Polyphony meaning in music

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Fig 1: Baroque orchestra, Nuremburg: Ger. Polyphony is a musical texture that features two or more equally prominent melodic lines played at the same time. Each of these lines can be thought of as a melody in its own right -- one that could be sung, played, or listened to independently of the others. But it is the combination of the different strands, all interacting together, that creates polyphony. Fig 2: Four independent, simultaneous lines, forming a polyphonic texture.

Polyphony meaning in music

We explain the basics of polyphony and how it works, with examples from well-known composers. The word polyphony comes from the Greek for 'many sounds', which gives you an instant clue as to how the term is used in relation to music. Polyphony is essentially a term used to describe the simultaneous use of two or more melodies or voices within a composition. This could be anything from a simple canon or round to something much more complex. In one guise or another, polyphony has been a technique used within music compositions for centuries. Although — as styles and trends have changed over time — the exact form it has taken has varied. Polyphonic music was developed throughout the 10 th to 13 th centuries but it really took off during the Renaissance period, when polyphonic compositions started to become much more complex and intricate. Monophony is the opposite of polyphony. While polyphony uses 'many sounds' to create texture within a piece, monophony is characterised by a single melody that isn't accompanied by harmonies - if you remember 'delighting' your parents by blasting out a tune on the recorder or singing nursery rhymes at the top of your lungs as a child, you'll have been giving them a monophonic performance. Many traditional folk songs and medieval chants offer examples of monophonic compositions too. While harmony refers to the chordal consonance within a piece, polyphony refers to the relationship between simultaneous, independent melodies that work together in terms of the piece as a whole. To think of it another way, harmony is concerned with the relationship between multiple complementary notes stacked vertically on a score, while polyphony refers to multiple complementary strands of melody flowing horizontally across a score.

These treatises provided examples of two-voice note-against-note embellishments of chants using parallel octaves, fifths, and fourths. Toggle limited content width.

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'polyphony. Send us feedback about these examples. Accessed 2 Mar. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! See Definitions and Examples ». Log In. Examples of polyphony in a Sentence.

We explain the basics of polyphony and how it works, with examples from well-known composers. The word polyphony comes from the Greek for 'many sounds', which gives you an instant clue as to how the term is used in relation to music. Polyphony is essentially a term used to describe the simultaneous use of two or more melodies or voices within a composition. This could be anything from a simple canon or round to something much more complex. In one guise or another, polyphony has been a technique used within music compositions for centuries. Although — as styles and trends have changed over time — the exact form it has taken has varied.

Polyphony meaning in music

Table of Contents. Polyphony is a term used in music to describe a texture that features two or more equally prominent melodic lines played or sung simultaneously. It is the opposite of monophony, which consists of a single melodic line. In polyphonic music, each melodic line is independent but related, creating a complex and layered sound. The melodic lines in polyphony can be rhythmically differentiated, and they often interact and harmonize with each other.

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Oxford University Press. Recent Examples on the Web Under cover of jokes and the expert polyphony of the overlapping dialogue, David Adjmi leads us to a story about the disaster of maleness, and thus of mating, behind the pop-rock revolution of the period. English Pronunciation. See also: Traditional sub-Saharan African harmony. European polyphony rose prior to, and during the period of the Western Schism. Traditional non-professional polyphony has a wide, if uneven, distribution among the peoples of the world. Counterpoint and polyphony. This music tends to contain much melisma and is sung in a nasal temperament. Play Play. Log In.

Polyphonic music has parts that weave in and out of each other.

Within the context of the Western musical tradition, the term polyphony is usually used to refer to music of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Polyphony may dominate an entire musical work, a significant section of a piece, or it may appear for only a short time. Bilingual Dictionaries. Harmony was considered frivolous, impious, lascivious, and an obstruction to the audibility of the words. The oldest surviving piece of six-part music is the English rota Sumer is icumen in c. Routledge, Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! This little tune first appears by itself immediately after the opening orchestral thunderclaps, and gathers momentum as it travels from top to bottom. Nevertheless their voice is heard. Traditional non-professional polyphony has a wide, if uneven, distribution among the peoples of the world. Toggle limited content width. Play Play. Using these observations as our paradigm, we developed an interactive computer system to expand the concept of polyphony to harmonic clusters.