[GerateWohl]

It’s hard for me to think of music as just “melody”. Melody is just one element of music, So there is also harmony, rhythm, texture, timbre, dynamics… etc.
Because a great composer can take a melody and do great things with it, whereas a melody might in itself have potential, but if that isn’t realized, it’s just a “melody”.

I disagree here. I chose melody on purpose. There are composers who care a lot about harmony and rhythm. But they don’t give a damn about melody. They just turn the scale into a nice piece by pleasant harmonization. Can be nice or boring. But as soon as you change two chords you basically have a new piece.

But take John Williams’ melody of the Raider’s March. You would recognize that melody at any harmonization. That is why Williams can and often does vary the harmonization of his themes a lot. That is, what I like about this melody thing.
In the Raiders example you recognize a strong melody. The stronger it is the more independent it is from harmony and rhythm. I guess, a reason why classical composers often used folk tunes in their pieces because these have usually strong melodies, too.