Elements of Music: Polyphonic 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. Even if you don’t like Baroque music you should listen to it for its brilliant use of polyphonic texture. And for guitarists Bach offers a huge amount of material with which to practice. Simply, he was the man.
Polyphonic texture 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.
I haven’t written too much of this. Mainly I guess, because I’m not classically trained, unfortunately. Secondly, because I just haven’t tried yet. Maybe I’m intimidated, Maybe I should try it I guess. Whatever... you’re not interested. Let’s look at some examples.
Well, hey here’s my first attempt at a classical type polyphonic phrase. You can see it works off of the same high melody. I just changed up that arpeggio and created another melody for the bass to follow.
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.