Three Kinds of Musical Texture

When we speak of the texture of something, we’re talking about its overall feel or appearance. A woven cloth, for example, might have a smooth, tightly-woven texture.

We also can talk about the texture of a piece of music. Generally speaking, musical texture comes in three kinds:

Monophonic – is when only one melody is sounding with no accompaniment.  Gregorian Chant, for example, is usually monophonic in texture.

Polyphonic –is more than one independent melody sounding at the same time.  Renaissance church music clearly is polyphonic in texture.

Homophonic – occurs when there is one distinct melody with an accompaniment. Most of the popular music we hear today is homophonic in texture. A good deal of “classical” music from the 19th century is homophonic as well, with some polyphonic texture mixed.

Composers usually don’t use a single kind of texture in a piece of music. As in the last example above, although there is a clear melody, Brahms skillfully employed beautiful polyphony as well.

This blog article is adapted from my book, Music Theory for Choral Singers.