Counterpoint

From latin punctus contra punctum, note against note. The combination into a single musical fabric of lines or parts which have distinct melodic significance. A frequently used polyphonic technique is imitation, in its strictest form found in the canon needing only one part to be written down while the other parts are performed with a given displacement. Imitation is also the contrapunctal technique used in the fugue which, since the music of the baroque era, has been one of the most popular polyphonic composition methods.