Homophony (music)

Homophony , even in the spelling Homofonie ( Greek homophōnía, "Harmony") is the name for a polyphonic musical set manner that occurs in two characteristic forms:

• In the case of the chord setting ( homophonic set ), all voices are rhythmically the same (homorhythmic) or formed almost identically, so that the music essentially appears as a sequence of chords. The four-part choral movement is a prime example of this.
• In the melody setting , a melodic main part (usually the upper part) is accompanied by chords or by secondary voices in the sense of a chord structure.

In contrast to this, the voices in the polyphonic tone setting (short polyphonic setting , from Greek polyphonos , "polyphonic") are rhythmically more independent. Under certain circumstances, several voices can develop a melodic life of their own.

Homophony emerged in the early baroque around 1600 and goes hand in hand with the emergence of the opera . The text of the song should be understandable for people, which was not possible with polyphonic music. The monodic style developed from the homophony that was no longer “contrapuntal and not yet tied to the key” . This also includes the figured bass .

From a music theory point of view, large parts of modern music can also be classified as homophonic, such as rock music with the accompanying rhythm section (bass, drums, rhythm guitar, keyboard) and the leading melodies of lead guitar and vocals.

See also

• Monophony
• Polyphony
• Heterophony
• Micropolyphonia

literature

• Homophony . In: Wilibald Gurlitt , Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht (Ed.): Riemann Musiklexikon . 12th, completely revised edition. Tangible part: A-Z . Schott, Mainz 1967, p. 378 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Diether de la Motte : Harmony. Bärenreiter, Kassel, and Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-7618-0540-3 , p. 9.