Heterophony

One melody, many shapes

In heterophony there is no melody with accompaniment and no voices that sing different melodies. There is only one melody, but it sounds in several versions at once. One voice plays it plainly, another plays around it with passing notes, ornaments or repetitions, a third stays longer on a note or repeats it. The voices are equal: none is merely accompaniment.

Distinctions

In unison all voices play exactly the same; heterophony differs from it through the deviations. In a canon the voices enter one after another with the same melody, whereas in heterophony they travel essentially at the same time. In polyphony the voices lead independent melodies, in homophony one voice carries the melody and the others accompany it with chords. Heterophony thus lies between monophony, a single line, and multi-voice music with independent voices.

Where you hear it

Heterophony is not an invention of European art music. It appears in the traditional music of many cultures, for example in the gamelan music of Indonesia. There several instruments play around the same basic melody, each in its own way. Variants also arise often in communal singing without a choral setting, when each singer sings the melody slightly differently.

Common mistakes

• Equating heterophony with multi-voice writing: There is no second melody of its own and no chords, only variants of the one.
• Departing too far from the melody: Then polyphony arises. The embellishments stay close to the main line.
• Treating one voice as accompaniment: In heterophony all voices are equal.