Texture and Texture Types

Introduction

Texture in music are, well, in my opinion, pretty boring. But, it is required knowledge and actually isn't that bad... so let's do it! We'll cover all the different types of texture you'll need and a bunch more textural devices that composers can use in their music!

What is a texture?

First thing's first, we should figure out what exactly texture is. In a non-musical context, we can say that texture is the substance and structure of a physical object that provides the feel of said object. Similarly, in a musical context, we can say that texture is made up of the substance and structure of music that provides aural feel of the music. Thus, the texture
of a musical passage is based on the manner in which its layers are produced and
distributed and how they interact to form the totality of sound. Essentially, how is the music layered?

Well, there are four general ways that we see music being layered. Let's explore these one-by-one.

Monophony

Monophony is the simplest of the textures, because it is only one line of music! It is simply a single melody. As you may imagine, it is the oldest texture of music. One of the first-ever pieces of music is called the Epitaph of Seikolos, which dates back to the Ancient Greeks (like most things in the modern world). Take a listen:

Listen to the excerpt from 0:00 to 0:27. Do you hear how it is literally only one line of music? That's monophony!

Heterophony

The next idea that arose was heterophony, which is simply playing one melodic idea in multiple lines, with each line varying slightly from each other. In other words, it is multiple different variations of one idea happening overtop each other. Here's an example:

Hear how each singer adds just a little bit of their own variation to the main idea that's being sung at any given time? That's heterophony!

As you may have guessed, heterophony is not very common in western music nowadays, though it was very common when jazz was developing in the 20th century.

Polyphony

Polyphony expands upon monophony and heterophony by simply adding more distinct melodic lines. There are two specific types of polyphony. The first, called imitative polyphony, as you may have guessed, adds more melodic lines that imitate the first line. One example of imitative polyphony is a canon, in which two or more voices sing the exact same material beginning at a different time. Here's an example:

The other type of polyphony we should know is non-imitative polyphony. This type is simply the opposite, where the added line(s) do NOT mirror or imitate the first. This texture is also called contrapuntal. This type of texture is especially popular in music theater, typically toward the end of an act where all of the storylines/character motivations intersect with each other. Here's another Les Mis example:

Do you hear how each person is singing something different in the excerpt? It's a pretty cool effect, especially when the entire cast comes in singing in unison, providing a stark contrast and a powerful moment. Take a look the relevant excerpt from the vocal parts:

Homophony

So eventually in the history of music, accompaniment was added, which was specifically designed to have a secondary role to the melody. This is what homophony is: a main melodic line that's supported by at least one additional musical line(s) with harmonic support. But, just like polyphony, there are several different types. First, let's cover chordal homophony, which happens when the accompaniment that is added is in the exact same rhythm as the melody, thereby creating one thick block of chords. Here's an example:

The first of these chorales would fall into this category, because while there are some non-chord tones here and there, the entirety of the piece is simply one thick layer of chords moving around.

The next type of homophony is melody with countermelody, which, as it implies, is a melody with another line serving as a countermelody behind it. So, what's the difference between this and polyphony? Well, melody + countermelody only happens when the countermelody is secondary to the primary melody, whereas in polyphony, both lines hold the same amount of weight in the priorities of the musical layers. Here's an example of melody + countermelody:

As you can hear, there is a primary melody and a secondary countermelody being sung in the background, with text in parantheses.

Finally, melody and accompaniment is the most common version of homophony. In this version of homophony, a primary melody is played, and a chordal accompaniment (in different rhythm) is played. If you randomly pick any song ever, the chances that the main texture is melody and accompaniment is astronomically high. It's just extremely popular. Take a listen to this example:

Now, the first four measures actually aren't melody and accompaniment. What texture are they?

But, as you can hear, the rest of the waltz is indeed in the format of right-hand melody and left-hand chordal accompaniment. Since the rhythms are different, we say this is melody and accompaniment.

Here's a pretty helpful chart to remember each texture:

Other textural devices - Bass Line

Believe it or not, there are even more textural devices we need to know! Here are two that relate to a bass line:

A walking bass line is a bass line that consists of quarter notes (or otherwise one note per beat) and outlines the chord progression of a song. It is common in jazz and blues music. Here's an example: 

Hear how the bass line "walks" up and down, playing notes in each chord as the saxophone player solos. 

An Alberti bass line refers to a specific accompaniment pattern in the left hand of a piano solo or part that supports the melody in a melody-and-accompaniment setting. It looks like this:

See how the left hand plays a C, E, and G (which are the tonic, mediant, and dominant of C major). The Alberti bass, thus, specifically refers to an accompaniment pattern where the tonic is played, and then leaps up a fifth to the dominant, then down to the mediant, and so on and so forth. Yes, this is an oddly specific thing that you have to know for the AP exam for no reason :)

Here's how it sounds:

The Alberti Bass is incredibly versatile. Here's a short video showing how:

Other textural devices - Polyphonic and Homophonic

In addition to the three polyphonic textures we covered, there are a few more specific textural devices to cover. First, the canon, which we covered previously, happens when two or more voices come in staggered, with each one starting from the beginning of the melody. Next, imitation is also a concept we covered, which just refers to the idea that a voice may be similar to a previously stated voice.

A specific texture that includes imitation, but with even stricter rules is called a fugue. In a fugue, a subject (the main melody or idea) is introduced and then played successively (like a canon). However, the subject is then developed by the interweaving parts.

Another texture we should cover is a type of melody and countermelody called call and response. As you may have guessed, this happens when two melodic lines are played in sequence, and the second one "responds" to the first. This is pretty common in classical music, like this example:

Listen to how the winds and brass call/respond between each other, and Beethoven uses this texture to build to a climax.

Other textural devices - Texture of a Passage

We also have textures that describe the unique texture of a musical passage. Here are a few examples:

Here is an example of an ostinato in music:

Practice

Phew! That was a lot. Here are some practice questions to help reinforce the concepts:

Describe the texture of this piece. (Note: Just the third movement.)

Describe the texture of this piece in the following excerpts:0:00-0:20

0:55-1:08

Describe the texture of this piece in the following excerpts:

0:00-1:45

11:50-12:30

14:27-14:45

16:00-16:13

Describe characteristics of the melody and texture of the following excerpts. Also determine the textures that are used: