对位(counterpoint)
作曲法中按照某些技巧和美学准则将两行或更多旋律结合在一起的艺术，为西方音乐所独具。常与复调音乐混淆，其实後者是前者对旋律谐和处理的结果。中世纪用它来处理不同节奏组的重叠，一般称为「奥加农」（Organum）。直到11世纪末，这一手法才完全以一个音符对一个音符的形式出现，获得了对位的名称。14世纪末，由於复杂的切分音及各色各样节拍的并存，使这一时期对位的复杂性居历代首位。到了文艺复兴时期，作曲家的主要考虑在於声部之间的相互关系，他们使用的主要技术是模仿。15世纪末至16世纪，一般认为是对位的黄金时代，名家有帕莱斯特里纳（G. P. da Palestrina）、拉索（O. di Lasso）、德普雷（J. des Prez）等。17世纪至18世纪初（巴洛克时期）出现新的对位形式，特点在於对不协和音的自由处置及音色的丰富多采（参阅consonance and dissonance），虽然并未脱出文艺复兴时期的框架，却变得更加强烈。当华丽的复调音乐渐渐趋於平朴的和声时，音乐从巴洛克时期进入了古典时期。起初作曲家们都避免使用对位，然而到了晚期，特别是维也纳学派的海顿、莫札特、贝多芬诸人，在主音音乐和调性对比的基础上，使对位不断向前突进。同时，对位也因古典风格和曲式的影响而趋於炉火纯青。19世纪对对位的再度崇尚，造成了浪漫派作品的特色。20世纪现代派音乐的对位也同样受了早期音乐的影响，所采用的对位特徵是构成多调性，产生不同音色的对比，而不是旋律之间的对比，超出原来对位的含义－－旋律的结合。
English version：
counterpoint
(from Latin, punctus contra punctum: "note against note") Combination of two or more melodic lines (also called polyphony); also, the technique of controlling the relationship between simultaneous lines. The first recorded use of two melodic lines simultaneously was in 9th-century treatises showing examples of organum, though improvised counterpoint－in which the voices probably moved mostly parallel to each other, and thus failed to convey an impression of independence－may date back to some centuries earlier. The desire to ensure pleasant consonances and avoid unpleasant dissonances when improvising (see consonance and dissonance) called for principles of simultaneous vocal motion (voice leading), and as the relative movement of voices approaching and leaving given intervals was seen to produce effects that were more or less pleasing, rules came to govern such types of relative motion as parallel motion, contrary motion (one voice moving up, the other down), and oblique motion (only one voice moving). A great pedagogical advance was the invention of the systematic pedagogical method known as species counterpoint in the 18th century by Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741). The "vertical" aspect of counterpoint came to be studied as harmony, especially from the 18th century. Though harmony and counterpoint are intimately intertwined, most of the multivoiced music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is felt to be essentially polyphonic or contrapuntal－that is, to consist of a combination of relatively independent and integral melodic lines. In the baroque era, with the invention of figured bass and the continuo, the balance began to shift toward a harmonic orientation.