polyphony
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Music featuring two or more independent melodic lines sounding simultaneously.
Polyphony is the musical texture in which multiple independent voices or melodic lines are performed at the same time, each maintaining its own rhythmic and melodic identity. The term comes from the Greek for "many voices." Polyphony emerged in medieval music through organum and reached its peak in the Renaissance, when composers like Palestrina and Josquin created intricate vocal works with four, five, or six independent parts. The fugue, developed fully by Bach, is the supreme expression of polyphonic technique — a structured composition built on imitative entries of a single theme. Polyphony contrasts with monophony (a single line), homophony (melody with chordal accompaniment), and heterophony (multiple simultaneous variations of the same melody). Writing effective polyphony requires mastery of counterpoint — the set of rules governing how independent voices move in relation to each other.