| 释义 |
▪ I. counterpoint, n.1|ˈkaʊntəpɔɪnt|
Also 6 -poinct, conterpoynt, -pointe, Sc. cuntirpoint.
[In sense 1, a. F. contrepoint (15th c. in Littré) = OIt. contrapunto, in med.L. contrapunctum, cantus contrapunctus, lit. ‘song or music pointed-against,’ the part added as accompaniment to a plain-song being indicated by notes, ‘pricks’, or ‘points’, set against (over or under) the notes or points of the original melody. In senses 3 and 4, f. counter- 3, 6, 8.]
I. Music.
1. The melody added as accompaniment to a given melody or ‘plain-song’. Also fig.
1530Palsgr. 208/2 Conterpoynt, contrepoynt. 1549Compl. Scot. vi. 39 The lyntquhit sang cuntirpoint quhen the osȝil ȝelpit. 1620Shelton Quix. III. xxviii. 197 To your braying Music, what counterpoint Could you expect but bat blows? 1868Morris Earthly Par. i. (1870) 306 A rainy wind from 'twixt the trees arose, And sang a mournful counterpoint to those. 1880Ouseley in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 407 It is usual to take some fragment of an old chant or chorale as the ‘canto fermo’ or plain-chant, to which other parts or melodies are added as accompaniments..This is called ‘adding a counterpoint to a given subject’.
2. a. The art of adding one or more melodies as accompaniment to a given melody or ‘plain-song’ according to certain fixed rules; the style of composition in which melodies are thus combined.
double counterpoint: counterpoint in which the melodies are so constructed as to admit of being placed in any order above or below one another.
1597Morley Introd. Mus. 71 The first waie wherein we shew the vse of the cordes, is called Counterpoint: that is, when to a note of the plainsong, there goeth but one note of descant. 1674Playford Skill Mus. iii. 1 Counterpoint..was the old manner of Composing Parts together, by setting Points or Pricks one against another. 1762J. Brown Poetry & Mus. v. (1763) 67 Counterpoint, or an artificial Composition in various Parts, was altogether unknown. 1880Ouseley in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 408 Plain counterpoint is generally divided into five species. The first is called ‘note against note’..The second species is called ‘two notes to one’..The third species is called ‘four notes to one’..The fourth is called ‘syncopated counterpoint’..The fifth species is called ‘florid counterpoint’.
b. transf. The combination of two types of rhythm in a line of verse.
c1873–4G. M. Hopkins Notebks. (1937) 238 When the caesura is fixed by rule we have rhythmic counterpoint. By counterpoint I mean the carrying on of two figures at once, especially if they are alike in kind but very unlike or opposite in species. 1878― Let. 5 Oct. (1935) 15, I have written..in the ordinary scanning counterpointed (this is counterpoint: ‘Hóme to his móther's hoúse prívate retúrned’..); others, one or two, in common counterpointed rhythm. 1942T. S. Eliot Music of Poetry 12 Part of the pleasure in the poetry arose from the presence in it of two metrical schemes in a kind of counterpoint.
II. general.
†3. A contrary point (in an argument). Obs.
1565Jewel Repl. Harding (1611) 151 Heere M. Harding, by counterpoints..compareth the state of the Primitiue Church and his Church of Rome together. a1626Bp. Andrewes Serm. (1856) I. 158 Which two counterpoints make in shew a conflict or contradiction between the Prophet and the Evangelist.
4. The opposite point; † the exact opposite, antithesis.
1599Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 167 Who affecting in them selves and followers a certeine Angelicall purity, fell sodainely to the very counterpoinct of justifying bestiality. 1603Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 834 The portall..standing in counterpoint with the third gate above mentioned. 1603B. Jonson Sejanus iii. i. Wks. (Rtldg.) 151/1 My ambition is the counterpoint. 1878Tennyson Q. Mary iii. vi, Should her love..Veer to the counterpoint.
Hence ˈcounterpointist, a contrapuntist; ˈcounterpointless a., lacking counterpoint.
1826M. Kelly Remin. I. 225, I compare a good melodist to a fine racer, and counterpointists to hack post horses. 1887E. Gurney Tertium Quid II. 30 Figureless counterpointless see-sawings.
▪ II. † ˈcounterpoint, n.2 Obs.
Forms: 5 counturpynt, conter-, 5 cowntyr-, cowntter-, cownter-, counterpoynt(e, 6–7 -point(e.
[a. OF. contrepointe (15th c. in Littré), synonym of countepointe, both forms being app. corruptions of OF. cuilte-pointe, coulte-pointe, coute-pointe, repr. L. culcita puncta (see Du Cange) lit. ‘quilt stabbed or stitched through, quilted mattress’. The first element is thus the same word as quilt; the second has, since 1600, been altered to pane.]
A quilted cover for a bed; a counterpane.
[1423Schedule, 1 Hen. VI, Add. MS. 4603 f. 170 Item le testour..Item le Counterpoint du dit lit.] c1450Bk. Curtasye 455 in Babees Bk. (1868) 314 Þo counturpynt he lays on beddys fete. 1524Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 186 My best fetherbed and oon cowntter poynte of tapstre worke. 1588Lanc. Wills III. 13 A feather bedd a bolster and a counter⁓poynte of tapistree. 1620Shelton Quix. IV. xxix. 223 Hid with the sheets and counterpoint. 1694Lond. Gaz. No. 2949/4 Stolen..Curtains and Counterpoint of a Bed, of Indian Damask.
b. Comb., as counterpoint-maker.
1611Cotgr., Contrepointerie, the shop of a Quilter, or Counterpoint-maker.
▪ III. † ˈcounterpoint, v.1 Obs.—0
[a. OF. contrepointer (in 15th c. also coutepoincter) to quilt, f. contrepointe, etc. n.: see prec.
In French this vb. has run together with an original word contre-pointer to set point against point, add the counterpoint in music, point a battery against another, cross, thwart, etc.: see Cotgr. and Littré.]
To quilt by stitching together two pieces of cloth with an intervening layer of padding.
1598Florio, Imbottire, to stuffe, to quilt, to bumbase or counterpoint. 1599Minsheu Sp. Dict., Contrapuntear, to counterpoint.
▪ IV. counterpoint, v.2|ˈkaʊntəpɔɪnt|
[f. counterpoint n.1]
1. intr. To compose or play musical counterpoint. rare.
1875H. Parry in C. L. Graves H. Parry I. iv. 155 Counterpointing, practising and collecting and setting microscopic specimens.
2. trans. To write or add a counterpoint to.
1877G. M. Hopkins Let. 21 Aug. (1935) 45 Milton keeps up a fiction of counterpointing the heard rhythm..upon a standard rhythm which is never heard but only counted. 1894[see canon v.2]. 1965Listener 4 Nov. 733/2 The orchestra..counterpoints the vocal part.
3. To set in contrast; to emphasize a contrast between (two things) by juxtaposition; also with against.
1940Scrutiny IX. 242 Arruntius's belief and unbelief and Sejanus's unbelief and belief are, so to speak, counterpointed. 1959Encounter July 52/2 Counterpointed against Betty's stolid decency is the frenetic nihilism of his editor.
So ˈcounterpointed ppl. a., ˈcounterpointing vbl. n.
c1873–4G. M. Hopkins Notebks. (1937) 236 The counterpointing upon an eight- or nine-syllabled four-beat iambic line of a rhythm of six beats in two parts. 1877― Let. 21 Aug. (1935) 45 Counterpointed verse..supposes a well-known and unmistakeable or unforgetable [sic] standard rhythm. 1941L. MacNeice Poetry of Yeats viii. 180 His [sc. Yeats's] very subtle rhythmical ‘counterpointing’, as Gerard Manley Hopkins would have called it, was more congenial to us than Hopkins's own ‘sprung rhythm’. 1959Listener 29 Jan. 204/2 The verse letters represent a remarkable counterpointing of the formal and the colloquial. 1962Ibid. 4 Oct. 531/2 Joyce's interest in the counterpointed meaning of language and music. |