homophonic, a. Mus.
(hɒməʊˈfɒnɪk)
[f. as prec. + -ic.]
1. Producing, or consisting of, sounds of the same pitch; unisonous, in unison. Said of ancient music; opp. to antiphonic.
| 1881 Broadhouse Mus. Acoustics 342 Helmholtz in his chapter on ‘The Tonality of Homophonic Music’ enumerates five scales which differ more or less from our modern major scale. |
2. loosely. Said of music characterized by the predominance of one part or melody, to which the rest merely furnish harmonies; more correctly called monophonic or monodic. Opp. to polyphonic.
| 1879 E. Prout in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 55 The homophonic rather than the polyphonic style predominates in the music [allemande], which frequently consists of a highly figurate melody, with a comparatively simple accompaniment. 1885 Athenæum 7 Mar. 319/2 [Bach's] compositions are polyphonic rather than homophonic. |
3. Philol. = homophonous a. 2.
| 1942 [see bimorphemic a.]. |