c-d-e-d-c-c-d-e-d-c-d-e-d-c just running up and down like that, say with eighth notes. Now imagine that the chords change every measure and the chord progression goes C maj, D min, A min, D min, C maj, and so on, up and down.

During the first measure, when the C chord is played, the c and e notes in the melody will be consonant to the chord but the d will be dissonant. In the next measure the d note will be consonant to the D minor chord but the c and e will be dissonant. And in the third measure when Am is the chord, the c and e will be consonant again and the d will be dissonant.

So is there a term for shifting the chords and melody in this way so that a repetitive melody has varying moments of dissonance and consonance relative to the chords?

passing tones, or neighbor tones.

Could you mark the measures? I'm thinking you're asking for a term that refers to the idea that a given note in the melodic pattern is consonant with the chord in one measure but dissonant in another. Is that correct? If so, eta's answer, good as far as it goes, is a little off point, since it only defines the non-chordal notes relative to a given chord.

ah. i'm guessing that the measures are between the double c's. it's sort of an ostinato pattern in the *melody*. though actually, in this case, it's the chords that are melodic, not the eighth notes...

I dunno. If it's between the double Cs then the whole thang is in 9/8 time. I mean, mehbe, but.

ah, right you are. hmm.

Alex?

So is there a term for shifting the chords and melody in this way so that a repetitive melody has varying moments of dissonance and consonance relative to the chords?

I know of what you speak... very intimately. I see it as a stylistic phenomenon more than it is a theoretical one, because all music *toys with this relationship between melody and harmony in a similar way, some much more repetitively than others. I've thought about it as the "Genesis effect" before.... which I'm naming after the later version (Phil Collins led) of the progressive/jazz-rock/pop band, although I remember early versions of King Crimson (and many others) making it part of thier sound. (believe me I use the term jazz quite "lightly") Even Duke Ellington played with this a bit as did Stan Kenton, IIRC.

The passing nature of the relationship between moving *chord and stable melody help propell the harmony forward... as tension sets up release (and for me, versa-vice ). This form of chromatic movement(s) are quite prevelant (by aural implication, anyway) in early "modal based" compositions, although restricted to passing tone-vs-consonant harmony status by the lack of exposure to dissonace and the subsequent social castration one would experience at the time had you done too much of it. You could be shot for not resolving such dissonance.

We've come a long way to find that Phil Collins *artfully is a bit "vanilla".

Upon further reflection, I suppose there could be a description for this form of relationship. It is not unlike the relationship between a "pedal tone" (stationary bass note) and moving chords: maybe we could call it a "ceiling fan".

For some reason I can't seem to get "One Note Samba" out of my head.

The song in question, called "I Will Dare" is in 4/4 time. Amazon's entry for that album has some sound clips but I don't know if their clip has the chorus as my computer here has no sound. Click here to listen: sample

What is that link, Alex? It's a .exe which to me means that it is a Windows executable. Not the sort of thing one should just download willy-nilly without a good up-to-date virus scanner in place. Also unrunnable on Macs and, I think, Linux.