How to Use contrapuntal in a Sentence

contrapuntal

adjective
  • Our careers flowed in contrapuntal sign-waves, one of us up while the other was down.
    — Todd Robinson, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Aug. 2023
  • The bidding has a pace and a rhythm that are almost contrapuntal.
    — Sean Williams, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
  • But contrapuntal elaboration works its way down through the string sections.
    — Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 31 Oct. 2020
  • Their contrapuntal skills and choral writing inspired Mozart.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 June 2019
  • One of the main challenges of the suites involves projecting the music’s contrapuntal textures.
    — Anthony Tommasini, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Aug. 2019
  • Its arrangements are lean and contrapuntal, uncushioned, making every note earn its place both as a melodic line and a rhythmic push.
    — The New York Times, New York Times, 27 Oct. 2022
  • The song becomes a study of contrapuntal motion between his left and right hands, framing his familiar, luminous melody.
    — Larry Blumenfeld, WSJ, 14 Sep. 2022
  • Aimaq uses this confrontation to set up a contrapuntal narrative between the lives of Daniel and Taj.
    — Paul Sedan, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Jan. 2021
  • The tracks are 30 contrapuntal variations beginning and ending with an aria.
    — Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 17 June 2021
  • In my seat, Gerstein’s immaculate contrapuntal flights were buried in the winds’ primary-colored blocks of sound.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 2 Aug. 2021
  • The strings are divided into two groups and operate in contrapuntal dialogue, building a universe in sound from the lowest notes.
    — Los Angeles Times, 22 Feb. 2022
  • During more intense episodes, the instruments align into softly pungent chords or a bit of contrapuntal interplay.
    — Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 25 Jan. 2018
  • But these contrapuntal beats are too infrequent, and the director, Urie, hasn’t worked enough nuance into the more antic sections.
    — Celia Wren, Washington Post, 15 July 2019
  • Variation 3, for example, is the first of the periodic contrapuntal canons in the score, with one line followed a couple of beats later by its echo.
    — Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 4 Oct. 2020
  • On Saturday, secondary parts or contrapuntal inner voices struggled to come through or were lost completely in the overall sound.
    — Christian Hertzog, sandiegouniontribune.com, 10 Dec. 2017
  • Its duets flowed into trios and then into ensemble singing in contrapuntal layers requiring exquisite timing.
    — David Hendricks, San Antonio Express-News, 3 Feb. 2018
  • But Hersch still draws on his classical training, in his contrapuntal playing and his more structured compositions.
    — Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 18 Sep. 2017
  • The zooms in and out also establish a crucial, contrapuntal rhythm between doctors and patients, and also between the physical and the abstract.
    — Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, 27 Apr. 2023
  • Then-current neoclassicism is evident in bright scorings — for double winds and brass, strings and timpani — and patches of contrapuntal business.
    — Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News, 6 Mar. 2026
  • Drawn to the most extreme position, Judd eschewed any sort of contrapuntal or hierarchical arrangements of shapes and marks on a surface.
    — David Salle, The New York Review of Books, 17 Dec. 2020
  • Its obsession with contrapuntal display makes the middle registers (the octaves around middle C on the piano) sound clogged and overcrowded.
    — Russell Platt, The New Yorker, 3 Feb. 2017
  • But the overly broad performances, especially in the zippy courtroom scenes, drain the movie of nuance and blunt its realism, and the contrapuntal his-and-her flashbacks add little.
    — Manohla Dargis, New York Times, 12 Oct. 2017
  • By freeing the cello from having to always play the bass line, Dvořák was able to deploy it in a more contrapuntal manner against the upper strings, even allowing the cello to join or supplant them.
    — Christian Hertzog, sandiegouniontribune.com, 10 Aug. 2017
  • Eugenides writes slowly, so Fresh Complaint feels almost like a sap to the readers who are waiting for another contrapuntal masterpiece.
    — Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 4 Oct. 2017
  • Andsnes and Hamelin brought lift to the rhythms, definition to the spiky contrapuntal textures, of music that can easily sound aridly academic in lesser hands.
    — John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, 2 May 2017
  • The music draws a listener in and then repays closer attention with a wealth of contrapuntal intricacy and rhythmic vitality.
    — Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 Mar. 2018
  • By the time a few dozen women are dancing in circles around a maypole, even the camerawork — with its sinuous flow and contrapuntal push-ins and pullouts — seems to be tightening its grip on the visitors.
    — Manohla Dargis, New York Times, 2 July 2019
  • The harmony is, in places, arrestingly thick and hazy, the layering of motifs engagingly contrapuntal.
    — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2021
  • Then there are the vocal harmonies, full-on chorale-like sections incorporating as many as eight voices at a time, with contrapuntal lines and distinctive harmony choices that have long been the hallmarks of his sound.
    — Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times, 13 Sep. 2019
  • Voices of a surveyor, a geologist, a nurse, a government official and a writer intertwined as though contrapuntal voices in a Bach fugue or suite.
    — Los Angeles Times, 22 Apr. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'contrapuntal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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