Texture

Question 1

texture

Answer 1

the number of parts in a piece of music and how they relate to one another.

Question 2

accompaniment

Answer 2

musical background to a principle part or parts (e.g. piano accompanying a solo singer)

Question 3

continuo (or basso continuo)

Answer 3

the bass line in many Baroque orchestral, choral and chambre works. most commonly played by low string instruments (with or without bassoons) and with a chord-playing instrument (notably harpsichord, organ or lute) to complete the harmony by realising the figured bass

Question 4

heterophony

Answer 4

where two or more parts play the same melodic line simultaneously, but there are small variations between them. the adjective is ‘heterophonic’

Question 5

homophony

Answer 5

a widely-used type of texture consisting of a melody part and other subsidiary (accompanying) parts. the adjective is ‘homophonic’

Question 6

monophony

Answer 6

music in which only one note is heard at a time - a single melodic line. the adjective is ‘monophonic’

Question 7

polyphony

Answer 7

in one sense any texture with two or more parts, but commonly used as a synonym for ‘counterpoint’ where there are two or more simultaneous and largely independent melody lines. the adjective is ‘polyphonic’

Question 8

two-part

Answer 8

music for two ‘parts’ (i.e. for two melodic lines, and therefore with two notes sounding simultaneously except where one or both rest). ‘three-part’ and ‘four-part’ music have three and four parts respectively

Question 9

imitation

Answer 9

two or more parts share the same melodic idea (not necessarily in full, exactly or at the same pitch.) each new part enters separately, the preceding one continuing with shared or new material

Question 10

double (verb)

Answer 10

doubling occurs where one performer consistently plays or sings the same notes as another - strictly speaking at the same octave, but duplication at the octave may be involved