Princeton's WordNet(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. polyphony, polyphonic music, concerted music(noun)

   music arranged in parts for several voices or instruments

Wiktionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. polyphony(Noun)

   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).

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Polyphony(noun)

   multiplicity of sounds, as in the reverberations of an echo

2. Polyphony(noun)

   plurality of sounds and articulations expressed by the same vocal sign

3. Polyphony(noun)

   composition in mutually related, equally important parts which share the melody among them; contrapuntal composition; -- opposed to homophony, in which the melody is given to one part only, the others filling out the harmony. See Counterpoint

Origin: [Gr. .]

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Polyphony

   In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords. Within the context of the Western musical tradition, the term is usually used to refer to music of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Baroque forms such as the fugue, which might be called polyphonic, are usually described instead as contrapuntal. Also, as opposed to the species terminology of counterpoint, polyphony was generally either "pitch-against-pitch" / "point-against-point" or "sustained-pitch" in one part with melismas of varying lengths in another. In all cases the conception was likely what Margaret Bent calls "dyadic counterpoint", with each part being written generally against one other part, with all parts modified if needed in the end. This point-against-point conception is opposed to "successive composition", where voices were written in an order with each new voice fitting into the whole so far constructed, which was previously assumed.

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of polyphony in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of polyphony in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Images & Illustrations of polyphony