Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Polyphony (/ p ə ˈ l ɪ f ə n i / pə-LIF-ə-nee) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ().
An intuitively understandable example for a polyphonic instrument is a (classical) piano, on which the player plays different melody lines with the left and the right hand - depending on music style and composition, these may be musically tightly interrelated or may even be totally unrelated to each other, like in parts of Jazz music.
The Polyphonic era is a term used since the mid-19th century to designate an historical period in Western classical music in which harmony in music is subordinate to polyphony. [1] It generally refers to the period from the 13th to the 16th century. [ 2 ]
Traditional sub-Saharan African harmony is a music theory of harmony in sub-Saharan African music based on the principles of homophonic parallelism (chords based around a leading melody that follow its rhythm and contour), homophonic polyphony (independent parts moving together), counter-melody (secondary melody) and ostinato-variation (variations based on a repeated theme).
Since the Renaissance period in European music, much contrapuntal music has been written in imitative counterpoint. In imitative counterpoint, two or more voices enter at different times, and (especially when entering) each voice repeats some version of the same melodic element.
In music, imitation is the repetition of a melody in a polyphonic texture shortly after its first appearance in a different voice. The melody may vary through transposition, inversion, or otherwise, but retain its original character.
The conductus can include either one voice or multiple voices, known as monophonic and polyphonic compositions. The surviving repertories indicates the monophonic conducti are about double sizes of the polyphony type. But it was the polyphonic conductus that become one of principal musical genres in Parisian polyphony.
Multi-voice elaborations of Gregorian chant, known as organum, were an early stage in the development of Western polyphony. Gregorian chant was traditionally sung by choirs of men and boys in churches, or by women and men of religious orders in their chapels. It is the music of the Roman Rite, performed in the Mass and the monastic Office.