Heterophony
Entry for EPMOW by Philip Tagg
heterophony, from Greek héteros [eteroV] (‘other’) and fóne [fwnh] (‘sound’), means polyphony resulting from differences of pitch produced when two or more people sing or play the same melodic line at the same time. Heterophony can denote everything from the unintentional polyphonic effect of slightly unsynchronised unison singing to the intentional discrepancies between vocal line and its instrumental embellishment which are characteristic of much music from Greece, Turkey and the Arab world (ex. 1).
Ex.1 Heterophonic cadential formulae in Greek Tsamiko music (transcr. in Chianis, 1967).
Heterophony is also at the heart of most forms of Indonesian gamelan music in which several layers of heterophony can combine to produce a distinctly chordal effect (ex. 2).
Ex.2 Gamelan gong kebyar: multiple heterophony (transcr. in Hood, 1980).
A different type of heterophony is found in traditional music from the Scottish Hebrides where each florid pentatonic improvisation on the same psalm tune is thought to present each individual’s ‘relation to God on a personal basis’ (Knudsen, 1968, ex. 3, see also Wicks, 1989).
Ex.3 Hebridean home worship - Martyrdom (Musique des Îles Hébrides, 1968, transcr. Knudsen)
References
Chianis, Soitrios. 1967. The Vocal and Instrumental Tsamiko of Roumeli and the Pelopeonnesus. Diss., University of California, Los Angeles.
Hood, Mantle. 1980. ‘Indonesia’ (1). New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 9. London: Macmillan.
Knudsen, Torkel. 1968. ‘Ornamental Hymn/Psalm Singing in Denmark, the Faroe Islands and the Hebrides’. DFS Information 68/2: 10. Also liner notes to Musique des Îles Hébrides, OCORA, 1968.
Malm, William P. 1967. Music Cultures of the Pacific, the Near East and Asia. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
[260 words incl bibliography]
