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Traditional (non-professional) polyphony has a wide, if uneven, distribution among the peoples of the world. [4] Most polyphonic regions of the world are in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Oceania. It is believed that the origins of polyphony in traditional music vastly predate the emergence of polyphony in European professional music.
Thus, one phrase might be soloistic, the next set in imitative polyphony, the next homophonic, the next an instrumental tutti, and so on. Alternatively, a chorus could declaim a text homophonically while violins played in an entirely different style at the same time – in a different register, in a different location in the church, all ...
Most of the music of this early phase is polyphonic but non-imitative, with contrast achieved by alternation of full five-voice texture with sections sung by fewer voices. The second phase, which includes music by John Browne , Richard Davy and Walter Lambe , uses imitation, cantus firmus techniques, and frequent cross-relations (a feature ...
In European classical music, imitative writing was featured heavily in the highly polyphonic compositions of the Renaissance and Baroque eras.A more improvisatory form of imitation can be found in Arab and Indian vocal music where the instrumentalist may accompany the vocalist in a vocal improvisation with imitation.
Some are monophonic, while others are set in two to four parts of usually non-imitative polyphony. The monodic songs can be sung as two- or threefold canons. The relative simplicity, the dance rhythm, and the strong melodies of the songs have given the music collected in the Red Book a lasting appeal, and these songs are some of the most ...
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. The fantasia , the ricercar , and later, the canon and fugue (the contrapuntal form par excellence ) all feature imitative counterpoint, which also frequently appears in choral works ...
The six-part fugue in the "Ricercar a 6" from The Musical Offering, in the hand of Johann Sebastian BachIn classical music, a fugue (/ f juː ɡ /, from Latin fuga, meaning "flight" or "escape" [1]) is a contrapuntal, polyphonic compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches ...
Stylistically, the sacred works are typical of the more conservative music of the early 16th century, using non-imitative polyphony over a cantus firmus, alternating sectionally with more homophonic textures or with unadorned plainsong.