Chordal

What it means

Chordalisch (chordal) — the more common German word is akkordisch — describes a texture in which all the voices move in the same rhythm, so that every syllable or every beat yields a full chord. One also speaks of note-against-note texture or of homorhythmic texture. The counterpart is the polyphonic texture, in which the voices are led rhythmically independently.

Musical use

The advantages of the chordal texture are clarity and intelligibility of the text: since all the voices sing the same syllable at the same time, the word stays distinct. That is why the chorale setting, in which a melody is harmonized in four parts note against note, is the best-known form. The falsobordone of the Renaissance, a chordal psalm setting, is also based on it.

In alternation with polyphonic sections the chordal texture becomes a means of shaping. In the vocal music of the sixteenth century, chordal passages often emphasize a key word — after a many-voiced web, unanimity suddenly sets in, and the word gains weight.

Bear in mind that chordal is not synonymous with simple. Even in note-against-note texture the rules of voice-leading apply: each voice should form a meaningful line of its own, parallel fifths and octaves are to be avoided, and the connection of the sonorities should take the shortest possible paths. In the study of counterpoint, note-against-note texture is the first of the five species.

The four-part cantional setting developed from the late sixteenth and in the seventeenth century out of homophonic song and instrumental settings of the Renaissance. In chorale settings, for instance in Bach's four-part chorales, which are regarded as exemplary, chordal writing is the rule.

Performance practice

In chordal texture, take care that all the voices enter and end exactly together. At the same time each voice should remain audible as a line — so practise it individually as well. Give priority to the upper voice, but let the outer voices carry together. And keep the sonorities round: a chordal texture lives from balance, not from volume.