Counterpoint

A term, first used in the 14th century, to describe the combination of simultaneously sounding musical lines according to a system of rules. It has also been used to designate a voice or even an entire composition (e.g. Vincenzo Galilei's Contrapunti a due voci, 1584, or the contrapuncti of J.S. Bach's Art of Fugue) devised according to the principles of counterpoint (Grove Music Online). The term as such is derived from the Latin contrapunctus, from contra punctum. (Grove)

Within the present field of music theory, counterpoint is viewed as a separate discipline (often erroneously considered as the counterpart of harmony). 

The teaching of counterpoint focuses in general on two approaches:

1. The so called "strict" or modal counterpoint reflecting the (vocal) polyphony of the (later) Renaissance in a modal idiom; the music of the Franco-Flemish Schools. Composers like Josquin des Prez, Jacob Obrecht and also Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina are connected with this approach.
2. The so called "tonal" or "harmonic" counterpoint reflecting the music of the (later) Baroque era, in a major-minor coloured idiom. Within this approach the "harmonic polyphony" of Johann Sebastian Bach is considered the pinnacle of musical craftmanship.