polyphony, inmusic, the simultaneous combination of two or moretones or melodic lines (the term derives from the Greek word for “many sounds”). Thus, even a singleinterval made up of two simultaneous tones or achord of three simultaneous tones is rudimentarily polyphonic. Usually, however, polyphony is associated withcounterpoint, the combination of distinct melodic lines.

In polyphonic music, two or more simultaneous melodic lines are perceived as independent even though they are related. In Western music, polyphony typically includes a contrapuntal separation ofmelody and bass. A texture is more purely polyphonic, and thus more contrapuntal, when the musical lines are rhythmicallydifferentiated. A subcategory of polyphony, calledhomophony, exists in its purest form when all the voices or parts move together in the samerhythm, as in a texture of block chords. These terms are by no means mutuallyexclusive, and composers from the 16th through the 21st century have commonly varied textures from complex polyphony to rhythmically uniform homophony, even within the same piece.

Polyphony, the opposite ofmonophony (one voice, such aschant), is the outstanding characteristic thatdifferentiatesWestern art music from the music of all othercultures. The special polyphony of ensembles in Asian music includes a type of melodic variation, better described asheterophony, that is not truly contrapuntal in the Western sense.

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