Just as clothes can be made of different fabrics with different textures that have different "feels", music can also have different textures.
Texture in music is about the weave of different parts/voices in a composition and the relations between those parts/voices.
The following current terms are used:
- monophony
- homophony
- polyphony
- heterophony
Texture can also relate to musical patterns, for example:
- accompaniment figures like an Alberti bass
- secondary voice
- Hauptstimme / Nebenstimme (Berg/Schoenberg)
- imitation
- ...
Homophony and polyphony can be seen as opposites within a continuum:
Homophony: all voices share the same simultaneous rhythm; like in a psalm setting (Goudimel) or an (early) chorale setting (Crüger). Each melody note becomes part of a chord.
(Verticals are primary, horizontals secondary.)
Polyphony: two or more voices move more or less independantly. The rhythm is complementary. Nearly always there is made use of imitation.
(Horizontals are primary, verticals are secondary.)
