Page 63 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

Example 3.1 how the melody, which by itself would be monophonic, now joins with vertical blocks of chords to create homophonic texture.
Example 3.1 > homophony
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listen to . . . Example 3.1 online.
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4˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
Holiday carols, hymns, folksongs, and almost all pop songs have this sort of tune-plus-chordal-accompaniment texture when sung with harmony. Can you hear in your mind’s ear a band playing “The Star-Spangled Banner”? That’s ho- mophonic texture.
As we might suppose from its name “many sounding,” polyphony requires two or more lines in the musical fabric. In addition, the term polyphonic implies that each of the lines will be free and independent, and enter at different times. Thus, polyphonic texture has a strong linear (horizontal) thrust, whereas in ho- mophonic texture the fabric is structured more vertically as blocks of accom- panying chords (compare the arrows in Examples 3.1 and 3.2). In polyphonic texture the voices are of equal importance, moving against one another to create what is called counterpoint, the harmonious opposition of two or more inde- pendent musical lines. (Musicians often use the terms polyphony and counter- point interchangeably.) Finally, there are two types of counterpoint: free and imitative. In free counterpoint the voices are highly independent and go their separate ways; much jazz improvisation is done in free counterpoint. In imita- tive counterpoint, on the other hand, a leading voice begins, followed by one or more other voices that duplicate what the first voice presented. If the followers copy exactly, note for note, what the leader plays or sings, then a canon results. Think of “Three Blind Mice,” “Are You Sleeping?” (“Frère Jacques”), and “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” and remember how each voice enters in turn, imitating the first voice from beginning to end (see Example 3.2). These are all short can- ons, or rounds, a type of strictly imitative counterpoint popular since the Middle Ages. A much longer canon, as we have seen in Listening Exercise 2.4, plays out in the upper three lines of Johann Pachelbel’s well-known Canon in D major.
listen to . . . an excerpt from Pachelbel’s canon online. listen to . . . Example 3.2 online.
Exam4ple 3.2 > polyphony
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