Polyphony

Polyphony ( 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 (monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). In the Western musical tradition, the term polyphony is usually used to refer to music of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Baroque forms such as fugue, which might be called polyphonic, are usually described instead as contrapuntal. Also, as opposed to the species terminology of counterpoint, polyphony was generally either "pitch-against-pitch" (sometimes called "point-against-point") or a sustained-pitch in one part with melismas in another. In all cases the concept was probably what Margaret Bent (1999) calls "dyadic counterpoint", with each part being written generally against one other part, with parts modified at the end if necessary. This point-against-point concept is opposed to "successive composition", where voices were written in an order with each new voice fitting into the previous construction. 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.