Biphonic, Homophonic or Heterophonic Texture

DirtyGrits

New member
If I have a single melodic line and have staccato 1/16th notes playing just the tonic of the key behind my melody with another instrument, would that be considered a heterophonic texture? What I mean is, are the 16ths notes considered a melodic variation of my original melody (heterophonic), are they forming a harmonic accompaniment (homophonic), or are the 16th notes more of a pedal tone (biphonic). Is it something totally different?

I'm trying to learn my various musical textures and want to make sure I am using the correct terms. Hope the question makes sense?

-DG
 
Love how you are trying to use the language

Some definitions for those who don't know

When describing musical concepts we make use of four prefixes and several postfixes to create new words

PrefixesMeaningPostfixesMeaning
Mono-Single-phonicSound
Poly-Many-chordalChord
Homo-Same-rhythmicRhythm
Hetero-Different-tonalkey/scale

Taking each of our prefixes and postfixes we end up with the following words to describe texture and other aspects of a musical piece:
aggregation[/td[td]meaning[/td
Mono-phonicSingle sound
Mono-chordalSingle chord
Mono-rhythmicSingle rhythm
Mono-tonalSingle key/scale
Poly-phonicMany sounds
Poly-chordalMany chords
Poly-rhythmicMany rhythms
Poly-tonalMany keys/scales
Homo-phonicSame sound
Homo-chordalSame chords
Homo-rhythmicSame rhythm
Homo-tonalSame key/scale
Hetero-phonicDifferent sounds
Hetero-chordalDifferent chords
Hetero-rhythmicDifferent rhythms
Hetero-tonalDifferent keys/scales
[td]

Now back to your question

It would not be heterophonic unless the melody itself consisted mostly of the tonic.

Harmonic based texture is possible but only if the tonic forms part of the currently active chord, otherwise you have to discount it as a harmonic compnent and treat it as wider textural component

As for biphonic - very rarely used; you more likely to say that it is a two part texture. Possible to consider it as a pedal point accompaniment but it would still be referred to as a two part texture rather than biphonic (that is so awkward to read and say )
 
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Wow. Thanks Bandcoach. I guess there is more to it than what I expected. It is much easier to think of ideas when you have words for them. I appreciate you talking time to answer. Have a good weekend.

-DG
 
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