I'm not a musician or music expert. I'd heard of Carl Orff, but not about "Schulwerk." Obviously it is very important to LISTEN TO some of this music, and I find that there are many examples on YouTube... both of the music itself being performed by adults, and illustrations of how it is used in classes. One of them is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsKXSFEBtmw At 2:11 I hear some kind of percussion instrument beginning an "ostinato." The instrument plays notes that have pitches to them, so it is a tune, not just a rhythm. Then some kind of instrument like a flute or recorder begins to play a tune. The tune is made out of short phrases. The flute is, indeed, playing "short phrases of melody." At the same time we hear the other instrument playing something over and over. Because it has a tune, it is a "voice." Because it sounds good when played "against" the flute, it is what she is calling a "countervoice." Although they go together harmonically--they aren't dissonant--it is nothing at all like "counterpoint." As an example of "counterpoint" I would suggest this song from a Broadway show! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RthEYvh6aMM A more traditional example of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZW791uMSAQ

It is not an everyday term. I guess that the music sounds like there is a choir. One part of the choir sings the main melody, and another part sings a harmony that complements the melody. Perhaps the harmony "counters" the main melody because it is sung a little later than each phrase of the melody.

It is obviously a technical term in music, though not familiar to me. It MIGHT POSSIBLY be an invented word, because her point is that these are "countervoices" and but NOT "counterpoint." "Voices" in music refers to the separate melodic lines you can hear in a complicated musical texture. It does NOT mean human voices or singing. Imagine that you are trying to hum the "tune" of a symphony. You would hum the part that's easiest to hear, usually the "upper voice." But it is not satisfying to hum a symphony, but you also hear subconsciously, and consciously if you pay attention, to other melodies within the music that are being played at the same time. "Counterpoint" is music in which several melodies are played at the same time. Each can be heard by itself, but they fit tightly with each other like puzzle pieces. They create harmony at the same time as they create melody.. The harmony is very important, and you "feel" chords and tonal centers at the same time as you hear melodies. Counterpoint is common in Western classical music such as symphonies. It is very characteristic of baroque music, such as Bach fugues. It is also found in Sousa marches, Strauss waltzes, Broadway show music, and movie music. The writer is describing music written for children by Carl Orff. She says this musical style is unusual. She is using the technical words of music theory to describe its characteristics. She is saying that Orff's music for children uses several different instruments playing different melodic lines. They sometimes overlap,, but she is stressing that it is NOT "contrapuntal." They do NOT fit together like puzzle pieces and create traditional harmony. The harmony is not very important. The music is "about" the melodies, not the harmony. An "ostinato" is a repeated musical phrase, that becomes easy to hear in a complicated musical texture because it is repeated over and over. To be continued...

A countermelody is a sequence of notes perceived as a melody and is played simultaneously to a lead melody. For example, in the later parts of "Prima Donna", Phantom of the Opera, the male voices the female voices are the countervoices (countermelody) to each other dependending who is singing the main melody and the secondary one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJMcb47l2HE&index=7&list=PL2tPnajUVGAC64fHQ3jjWQyGuKzVWBhuy