Where to Begin - Polyphonic versus Homophonic

Hi, it's Chris with Implied Music, and here's another installment in Where to Begin. And today I want to talk about polyphonic versus homophonic, two very distinct ways of handling melody and harmony, creating arrangements. And they have historical roots, but they're still, I think, really valuable for us today. You may even already be doing it, one of the two, not really fully understanding how it sort of fits into the sweep of Western music history and stuff. Well, all that stuff aside, by the end of today, I hope you'll have a pretty clear understanding of what everyone means when they say polyphonic music or homophonic form. Let's get to it. When I'm teaching privately, I frequently have to have a conversation that goes something like, no, polyphonic versus homophonic is not a lifestyle choice for those of us who are urban sophisticates. It's a description of a kind of music. The earliest music that we have in the Western canon goes back to, in written notation, church music, chant. Those basic melodies, the cantus ferme or basic melody of church music, became the foundations for secondary melodies and third levels and fourth levels melody. Vocal melodies that had independence and that interacted in a way that we eventually sort of created chords, but at first was very strict and formula-driven. This style of music where you have independent melodies is called polyphony. The opposite of that, the sort of counterpart to that, is homophonic form or homophony. The accent is in a slightly different place. That begins to appear in the early classical periods, and it's what most of us do now. Strumming a chord and singing, the chord acts as a support. Really, it's just there as a foundation for the melody. The melody is the king, the single line. The melody is the king, and underneath it is just a chord supporting it. There's lots of variety around that. Let's look at three different examples of a famous melody and talk a little bit about how they express themselves. Here, let's just jump in. These are things that I made just for the sake of this conversation. This tune is called All Through the Night, and it's an old Welsh melody. Listen to the arrangement that came out of the book that I read it out of. You may know this melody already. The top voice that you can see here. Whoever did the arrangement decided on parallel thirds for a harmony here, and you hear the bass walking up. Many arrangements mix strict chords, just block chords, with melody. Now, if that arrangement was just block chords, F, B-flat, G7, C, the melody is on top, the chords are on bottom. This is a very simplistic way to express the song, and yet it actually sounds pretty good, for values of pretty good that correspond to, oh yeah, I can hear the chords, I can hear the melody. It's what you get if you strum the guitar and sing the song. Going on, B-flat, C, F, 4-5-1. It happens again. Look at that. I just played the chords in root position block. Very plain and very, very simple. Now, the next layer past that is polyphony that creates a sense of the chords, supports the melody, but actually has independent lines rolling through it. Now, you can see this is a much more complex looking screen. The melody is still the top voice, the bass is at the bottom, a separate voice, and in the middle, a kind of alto or tenor part, I'm not really sure, that has real independence. Listen to how these three melodies work together. You may still be able to hear the chords, you probably can hear the melody, and feel the progression of things, but it's a little more sophisticated somehow. Using this polyphonic expression, this gives you a little bit of dynamic energy, doesn't it? The bass line is often moving in contrary motion or oblique motion to the melody, and then the interior voice kind of embellishes the melody. Frequently, the interior voice begins at a slightly different place than the melody, and you can see it happens right away. There's the melodic tone, and the interior voice comes in on beat two. It happens again here. Having the melody sustain and the bass move draws the ear to that independent voice. I think a really important part of polyphony is the sense of looking at different parts of the arrangement and having your ear drawn to them by the motion, the unique and sort of quirky motion sometimes of the independent voices. In the next section, the tenor voice, I guess it's really at this point so high that it has to be alto, has a little figure that really draws the ear. That little turn that you'll hear, and then a scale going down against the bass going up. Polyphonic music often expresses itself in things like contrary motion and irregular rhythms against the melody. I hope you don't confuse homophonic form with just block chords because there's lots of ways to express a homophonic form. Mozart's rather famous for using this pattern. It's a C chord, and I'm breaking it up in a really specific way. It's actually called the Alberti bass, and I could probably play this tune using an Alberti bass. Let's see if I can do it. Almost. Well, that wasn't bad off the cuff, and it's still homophonic form. The melody is one thing, and then the harmony, the support is another. It's not a bunch of independent melodies. It's a melody with support. Here's arpeggios doing the same thing. Arpeggios are a way of expressing chords and still homophonic form. In fact, most decent arrangements go in between homophonic form and moments or gestures that feel a little polyphonic. In fact, let's go back to the first thing that I played for you, and listen this time with this new knowledge. Listen for things that are just block chords, and listen for little moments that pop out. Those are very homophonic, but this little moment here, right? So pretty. And it happens again here, first in the tenor, and then bass. Simple expression of the chord. That moment is so lovely, and it feels a little like homophonic form. It also feels very much like those independent voices, the way they move in lines. It feels like it's possible that it has polyphonic roots. That bass is so pretty. It's a great old melody, isn't it? Listen, in your own music, you're probably using a mixture of homophonic form and polyphonic form. If you're playing a bass line, a funky bass line, that has a melodic identity against a melody that's something different, it's kind of polyphonic, isn't it? It doesn't have to be chord progressions to be polyphony, right? It doesn't have to have harmonic changes and stuff like that. It can be a bunch of independent lines that work together like a machine. I'm actually very interested in that kind of music, and we certainly have tons of examples of it in all kinds of contemporary music. It doesn't even really have to be tonal. The idea of polyphony, multiple independent voices working together to create a sense of whole and to kind of draw the ear around the kaleidoscopic effect that's like a palpable texture musically, is a very powerful thought. Well, I hope this has been useful. Like and subscribe and ding the bell. You'll be notified when I do my videos, and I'll see you next time.