Polyphony

Polyphony is a type of musical <a href="/facts/Texture_(music)/jL8lvzH3">texture</a> consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent <a href="/facts/Melody/5TR3IE3Y">melody</a>, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice (<a href="/facts/Monophony/2TQJx4x1">monophony</a>) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by <a href="/facts/Chord_(music)/hJBCHCSB">chords</a> (<a href="/facts/Homophony/LVhzWGI2">homophony</a>).
Within the context of the Western musical tradition, the term polyphony is usually used to refer to <a href="/facts/Music/hDVP0xsQ">music</a> of the late <a href="/facts/Medieval_music/AC4d5rCy">Middle Ages</a> and <a href="/facts/Renaissance_music/MvSjNt2G">Renaissance</a>. <a href="/facts/Baroque_music/UgrJnyTq">Baroque</a> forms such as <a href="/facts/Fugue/qpUgaHjW">fugue</a>, which might be called polyphonic, are usually described instead as <a href="/facts/Counterpoint/9yd8pKzN">contrapuntal</a>. Also, as opposed to the species terminology of counterpoint, polyphony was generally either "pitch-against-pitch" / "point-against-point" or "sustained-pitch" in one part with <a href="/facts/Melisma/gTneqU94">melismas</a> of varying lengths in another. In all cases the conception was probably what <a href="/facts/Margaret_Bent/tKWdNq1f">Margaret Bent</a> (1999) calls "dyadic counterpoint", with each part being written generally against one other part, with all parts modified if needed in the end. This point-against-point conception is opposed to "successive composition", where voices were written in an order with each new voice fitting into the whole so far constructed, which was previously assumed.
The term polyphony is also sometimes used more broadly, to describe any musical texture that is not monophonic. Such a perspective considers homophony as a sub-type of polyphony.

Polyphony open-in-new

Polyphony