POLYPHONY

in the broadest sense, music comprising two or more relatively autonomous voices or parts (compare monophony, music consisting of only a single melodic line), in contrast to homophony (q.v.; music emphasizing chordal textures). In polyphony the different voices are heard as separate entities and are rhythmically more or less independent of each other. Counterpoint, the combination of simultaneous lines of melody, is sometimes equated with polyphony; but the technique of counterpoint can be applied within either polyphony or homophony. Palestrina's textures are typically polyphonic, Mozart's are basically homophonic; yet both use counterpoint. More specifically, therefore, polyphony refers to multipart textures animated by the dynamic interplay of usually closely related, complementary parts. The energies thus generated (for example, in canons and fugues) are not easily brought to a halt; hence the intrusion of homophony and functional harmonic forces, especially toward the end of polyphonic compositions. In the fugues of J.S. Bach, in which polyphony and functional harmony are uniquely matched, the concluding cadence is often presaged by a pedal point, which serves as a kind of ground to which the extended polyphonic flight can return. Purely vocal polyphony had its heyday in the 16th century, prior to the reign of functional harmony. With the latter's decline, in the first quarter of the 20th century, polyphonic textures regained much of their former prominence, especially in the dodecaphonic compositions of Arnold Schoenberg and his followers.