Polytonality

What it means

Polytonality denotes the simultaneous sounding of two or more keys in different voices or layers. Each layer follows the logic of its own key, but in combination friction and an unfamiliar overall sound arise. With exactly two keys one speaks of bitonality.

Musical use

Polytonality is a hallmark of the music of the early 20th century, for instance in Darius Milhaud, who used it in Saudades do Brasil (1920), in Charles Ives, Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók. It is a means of extending the limits of major–minor harmony without abandoning tonality entirely. Sometimes the effect is deliberately humorous or grotesque.

Polytonality should be distinguished from the polychord, which lies only at the level of chords, and from atonality, in which no key is determined at all.

Performance practice

When you play polytonal music, practise the layers separately so that you feel the key of each voice, and then put them together. Listen to the friction without smoothing it over; it is intended.