Counterpoint is the difficult art of creating two or more independent parts of music that will sound good when played simultaneously. In addition to different melodies, the parts can also have different instrumentation, rhythms and levels of volume.
Counterpoint is generally taught with rules that can be very precise and severely limiting. However, in practice, most composers find it uninteresting to adhere to them for extended segments of their music and frequently prefer to modify them or even entirely ignore them.
Counterpoint is a fundamental element of classical music and has a very long history, with the earliest examples in actual written form being from the late ninth century. The word comes from the Latin phrase punctu contra punctum [point against point].