The Missing Term between Polyphony and Homophony

Abstract

THE POLYPHONIC PERIOD is a term frequently applied to the age of music ending with the year I6oo. Similarly, the musical style most prevalent between 1750 and i9o0 is often described as homophonic, since it consists of a single melodic line supported by a harmonic background. In strictly homophonic music the bass serves as a supporting part of this harmonic background rather than as a continuous melodic line in its own right. Can an equally descriptive designation, based on the music itself, be discovered for the typical baroque compositions of the intervening period (16oo-1750)? In general these works cannot be adequately classified either as many-voiced or as like-voiced. Peculiar to baroque music is the leading role assumed by the bass line, as evidenced by the basso continuo and the basso ostinato. But with the Monodic Revolution the top melody also came into new prominence, as did the personality and virtuosity of the soloist performing it. And the relation between the two outer voices became one not of imitation, but of opposition. In contradistinction to polyphonic and homophonic music, that which places singular emphasis on the opposition of outer voices may be described as amphonic,' that is, sounding on both sides. The concentration on a moving bass line contrasted with a distinct and often