The technique of altering the tone color of a single note or musical line by changing from one instrument to another in the middle of a note or line

• A. Timbre
• B. Dynamics
• C. Klangfarbenmelodie
• D. Texture

Answer: (C)

Klangfarbenmelodie is the idea here—the melody is shaped by changing the tone color, distributing the same line across different instruments mid-note or mid-phrase. Rather than keeping the line on one instrument, the musical line is handed off to others, so the pitch and rhythm stay the same but the timbre continually shifts. This creates a contour defined as much by color as by pitch, a hallmark of early-20th-century experimentation.

It’s not about timbre alone—the term describes using changes in timbre to carry the melody itself. It’s not about dynamics (loudness) or texture (how many lines or voices there are), though those elements can be affected as the line moves between timbres.