Counterpoint (from Latin 'punctus contra punctum': note against note) is the technique of combining two or more melodic lines that are harmonically related yet rhythmically independent — each voice pursuing its own path while combining with the others into coherent harmony. The technique was the central compositional discipline of Western art music from the Renaissance through the Baroque period, codified by theorists including Palestrina (whose style became the model for strict counterpoint) and Fux. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (48 preludes and fugues) and The Art of Fugue are its supreme achievements: voices that maintain complete independence while combining into absolute harmonic logic. The fugue — in which a single theme is introduced successively by different voices and then developed through complex interweaving — is counterpoint's highest form. Counterpoint remains central to music education today.