The word counterpoint comes from the Latin punctus contra punctum, which means "note against note". That's actually a pretty nice short definition of counterpoint; a longer way of saying it is that it is the combination of individual melodic voices with each other to form a harmonious whole. In other words, counterpoint is the art of putting together different lines of music in a way that sounds good.

"Hey wait a minute," you say. "That sounds a lot like the definition of harmony." Well, yes, that's true. Let's try to explain the difference between counterpoint and harmony. The study of counterpoint emphasizes the independence of individual lines of music. It deals with ways to combine these individual lines together to form a pleasant- sounding whole. The study of harmony, on the other hand, is geared more towards forming and joining together chords to create a piece of music. Speaking in abstract terms, you could say that counterpoint is more "horizontal" and harmony is more "vertical".

counterpoint is more horizontal, harmony is more vertical

Counterpoint and harmony are, in fact, very closely related. Any contrapuntal piece of music will have some sort of harmony between the simultaneously moving lines. On the other hand, it would be difficult (and very undesirable) to write a piece of music that had only harmony with no counterpoint at all. One cannot cannot exist without the other; however, there have been historical periods and composers that have leaned more towards one or the other. For example, music of the Baroque Period tended to be more contrapuntal (the adjective of counterpoint), while the Classical Period was marked by more harmonic writing.

Audio Clip (MIDI): Brandenburg Concerto #5 in D by J.S. Bach... a fine example of counterpoint
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Perhaps the best way to illustrate counterpoint is to give an example of it... and who could possibly give a better example of counterpoint than Bach? In this example, we have the first movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #5. From the opening notes, you can hear how Bach carefully constructed several different lines of music and put them together so that they would form a harmonious stream. There is constant motion in each of the lines, and the music seems to "spool" outward all the way until it hits the end.
Audio Clip (MIDI): Cello Concerto in C by Joseph Haydn... a fine example of harmony
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To give a contrasting example, we have here the last movement of the Cello Concerto in C by Joseph Haydn. Like the Bach example, the music is very forward-moving and is written for multiple parts, but there is a key difference here; in this case, the different instrumental parts are not all given their own seperate lines of melody. Instead, their purpose is to give harmonic support to the main melody.


Further resources:

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