What are the differences between monophony and polyphony?
Monophony means music with a single “part”, and a “part” typically means a single melody on an instrument of one kind or another (even vocal). Polyphony means music with more than one part, and so this indicates simultaneous notes. A typical monophony part is the “bass part”, which usually doesn’t play simultaneous notes. One example of Polyphony is a choral part: polyphony means literally “more than one sound”. Monophony means also that one note of an instrument may be played at a time. An instrument that can play many at once is said to be Polyphonic. Monophonic instruments usually cut-off the sound of previously played note with the start of new one.
