Polyphonic texture in music
3 MAIN TYPES OF TEXTURE
"This is the big one. This is the most complex of all of the textures that we are looking at. If you ever heard of a man named Bach, then you've heard of one of the masters at polyphonic music. For guitarists Bach offers a huge amount of material with which to practice. Simply, he was the man."
What is polyphonic texture in music?
Polyphonic texture in songwriting is when you have 2 or more voices playing independently yet complimentary of each other to create a complex composition.
The melody, harmony and rhythm cannot be the same. They can be similar and at times, some of them can be the same. But unlike homophonic music, the melodic shape of each of the parts won't be the same.
Polyphonic examples
Similar to the last example in homophonic but the bass line carries it's own melody.
There are a number of different musical terms you should
become aware of if you want to delve into this type of thing
with your music.
- COUNTERPOINT
- When two or more melodies, lines, or voices are moving independent of each other and are of equal weight in the piece. In counterpoint and in polyphonic music sometimes it can be hard to determine which part to sing along with.
- FUGUE
- A piece of music that introduces an idea in one voice, then is answered by another voice a 4th or 5th above it. Different themes can be introduced and they are all answered by another until eventually the first theme is reintroduced.
- ROUND
- Part of a song that is sung and then repeated by another voice after it until everyone is singing the same song but at different parts simultaneously.
- CANON
- a contrapuntal piece of music in which a phrase is imitated or exactly repeated later or in other parts. Like I said, I'm not classically trained but there's plenty of info out there on these things if you want to explore them more.