(Think “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”) Sometimes the melodies are transposed (i.e. Polyphony often involves canon, a compositional technique utilizing imitative counterpoint, where two or more voices perform the same, or very similar, melodies in a sequence of overlapping entrances.(This is in contrast to monophony, in which there is one melody which performers would sing simultaneously.) Each of the different voices have equal importance in the overall sound of the music.Polyphony utilizes mostly contrapuntal textures (often mixed with short passages of homophony, in which all the voices sing in the same rhythm but with different pitches), rather than melody-and-accompaniment type of textures (what we think of as “song”).What to listen for in Renaissance polyphony: Polyphony may be found in motets, masses, and madrigals, the dominant genres of vocal ensemble music during the 14th-16th centuries. This form of music reached the peak of its popularity and sophistication in the Renaissance in the 16th century (Palestrina and Lassus, aka Lasso, are considered the defining composers of that period). Polyphony emerged out of Medieval church music ( chant) around the 12th century with the invention of organum(the earliest named composers of organum were Leonin and Perotin, both working at Notre Dame in Paris). ![]() The term polyphony can be used to describe a general style of music from the Medieval and Renaissance periods or, more broadly, to refer to any musical texture of more than one distinct, simultaneous melodic lines. ![]() Music by Orlando di Lassus (click to view source)
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