What Does Texture Mean In Music?
One of the definitions of texture is “The quality given to a piece of art, literature, or music by the interrelationship of its elements”. The way different elements of music such as voices and instruments work collectively to create the overall sound is what gives music its texture. Thus in music the term texture is used in reference to the quality of sound on the whole of a piece. It is most often denoted by the number of voices that are present in the music and the relationship these voices share with each other. Terms like “rough” or “smooth” or “thick” and “light” are further used to describe the texture of a particular piece. The different musicological terms used to describe types of texture are monophony, polyphony, homophony, and heterophony. Some other textures include polythematic, polyrhythmic, homorhythmic, compound, onomatopoeic and mixed or composite textures. Micropolyphony is a more recent type of texture which was first used by György Ligeti.
