Musical texture is the element of music that
analyzes musical layers in terms of number and function.
The most basic texture is called monophonic.
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Monophonic texture has only one layer: a melody.
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With monophony, it doesn’t matter how many instruments and / or voices are present,
as long as they are all singing or playing the same thing at the same time.
It also doesn’t matter if the voices or instruments are on the exact same frequency
or if they are singing in octaves.
An octave is the distance between two musical pitches that sound almost the same, but one
is higher and one is lower.
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It also doesn't matter if drums are present or not.
In most cases, drums, the rhythmic layer, are neither melody, nor harmony.
and therefore are generally not considered when determining texture type.
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Too much monophony can be boring, so most music has another layer: harmony.
When a melody is supported by a harmony, the texture is homophonic.
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One layer grabs your attention, and the other layer is just hanging out in the background.
Most popular music is homophonic.
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Notice how there was only one instrument in the previous example, a piano, but there were
two different things happening on that instrument: a melody and a harmony.
What if a piece of music has multiple independent layers happening at the same time,
and you're not really sure which one is the melody?
This is called polyphony.
Polyphony can occur if you have two totally separate melodies occurring simultaneously.
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Polyphonic texture can occurs if you take the same melody, but start it at staggered intervals.
This is called a round.
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The last texture is called heterophony.
Heterophony is relatively rare in western music, but is very common in non-western music.
It occurs when there are two or more versions of the same melody happening at the same time.
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Usually, one of the melody lines has more notes than the other – a kind of musical
decoration – and / or a slightly different rhythmic pattern.
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Songs will often use a variety of textures to keep the piece interesting.
For instance, this song has monophony, homophony, and polyphony!
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Start trying to identify the musical textures in your favorite music!