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Music Texture: Types and Analysis

The document discusses different types of musical textures: Monophony has a single melodic line with no accompaniment. Heterophony also has a single line but other instruments add ornaments. Homophony has a clear main melody supported by other lines, either with different rhythms (melody and accompaniment) or similar rhythms (chordal). Polyphony has multiple independent and interesting lines that can be either imitative, using the same melodies, or non-imitative, using different melodies. The document provides questions to help identify texture based on the number of lines, how interesting each line is, and how similar or different the lines are rhythmically and melodically.

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Caleb Nihira
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103 views15 pages

Music Texture: Types and Analysis

The document discusses different types of musical textures: Monophony has a single melodic line with no accompaniment. Heterophony also has a single line but other instruments add ornaments. Homophony has a clear main melody supported by other lines, either with different rhythms (melody and accompaniment) or similar rhythms (chordal). Polyphony has multiple independent and interesting lines that can be either imitative, using the same melodies, or non-imitative, using different melodies. The document provides questions to help identify texture based on the number of lines, how interesting each line is, and how similar or different the lines are rhythmically and melodically.

Uploaded by

Caleb Nihira
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Chapter 3: The Structures of Music

Texture

Key Terms
texture monophony (monophonic) Heterophony (heterophonic) homophony (homophonic) polyphony (polyphonic) counterpoint imitative and non-imitative

Texture
the relationship between a melody and all other lines and figures that co-exist with it

Three Questions to Identify Texture


How many melodic lines do you hear? Are all the lines equally interesting? How similar or different are they?

How many lines do you hear?


How many different things are going on at one time? melody only? more than one melody? any chords, figures, bass lines, or countermelodies?

Are all lines equally interesting?


Is there a foreground/background relationship? Is there one main melody with clear patterns supporting it? Is it hard to tell which is the main melody?

How different are the lines?


same rhythms or different rhythms? same melodies or different melodies?

Monophonic Texture
How many lines do you hear?
only one, nothing else.

Heterophonic Texture
How many lines do you hear?
basically one some instruments are adding more ornaments or elaborate figures

Homophonic Texture
How many lines do you hear?
two or more

Are all the lines equally interesting?


No, there is one main melody and other parts support it.

How similar or different are they?


different rhythms = melody and accompaniment similar rhythms = chordal (homorhythmic)

Homophonic Texture
melody and accompaniment

chordal (homorhythmic) texture

Polyphonic Texture
How many lines do you hear?
two or more

Are all the lines equally interesting?


yes, all competing for your attention

How similar or different are they?


same melodies = imitative different melodies = non-imitative

Imitative polyphony

Non-imitative polyphony

Listening Exercises
monophonic? heterophonic? homophonic? chordal texture or melody and accompaniment? polyphonic? imitative or non-imitative polyphony?

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