24: Conjunctivity

Conjunctivity (or its opposite, disjunctivity) describes a simple binary question: does the music mostly move in steps, or not? Conjunct music is that which mostly does move in steps. Disjunct music is that which mostly does not move in steps—or, put another way, moves mostly in leaps of thirds or wider.


To illustrate this, I’ve transcribed two very famous passages: one of each style. For disjunctivity, I’ve given you the opening of Bach’s 8th Invention in Two Parts (meaning that there are never more than two notes sounding at once, so the harmony is very simple). To show just how disjunct the melody is, I’ve put a box around all the parts when some melodic element is going on in either hand that features leaps of at least a third. Look at just how much green there is:

Now, let me do the same box-highlighting exercise with one of the most famously-conjunct melodies ever written (and the reason music has been as important a part of my life for as long as it has been)—the cello/bass statement of the Ode to Joy in the last movement of Beethoven’s 9th symphony, this time highlighting conjunct parts:

 

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