AQA GCSE Music: Texture

Texture

How the parts of a piece of music fit together - how much is going on in the music at any one time.

Types of texture

Monophonic, Homophonic, Polyphonic, Imitative, Canonic, Octaves, Unison, Antiphonal, Accompanied Melody, Broken Chords and Heterophonic

Monophonic

Music with a single melody line only (can be one voice or multiple voice), without harmony.

Polyphonic

Also known as contrapuntal music, it consists of weaving together 2 or more equally important melodic lines which all fit together harmonically. Sounds “busy”

Homophonic

All parts moving together essentially as chords, also called harmonic

Heterophonic

The simultaneous performance of 2 or more slightly different version of the same melody. (Music where there’s one tune that all instruments play, but with variations, often at different times).

Polyphonic, homophonic and heterophonic music all have quite a

thick texture.

In Imitation

a phrase is repeated with slight changes each time.

Imitative

A vocal/instrumental parts starts off playing a melody which is immediately copied by another part.

Canon

In a canon, each part plays the same melody, but they come in separately and at regular intervals. The parts overlap. Also known as rounds.

Other example of baroque texture

Continuo/Bass Continuo

Canonic

A type of imitation - like a round where imitating voice/instrumental parts repeat the entire melody not just the opening

Loops

sections of music, words, rhythms and other sounds and that are repeated over and over again.

Looping

repeating sequences of music

Layers

How many parts there are at certain points in the music

Layering

playing lots of different loops at the same time

Unison

One melody performed simultaneously by multiple voices or instruments at the same pitch

Octaves

More than one instrument/voice playing/singing the same notes in different ranges (in octaves, 8 notes apart)A

Accompanied Melody (Melody with Accompaniment)

When you can clearly distinguish between the melody and accompaniment e.g. a pop song with a solo singer accompanied by a band or the violins in an orchestra playing the melody whilst the rest accompany

Homo means

the same

Antiphonal

A type of imitation where a musical phrase is “passed around” between parts.

Broken chord

when notes of a chord are played separately one after the other.

In all homophonic textures …

the music moves at the same speed

Example of Polyphonic Music

Canonic music (rounds)