counterpoint

plural counterpoints

1. countableuncountableentertainmentA melody added to an existing one, especially one added to provide harmony whilst each retains its simultaneous identity; a composition consisting of such contrapuntal melodies.

   I noticed […] that when a very cheesy synthesized violin sound plays in counterpoint with a real violin, it can quite convincingly seem as if two violins are playing.

   2009, Roger T. Dean, The Oxford Handbook of Computer Music

2. countableuncountableAny similar contrasting element in a work of art.

   As counterpoints to the glamorous looks of 1980s models such as Chistie Brinkley and Heidi Klum, heroin chic looks such as Kate Moss were thin to the point of anorectic gauntness.

   2014, Nancy M. Marion, Willard M. Oliver, Drugs In American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics and the Law, page 188

3. countableuncountableAn opposite point.

   […] Priests; who affecting in them selves and their followers a certein Angelical puritie, fell sodainly to the very counterpoint of justifying bestialitie.

   1605, Sir Edwin Sandys, Europae Speculum [A Relation of the State of Religion in Europe], in Mary Ellen Henley, Sir Edwin Sandy's Europae Speculum: a Critical Edition (2001)

present singular third person counterpoints · participle present counterpointing · participle past counterpointed · past counterpointed

1. transitiveTo compose or arrange such music.
2. transitiveTo serve as an opposing point against.

   1 more example

   […] the dominant discourse on theory and method in the study of religions remains stuck on the debate about reductionism, which is in turn bent on representing the debate about theory and method in the study of religions as a choice between an unscientific phenomenology or an unsympathetic positivism (for phenomenology the idea that explanation is always 'bad' is perfectly counterpointed by the idea that religion is always 'good').

   2011, Paul-François Tremlett, Religion and the Discourse on Modernity

plural counterpoints

1. obsoleteObsolete form of counterpane.