(sorry for the empty post - the mudcat interface catches me out from time to time) "no tune is driven by harmony" - OK, perhaps I expressed myself poorly. Let's say "if the song is driven by the harmony" ... my example was Chain Lightning by Steely Dan which has little in the way of a melody, just a 2-bar ostinato figure built on 3 notes for the top-line. However, it's still a song (and in my opinion a good one) because of the musical interest provided by the subtly changing 3-voice harmony and the way the bass part recontextualises the triads. I could imagine this being sung effectively by an a capella vocal group, but a solo unaccompanied performance would probably not be satisfying. However, you can have something with little in the way of melody which supports solo performance such as this - in this case the rhythmic structure that makes it work, I think.
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