Texture
How voices sound together: monophonic, polyphonic or homophonic
Related
Texture is the dimension of music that concerns how voices are arranged at the same time: how many layers there are, how far apart they lie, which one leads and which follows, and whether they move together or independently. The broad division is threefold: monophonic texture has a single melodic line (possibly doubled at the octave); polyphonic texture has several independent lines of comparable standing; homophonic texture sets one melody against accompanying chords. Texture is among the first things the ear notices, sometimes more readily than the actual pitches.
Texture is not orchestration. Orchestration decides which instruments and colours are used; texture decides how those sounds are stacked. Change the instruments and the texture can stay the same (a piano piece for string quartet can remain homophonic), or it can change because the instruments divide the work differently. Texture also changes over time: a passage may begin monophonically, add parallel voices to become homophonic, then let an inner voice become independent and turn polyphonic. To hear texture, ask first how many layers there are and what each layer is doing.
The common misconception is to treat texture as timbre or as a type of accompaniment. Timbre is the colour of the sound; texture is the relationship between voices. One timbre can carry monophony, polyphony or homophony. Another misconception is that texture, once set, stays fixed. In fact changes of texture are a principal way music moves forward: thickening, thinning, crossing or separating voices all redirect the listener's attention. Do not judge texture only by whether it sounds pleasant; hear whether each layer is independent and whether it can be heard at all.
Sources
- 织体的分类、层次与历史用法，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Texture"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.