Polyphonic texture can be contrasted with monophonic texture, where there is only one voice, and homophonic texture, where there is one leading voice and others that provide harmony notes (the vertical aspect is stressed here).

To help you grasp and fully understand what it is, in this blog post we’re going to take a look at 12 examples of songs with polyphonic texture. Let’s start by going back 1000 years with some gregorian chant.

1. Winchester Troper, Verset: Pascha Nostrum – Unknown

The Winchester Troper provides a window of insight into music in the Winchester Cathedral in the 10th and 11th centuries.

It is said to be authored by the cantor of the cathedral, and importantly, it contains the largest collection of 11th-century polyphony ever discovered. 

The type of polyphony it contains is called “organum” and is a type of gregorian chant. Organum began with singers singing a “drone” below a chant melody.

It developed into “parallel organum,” where the second voice sings in fifths or fourths below the pre-existing chant. By the time of the Winchester Troper you have oblique motion as well.

The 174 organum pieces in Corpus 473 of the Winchester Proper contain the organal voice only.

The principal voice or “cactus firmus” would have been sung from memory or from another manuscript.

2. Sederunt Principes, Pérotin

The art of composing organa would grow in the 12th and 13th centuries in the Notre Dame school under the influence of Léonin and Pérotin. Now, third and fourth voice parts enhance the pre-existing chant melody.

Sederunt Principes by Pérotin is an example of organa quadruplum, as it is written for four voice parts. 

What is interesting is that the chant melody, sung by the tenor, is itself altered.

Pérotin stretches it out in time (augmentation), and this allows for more elaborate voices to be sung over it.

Being stretched out, the tenor voice ends up producing a drone effect.

3. Sicut Cervus, G.P. Palestrina

By the time of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina in the 16th century, the art of writing counterpoint has developed to an excellent degree.

Great renaissance composers like Guillaume Du Fay and Josquin des Prez have made lasting contributions, and Palestrina’s music is representative of European polyphony perfected in the Renaissance era.

In Sicut Cervus Palestrina sets out with a simple cactus firmus sung by the tenor. The other voices join one by one, imitating and the deviating.

“Imitative” polyphony will, in fact, be a hallmark of this piece.

There is room for word-painting too, for instance, the word “aquarum” is set to a “flowing” melody. 

The motet’s overall effect is impressive and grandiose. Yet, the words are intelligible, and this despite the rhythmic complexity and independence of the voices.

4. Sumer is icumen in, Reading Abbey

This song dates back to the middle of the 13th century and was discovered on a manuscript at Reading Abbey, England.

Its composer may be W. de Wycombe but it’s not known for sure. It is called the Reading Rota; “rota” being another term for the word “round.”

A round is a type of canon, in which every voice follows the first. So, yes, every canon and every round — even simple ones like Frère Jacques — has a polyphonic texture to it.

Sumer is icumen in, or “summer has come in” is written for six voices.

Two voices sing fixed bass melodies that repeat through the piece, while the upper four voices sing in rounds. 

5. Fugue in G minor, BWV 578, J.S. Bach

Like canons and rounds, fugues are polyphonic in texture.

Fugues are based on imitative counterpoint and flourished in the Baroque era (17th-18th century).

In a fugue, many imitative parts sound at once as a harmonic whole.

J.S. Bach is widely regarded as the preeminent composer of fugues, and his compositions display a staggering amount of variety and depth.

In BWV 578 the subject or main theme begins in the soprano line and is then imitated by the alto, tenor, and bass voices.

As each voice enters with the melodic material provided by the theme, the others continue in counterpoint.

6. Once in Royal David’s City, Kings College Choir & Sir Stephen Cleobury

Hymns are generally homophonic in texture: you have a main melody sung by the sopranos, and the other voices supplying harmony notes.

However, composers occasionally write a counter-melody above the soprano part for even greater variety. 

Because the human ear likes to pick out the highest voice, you tend to hear the new tune sung by the “descant” part.

However, because you are also familiar with the original tune, you hear that as well within the harmony. 

Can you hear the original hymn tune beneath this marvellous descant written by Sir Stephen Cleobury?

For more examples of homophonic texture check out our post here.

7. When The Saints Go Marching In, The New Orleans Jazz Band

In the early 20th century, the “Dixieland” style of Jazz emerged out of a blend of several music styles including blues, ragtime, and band marches.

The frontline instruments, generally the trumpet, clarinet, and trombone, improvise melodies simultaneously imprinting on the music a rich polyphonic texture.

In the video, right from the get-go, you’ll hear the trumpet with a clear melody, the clarinet improvising freely, and the trombone providing key chord notes while also venturing into a melody of its own.

8. The Lion Sleeps Tonight, The Lion King

This fun song is in 2-part polyphony. You have the “wimoweh” bass which starts the song and later serves as the harmonic basis for the melody that contains the English lyrics.

The English texts were penned by George David Weiss, while the song was originally composed as “Mbube” in Zulu by Solomon Linda.

The lion sleeps tonight has been recorded by various artists. Here, Pumbaa takes “a-weema-weh” while Timon sings the English texts.

9. Recuerdos de la Alhambra, Francisco Tárrega

Like keyboard instruments, the guitar supports music that has a polyphonic texture. This is especially true for fingerstyle and classical guitar.

Consider Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tárrega, for instance. 

The masterpiece can essentially be broken down into an arpeggiated voice upon which a tremolo part is superimposed.

The arpeggio has a melody of its own and lies in a lower register, while the tremolo rings above with a complimentary melody.

Watch this magical rendition by Brandon Acker.

10. Scarborough fair, Simon & Garfunkel

Plenty of musicians like Mark Knopfler and John Mayer use the guitar as an independent voice that compliments their lead vocal part.

Simon & Garfunkel’s arrangement of Scarborough fair starts in this fashion.

Once the main voice enters you have a polyphonic texture.

However, Simon & Garfunkel add a bit more “spice” by adding another independent voice from verse two onwards, thus adding further depth to the polyphonic texture.

11. Yelli, Baka Women

Independent of the European tradition, polyphonic music exists in cultures around the world.

For instance, the Baka, nomadic people of Cameroon and Gabon, create a polyphonic texture while yodelling, a singing technique in which you alternate the normal voice with a falsetto voice.

“Yelli” is a morning song sung by the Baka women to ensure luck in hunting.

Their voices, one may say, recreate the sound of the rainforests they dwell in.

Another tradition you may want to look up is the iso-polyphonic music of the Albanian people.

12. Baba Yetu, Christopher Tin & André van der Merwe

Mixing African and European traditions, this edition of Baba Yetu (Our Father) is as exciting as it is musically rich.

Diverging after the opening the chord, the male and female sections sing counter voices, creating a polyphonic texture.

Often the women’s section sings a drone-like part that hovers over the male voice.

The piece gets more interesting with the introduction of two soloists who enter with recitative parts which enhance the polyphonic texture.

13. Bonus: The Earliest Known Polyphonic Piece Written

Credit for this piece goes to Giovanni Varelli, then a PhD student at St. John’s College, University of Cambridge, and the British Library, the place where he discovered this gem.

It bears an early form of music notation, one that predates the 4- and 5-lined staves.

The unnamed piece dates, according to Varelli’s research, back to 900 AD in North-west Germany.

It comprises two vocal chant lines and is an example of early “organum,” as the second voice sang as an accompaniment. 

At this point, it is worth noting that the line between homophonic texture and polyphonic texture can often get blurry.

Here, for instance, one may say that the piece is essentially homophonic.

Yet, the piece has only two lines, and these enjoy a fair degree of independence, deviating into consonances and merging into unisons, all while permitting the occasional dissonance.

Ending on a Single Note!

We hope you enjoyed this list of ancient and contemporary music that showcases a polyphonic texture.

As you listen to music you love, you’re now likely to hear a mix of polyphony and homophony blended in various degrees!

One of the most commonly heard textures is homophony. In fact, there’s a good chance that you heard a song with a homophonic texture the last time you switched on the radio. In this article we’ll encounter a wide range of music: religious hymns, Romantic lieder, grand orchestral pieces, classic pop, swinging jazz and more. Let’s begin.

Quick recap: What is a Homophonic Texture in Music?

A homophonic texture is one where we have multiple voices, but which is dominated by a single melody.

This might take the form of a homorhythmic texture (also called a block chord texture), where all of the parts have the same rhythm.

For example, in many hymns, our ear is drawn to the top line of the choir, the melody, while all of the other parts have different notes but the same rhythm.

The other type of homophony is known as a melody-dominated texture.

This is where we have a clearly dominant melody, along with a subordinate accompaniment part.

An example might be a sung melody that is accompanied by chords played on the guitar or piano.

For a more detailed explanation, you can read our guide to homophonic textures in music here.

1. Claudio Monteverdi – Ave Maris Stella

During the Renaissance period polyphony was the order of the day, as composers attempted to make numerous independent parts fit together with ever-increasing complexity.

In the following Baroque period, composers started to think of music more vertically, with a focus on chords and chord progressions, a way of thinking that would continue all the way into the eras of pop music and jazz.

In this religious choral piece for eight voices, the Italian Baroque composer Claudio Monteverdi makes use of a dense homophonic texture.

There are some moments of greater rhythmic interdependence between the parts, but the overall effect is of chords moving together as one.

2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major

Alberti bass is a device that was popular during the Classical period, where an accompanying part plays broken chords – where each note of a chord is played consecutively, rather than simultaneously – alongside a more dominant melody.

This is classed as an example of homophony because, although the accompanying part has more of a linear character than many of the more chordal examples here, it is still very much an example of a clear melody and a subservient accompaniment.

The opening of Mozart’s Piano Sonata in C Major is a famous example of an Alberti bass line, with the listener’s ear clearly drawn to the more intricately melodic right hand, rather than the simpler arpeggio figures heard in the left.

Fun fact: although Alberti bass lines are very much associated with the Classical period, a more modern example can be heard in the ending theme of the computer game Super Mario Bros. 2!

3. Franz Schubert – Heavenly Bliss

“Lied” simply means “song” in German, but in the classical music tradition “Lieder” refers to a specific type of art song that was popular during the Romantic period, where composers would set Romantic poems (usually in German) to music for a solo vocalist with an accompanying piano part.

A prodigious talent, the German composer Franz Schubert only lived to the age of 31, but that did not stop him writing over 600 vocal pieces, amongst many other works.

His piece Seligkeit is a musical setting of a poem by Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty, although it is sometimes translated into English as Heavenly Bliss.

It features a melody sung by a female vocalist, while the piano plays a simple, largely chordal, accompaniment.

4. Ludwig van Beethoven – Seventh Symphony, Movement II (Allegretto)

The second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, which was premiered in 1813, makes use of homophony in a large orchestral setting.

Although later in the movement we start to hear more rhythmic independence from the various parts, the opening 45 seconds are entirely homorhythmic, with all of the lower string instruments playing in rhythmic unison to create a block chord-type texture.

With its memorable, repetitive melody, this movement has proved extremely popular over the years, and it is often performed independently of the rest of the Seventh Symphony.

5. Scott Joplin – Maple Leaf Rag

Scott Joplin is the most important and best-known composer of ragtime, a syncopated style of music that came to prominence in America around the turn of the 20th Century, and which would go on to be a major influence upon the development of jazz.

Along with “The Entertainer,” “Maple Leaf Rag” is one of Joplin’s most famous piano pieces, and this recording was made on a Pianola roll by the man himself.

The composition employs a homophonic texture, in that a dominant melody in the piano’s right hand is accompanied by a subservient left hand part.

This accompanying part makes use of virtuosic ‘stride piano’ technique, in which the left hand jumps between alternating bass notes and mid-register chord clusters.

6. Miles Davis – Billy Boy

Miles Davis’ 1958 album Milestones is regarded as a touchstone in the development of modal jazz.

But the track “Billy Boy” is a little more traditional in its treatment of an old American folk song.

In fact, despite being under Davis’ name, the trumpeter does not actually appear here at all; instead, the number is a feature for Red Garland, the pianist in Davis’ quintet, along with the rest of the band’s rhythm section.

Garland was known for his use of block chords – where thick chords, spread across the keyboard with both left and right hands, move in parallel to create a rich homophonic effect.

These are on full display here as Garland plays the melody for the first minute or so, with the tune ringing out at the top of the chords.

Underneath this, double bassist Paul Chambers lays down an accompanying walking bass line while “Philly” Joe Jones’ explosive swing beat is played using brushes around the kit rather than with the usual drum sticks.

7. Count Basie – Lil’ Darlin

Big bands, or jazz orchestras, generally play detailed written arrangements, in contrast to the often more spontaneous nature of small-group jazz.

These arrangements often make use of homorhythmic textures, which creates an effect that is rather like Red Garland’s block chords.

However, instead of merely being played by two hands at the piano keyboard, the chords are orchestrated across the saxophone, trumpet and trombone sections of the big band.

“Lil’ Darlin,” an eternal favourite of big bands around the world, was written and arranged by Neal Hefti for the Count Basie Orchestra.

It is notable for its extremely slow swing tempo, which showcases its use of rich block chords.

Famously, it requires great skill for a band to be able to play the piece accurately, as it relies upon a huge amount of precision in terms of the band phrasing in exact rhythmic unity.

8. Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi

Like most modern popular music, this song features a single vocal melody, accompanied by a chordal backing, which in this case comes from Mitchell’s acoustic guitar.

The entrance of backing vocals at various points increases the density of the homophonic texture.

9. Simon and Garfunkel – Scarborough Fair

Lots of folk music uses a simple melody-and-accompaniment style texture.

As with lots of popular music, this allows the listener to focus upon the lyrics and the vocal quality of the main performer.

This, from a live performance in New York, is a cover of a traditional English song by the American folk-rock duo Simon and Garfunkel.

The broken chords heard on the acoustic guitar are actually somewhat reminiscent of the Alberti bass line heard in the Mozart piano sonata.

10. The Vanderbilt Melodores – Take Me To Church

A cappella refers to vocal music that does not have any instrumental accompaniment.

An a cappella choir does not have harmony provided by a piano or band, but will instead provide its own chordal texture with melody and accompaniment parts spread across the various voices.

In this performance by the Vanderbilt Melodores, an a cappella group from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, we hear a soloist singing the melody line, while the other choir members sing a chordal, mostly wordless, backing.

The piece, “Take Me To Church”, is originally by Irish singer-songwriter Hozier.

Summary

So, that concludes our look at some examples of homophonic music.

We hope you’ve enjoyed listening to and learning about what is probably the most commonly heard texture in Western music.

Next time you listen to the radio, why not listen out for some more examples of homophony?

You shouldn’t have to wait long, given the dominance of melody-and-accompaniment textures in modern popular music.

But, as we’ve seen and heard, we can also find homophony in a variety of other styles, from Baroque choral music to modern a cappella, via ragtime, folk and jazz.

In this article, we’ll take a look at different monophonic songs and pieces that utilize monophony from across the history of Western music, from medieval plainchant to contemporary classical music, via pop, jazz, and folk song, with a YouTube link for each example. Let’s get started.

Quick Recap: What is Monophonic Texture?

To understand what Monophony is, it helps to understand the etymology of the word.

In Greek, ‘mono’ means ‘one’, while ‘phonic’ means ‘sound’.

Therefore, a piece can be said to have a monophonic texture when we hear a single, unaccompanied melody line: a single sound.

In its simplest form, this is played or sung by a solo instrument or voice.

However, pieces that are played or sung by multiple musicians in unison are also considered monophonic, as are pieces with two parts that are played or sung at a fixed interval – a fifth or an octave, for example.

For a more detailed look at this topic, you can read our article on what is monophonic texture in music here.

1. Gregorian Chant – Circumdederunt Me

The roots of Western classical music lie in the Medieval era, which stretched all the way from 500 to 1400AD.

It was during this period that music was first notated and that the first, primitive rules of harmony began to be established.

The best-known style of music from the Medieval period is Gregorian chant, or plainchant, in which monks would sing religious texts as part of the Roman Catholic Mass.

The video above is a classic example of a Gregorian chant, sung in unison by the male voices of the Gregorian Choir of Paris.

2. Comtessa Beatriz de Dia – A Chantar

The later Middle Ages – roughly between 1100-1350 – saw the emergence of troubadours.

These solo performers and composers were the singer-songwriters of their day, writing lyric poetry that was then set to music, and which explored themes of chivalry and “courtly love”. Much of this music was monophonic in nature.

Comtessa Beatriz de Dia was a famous trobairitz (as women troubadours were known) from southern France, who wrote many romantic-themed poems and songs.

In her piece “A Chantar”, a monophonic melody is sung above a low-pitched drone.

3. J.S. Bach – Partita in E Major for Solo Violin

The Baroque period, which lasted from 1600-1750, is perhaps most famous for its polyphonic music: the interweaving contrapuntal lines of a Scarlatti harpsichord sonata, for example, or the rich textures of a Handel chorus.

However, Johann Sebastian Bach – arguably the era’s greatest composer – wrote a number of beautiful works for unaccompanied single-line instruments.

His Cello Suites are probably the best-known examples of these, but he also wrote a number of partitas for various instruments including solo flute and solo violin.

In this violin partita he manages to create an incredible amount of harmonic and melodic interest via intricate single lines, despite the lack of any accompanying instruments:

4. Folk Song – Bushes and Briars

Folk music generally does not have a known composer, and it tends not to be written down in any sort of formal way.

Instead, it develops organically and is passed from person to person, and even from one generation to the next, aurally.

It may also have a strong sense of national identity, meaning that we get folk music that is highly typical of its native country: Spanish folk music sounds very different from Eastern European folk music, for example.

Folk songs might be accompanied by a chordal instrument, such as guitar or lute, or sung without accompaniment, in which case they will have a monophonic texture.

In the film Far From the Madding Crowd, the actor Julie Christie sings the classic English folk song “Bushes and Briars”, with her solo voice joined in unison on occasion by a wooden flute.

5. Football Chant – Pompey Chimes

We tend not to think of them in such academic terms, but the chants that are sung by fans at football matches, with supporters attempting to spur on their own team or mock the opposition, are often cited as some of the few remaining examples of modern-day folk music.

The music is not written down, with words often put to existing tunes, and they tend to be passed on aurally between groups of fans, who of course tend not to be trained musicians.

Because they are generally sung in unison and without instrumental accompaniment, football chants almost always have a monophonic texture.

“Pompey Chimes”, which is sung by supporters of Portsmouth Football Club, is one of the UK’s oldest football chants.

6. Ludwig van Beethoven – Fifth Symphony

Orchestral music, particularly in the Romantic era, is noted for its large ensembles and rich textures.

However, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, one of the most famous orchestral pieces of all time, begins with a monophonic texture, as that iconic opening motif is played by the strings in unison.

After just a few seconds we start to hear more complex textures, as we’d expect in a piece like this, but fleeting moments of monophony can be heard throughout the piece as that famous phrase is returned to and manipulated.

We would never hear an entirely monophonic orchestral piece, but it is not uncommon for composers to use sparse textures like this sparingly, in order to provide a striking contrast with richer palettes and instrumentation elsewhere.

7. Luciano Berio – Sequenza V

After the grand, maximalist music that characterized the Romantic period, a number of composers challenged themselves to write for smaller, unusual instrumental groups as experimentalism took hold during the 20th Century.

The Italian composer Luciano Berio wrote a series of fourteen “sequenzas” for various solo instruments, many of which are highly challenging for the performer, calling for all sorts of unusual extended techniques.

The fifth of these sequenzas is written for trombone.

Here it is interpreted in striking fashion by Swedish contemporary music special Christian Lindberg, with a strong visual element to the performance.

8. Sonny Rollins – It Could Happen To You

Most jazz is homophonic, in that it generally features a lead melody line – a soloing trumpet or saxophone, for example – with a chordal accompaniment.

Some jazz also features elements of polyphony.

In New Orleans jazz, for instance, we might hear a trumpet, a clarinet, and a trombone improvising simultaneously.

However, there are some rarer examples of monophony in jazz.

Since wind instruments such as saxophone and trumpet are only capable of playing one note at a time, we of course hear a monophonic texture when players of those instruments set themselves the challenge of playing without accompaniment.

The tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins recorded one such unaccompanied track on his 1957 album The Sound of Sonny.

He plays a loose, rubato interpretation of Jimmy van Heusen’s “It Could Happen To You”, before an extended improvisation and an approximate return to the melody to finish.

9. Stevie Wonder – Sir Duke

“Sir Duke” opens with a brilliantly catchy monophonic introduction, with multiple instruments playing a rising, arpeggio-based figure in unison.

The song, from Stevie Wonder’s classic 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life, then takes on a more traditional pop texture, with vocals backed by a funky rhythm section.

Monophony makes a return, however, with an intricate unison “soli” section between verses.

10. Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You

Like a number of pieces on this list, Whitney Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s epic song of devotion begins with a monophonic introduction before this makes way for a fuller texture.

In this instance, the solo vocal intro sets the scene for the song’s yearning lyrical content in dramatic fashion, as well as showcasing Houston’s incredibly powerful voice.

11. Meredith Monk – Night Song

The composer and multi-discipline artist Meredith Monk has utilized monophony on a number of her own recordings.

Her ECM album Book of Days, for example, features a number of atmospheric single-line vocal pieces.

Here, her piece Night Song is played by the pianist Harry Huff.

This is particularly striking because, given the instrument’s chordal capabilities, it is rare to hear entirely monophonic piano pieces:

12. Tori Amos – Me and a Gun

Singer-songwriter Tori Amos opted for an entirely monophonic texture on “Me and a Gun”, the lead single from her 1991 debut album Little Earthquakes.

In this instance, the deliberate choice not to utilize any instrumental accompaniment makes the song’s lyrical content all the more powerful, with the song recounting a traumatic incident from Amos’ past:

Summary

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our list of examples of pieces of music that make use of a monophonic texture.

We’ve covered a huge stylistic range, from some of the very earliest Western vocal music to instrumental Baroque pieces, classic pop, folk, 1950s jazz, weird and wonderful contemporary classical music, and even football chants.

We hope that you will now be able to listen out for even more examples of monophony as you listen to music on your own.