![]() ![]() For the sake of this article, we’re not focusing on how the singer’s voice sounds different from Bono’s. You are essentially hearing the same musical work both times, but the texture has been vastly altered. Just like we may describe the texture of a surface as smooth, rough, or sticky, musical texture can be described as the way music “feels” influencing the impression it has on us.Ĭonsider two different arrangements of the same song, such as an anthemic U2 hit vs a stripped-down acoustic cover of the same song. What is Musical Texture?įirstly, this is separate from sonic texture (think warm tube amps and tape sims), but musical and sonic textures draw from similar ideas. The most important step towards making the kind of arrangements you hear in popular music is to gain an understanding of musical texture. It took me years to figure this out, and I’d like to help you get there sooner. If you struggle with creating dynamic arrangements, you’re not alone. There’s either too little or too much going on, and the songs don’t feel like they’ve taken you on a journey either way. (Even so, it is usually the case that there is a significant amount of pitch organisation between simultaneous contrapuntal parts, even if they do not fit within a "traditional" harmonic framework.One of the biggest things I see beginner producers struggle with is creating a full, dynamic arrangement. ![]() (A polyphonic texture still "has harmony".)Īlthough a polyphonic texture is to a large extent conceived and perceived as layers of simultaneous "horizontal" melodic lines, good contrapuntal writing must take account of the vertical relationships between parts, in other words, they must all fit within the ongoing harmonic framework of the piece.Īrguably, it is this very tension between horizontal melodic impetus and vertical harmonic relationships, that makes great contrapuntal (or polyphonic, if you like) music so satisfying to compose, perform and listen to.Īs a closing point (and maybe one for others to comment or respond to): arguably the harmonic relationship between parts breaks down in certain types of polyphonic modern music, where intervallic/motivic relationships in individual melodic parts can override the relationships between parts. Although independent to a certain degree (for instance, in terms of rhythm, contour, motif, intervallic character) these lines are still tied together by the overall harmonic framework. A polyphonic texture does not rely upon a series of "block-chords" (a homophonic texture) to reveal the harmonic progression of the music, but it still has a harmonic framework. Polyphony refers to a texture containing a number of independent melodic lines (or voices, if you like). Polyphony is a related, but quite different concept. (When writing arrangements I'll often mark parts as Melody, Harmony and Bass parts.) But, strictly speaking, all of these parts, accompanimental or not, define the overall harmony. However, the term harmony is often used informally to mean just this: parts of the musical texture that accompany a main melody part. It is important not to confuse the concepts of harmony and accompaniment harmony is not simply "padding" between the main melody (if there is one) and the bass part. Harmony can be thought of as the framework of pitch relationships between any number of simultaneous elements in a musical texture, be they: melody, bass-line, block chords, multiple melodic lines, counter-melodies etc. Also, a single line or two-part counterpoint can easily imply a series of chords containing three and four (or more!) note chords. The exception, mentioned above, is that even a single melodic line will create a series of implied harmonies: sometimes this is very obvious, for instance a series of arpeggios sometimes it is ambiguous, as the single line could suggest a number of harmonies. However, it also refers to the "horizontal" relationships between successive vertical relationships of pitches it's probably easiest to think of these as chord progressions. Harmony refers to the "vertical" relationship between simultaneous pitches in a musical texture (usually, but not always, chords - see below for the exception). ![]()
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