Term coined by Robert O. Gjerdingen, after an observation by Leonard B. Meyer.
In the words of Gjerdingen, “in the 1970s, Leonard B. Meyer noticed that many eighteenth-century phrases resembled the opening of the hymn tune ‘Adeste Fidelis’. Its melody, believed to date from the early eighteenth century, opens with a variant of the Do-Re-Mi that features melodic leaps down to, and up from, ➎” (Gjerdingen (2007), p. 85).
Further Reading (Selection)
Gjerdingen, Robert O. Music in the Galant Style (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).