Contrapuntal

CONTRAPUNTAL is properly that which is written according to the rules of strict Counterpoint, which see; but it is commonly used to describe music of a pure and dignified style, in which the effect is produced more by the independent motion of the parts than by the massing of the harmonies. The larger proportion of early modern music was essentially contrapuntal, and it seems that the first ideas of harmony were derived from the species of counterpoint called Discantus, which was...