Monophony

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Monophonic (also Monofonie ; from ancient Greek μόνος monos , German , sole, alone ' and φωνή phone , voice') in music, is a unanimity that is, the musical performance by a single tone generator.

On the other hand, the term “ multi-note” includes the sentence type of monody , homophony , heterophony or polyphony . A distinction must therefore be made between the terms polyphony vs. Accordion . In particular, polyphony is understood to mean the representation of temporally and diastematically independent voices, be it through two or more monophonic instruments or only through a multi-tone instrument (e.g. organ ). Such a distinction between the types of movements can be transferred to that of monophonic or multi- tone musical instruments : the former only have a single sound generator (e.g. oboe ), the latter two (e.g. bagpipe ) or more (e.g. . Piano ).

Monophonic music

In the history of written music (here: church music ), until the development of the organum in the 9th century, monophony was the only tolerated form of music (while in the profane, non-written music tradition, polyphonic music practice, for example among medieval musicians, was already common and there is). The monophonic Gregorian chant is still practiced today in the Catholic mess business. It comes from the psalm practice of early Orthodox Christianity . Only gradually, namely under traditional clerical resistance, did homophonic singing practice and finally polyphonic composition penetrate the various regional choral scholae in the course of the Middle Ages .

Monophonic sound generator

The human voice is a monophonic sound generator. Various monophonic musical instruments should also be mentioned, such as woodwind and brass instruments , as well as the electrophone theremin , the monochord or the singing saw . The string instruments of the classical symphony orchestra are also basically designed for a monophonic performance, but can also perform certain chords .

See also

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