Polyphony

Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of several independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony).

Modern usage

In a contemporary usage which applies specifically to electronic musical instruments, the word is often used simply to mean more than one note sounding simultaneously. Hence, a polyphonic synthesiser is one capable of playing more than one note at a time on one voice. Such an instrument capable of playing, say, 16 notes at once is said to have 16 voice polyphony. Another common example of this usage is polyphonic ringtones, which are a feature of many new mobile phones.

Related Topics:
Synthesiser - Polyphonic ringtone

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