Appendix III:

Texture in Detail

Texture is the vertical structure of the music: what is going on simultaneously. How many melodies are there? how many different layers sound at the same time? What are the different melodies and layers doing all at the same time?  Each layer is like a recording track – one horizontal unit. it could be melody, it could be a beat.  Most of the music we hear has at least a couple of layers, frequently a melodic layer, a layer with a beat, and a layer with accompaniment that has chords.  For example,   the song “Tu Solo Tu” sung by Linda Ronstadt begins with one layer of melody (provided by two notes in harmony moving at the same time) accompanied by a layer of guitars that provides both rhythm and more harmony.   When Ronstadt starts singing, there are still two layers continually, with a third layer of short bursts of melody entering periodically.   

This performance of Raga Yaman Kalyan

begins first with an accompanimental layer for a short moment before the melody layer enters.  For seven minutes we hear these two layers, and then at 7:00 the drums enter for a percussive/rhythmic layer that adds excitement.

Layers and instruments are not the same thing.  Many instruments can play in the same layer, and a single instruments can create different layers.  In the last song, Raga Yaman Kalyan, two melody instruments play in the same layer starting at at 4:50.  

In the song, “In the Upper Room” sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock, we hear only voices, but they create many different layers with their voices.

In “Harlem Strut” by James P. Johnson and performed on the piano by Stephanie Trick, the single piano creates three layers: the low beat, the middle harmony and the top melody.   In this video, you can see Trick’s left hand jump between the lowest and middle layers, while the right hand plays the top melody.   

The song called “Rabin” by Israeli musician Yair Dalal begins with one layer played by one instrument.  At about 1:40 the voice comes in. Since the voice and the instrument are playing the same melody, this can easily be considered only one layer.

While we can describe layers and textures primarily in terms of function such as melody, and accompaniment,  in many songs we hear that there are multiple melody layers and multiple accompanimental layers.  Listen to Aretha Franklin sing “Respect” and count the layers by listening to how many different things are going on at once.

One type of texture that combines two different melodies into one layer is Call and Response.  This sounds exactly like its name: one melody line calls, and another responds.  Frequently we hear voices call and respond to each other, like we hear Aretha and her back up singers in “Respect” above. We can hear  this type of alternation at the beginning when Aretha sings ‘what you want’ and the chorus punctuates these lines with their ‘ooh’ and then ‘just a little bit’.   Call and response can also sound between voices and instruments, and between different instruments. Notice at the very beginning of “Respect“, before the voices come in, that the saxophones call, and the guitar responds.

Texture can change frequently and continuously. For example, In “The Offbeats of Avenues” by The Manhattan Transfer, the texture changes and becomes more complex as more layers are added on at the beginning.  Finally in the chorus, the top (sung) melody is divided into four layers,  and more harmony and rhythmic layers are heard underneath. Describing only one layer for each function would suggest that this song only has two or three layers when it has many many more than that.  How many times do you hear layers come in and go out? How many layers do you hear at this song’s most complex moments?

Because layering can be complex, and because different melody lines can be doing different things simultaneously, there are ways of describing what goes on with, and between, the melody lines in layers, so that we can more accurately identify and describe different types of textures.

Monophony: One melody only, no other pitches.

When Joan Baez sings “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”  all alone without accompaniment, the texture is this is monophony because there is only one pitch at a time,

Texture Example 1 is the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, where the opening notes are played by many string instruments.  For the first eight notes, the strings are all playing the same notes, so those two phrases are monophony.

MONOPHONY WITH PERCUSSION: One melody only, with percussion but no other tunes or notes.

In this Japanese piece, “Embu” the flute starts by itself in monophony, and then the percussion comes in. In this Navajo “Hoop Dance”, the percussion starts first, then a single singer joins in for monophony with percussion.  When the other voices enter they still sing the same tune, so the texture remains monophony with percussion.

Heterophony: one melody played in different layers by different people simultaneously, all a bit different and individual.  In this Native American powwow song “Micky Mouse” sung by the Black Lodge Singers the drum starts first, then one voice comes in, and then a chorus.  Once the chorus comes in, they are singing the same melody, but not always the exact same notes at the exact same time.   That is heterophony.

Uum Kulthum was one of Egypt’s most popular singers.  Egyptian music of the type for which she was most famous, is often heterophonic.    The song “Enta Oumry” begins with monophony, but when Uum Kulthum begins to sing, she and the instruments are not always completely in sync.  This is heterophony – there is only one melody but different parts play it slightly differently.

Melody with Accompaniment: one main melody with pitched (other notes) accompaniment. The accompaniment layer has no tune of its own.  Most popular songs are performed mostly in melody with accompaniment texture.  For example, when Angelique Kidjo begins the song “Afirika”,  her melody is the main focus, and all of the other notes serve to accompany the main melody.

Other types of music that feature one instrument also rely on melody with accompaniment, such as raga from India.  For example Annoushka Shankar’s  “Rag Bhairavi”.    Shankar’s sitar has the melody throughout, while the other instruments support her melody line. 

Chordal Polyphony:  all of the notes move at the same time.   This sounds like moving chords rather than moving melodies, but the moving chords are created by the melodies all moving at the same time.   In this performance of “Ave Maria,” the singers begin in monophony for one phrase, and then begin singing different notes.  Because the notes all move at the same time, this is chordal polyphony.

Frequently we need to combine terms and descriptions to completely describe what is going on in a song, as multiple textures occur simultaneously and change through time. 

 In the Andrew Sister’s performance of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” we hear the sisters singing in a chordal texture on top of accompaniment, so to describe this completely we would have to include both aspects of the texture, possibly calling it chordal texture with accompaniment.  Of course throughout the song the texture changes, too, away from that, so at each change we’d describe a new texture.  After the initial verses, one of the sisters sings her melody alone with the band, so that section is in melody with accompaniment; when the others come back in, the texture returns to chordal with accompaniment.   Of course as the texture changes throughout the song, so a full description of texture includes descriptions of all textures and all changes.

Imitative Polyphony: same tune in different layers overlapping.

A round is a type of song where each line is the same but start at different times; a round, such as “Frère Jaques,” is one type of imitative polyphony.

This type of texture has been around for a very, very long time in European history. Josquin des Prez  composed this version of “Ave Maria” about five hundred years ago.  It is not a round since not all lines are identical.  But each phrase begins in imitation with one voice starting a tune that is then imitated by the others.

Non-imitative polyphony: different independent tunes simultaneously. 

In King Oliver‘s “Dippermouth Blues” we hear several melody instruments all playing an independent melody at the same time.  So many different tunes are playing, in fact, that it is sometimes hard to just pick out one.

“An Old Fashioned Wedding” is from Irving Berlin‘s musical Annie Get Your Gun.  First we hear Frank sing about the kind of wedding he wants, and then we hear Annie sing about her ideal wedding.   Not only do they describe completely different weddings, but they sing totally different melodies.   After they each sing alone, they sing their two different tunes at the same time.  That part of the texture, then, is non imitative.  Because they are always singing with an accompaniment, what we really hear is first melody with accompaniment (through both Frank and Annie’s sections) and then non-imitative over accompaniment when they sing their different tunes together.

Call and Response is a texture similar to imitative and non-imitative polyphony, and is the alternation and exchange between two layers. This interchange sounds like a conversation, where one part makes a statement and another part responds. Frequently an instrumental or vocal soloist will start and an instrumental or vocal group will respond, but call and response is not limited to a soloist and group. Two soloists can exchange calls and responses, as can two groups. Call and response can also occur between musicians and dancers

Sometime the response is the same as the call, sounding like imitative polyphony.   In the middle of his song “Immigres” – [Youssou N’Dour – Immigres (Live in Athens 1987)]  N’Dour begins an extended section built exclusively on call and response.  At 5:47 many of the accompanying instruments have dropped out, and N’Dour begins a section built on this imitative type of call and response. He sings a phrase, which is then repeated by a backup singer.   Then he shifts to just the words “Hey Hey”  at 6:00 and the audience begins to respond. Because the pattern is so short and simple, everyone in the audience can participate even if they have never heard the song before.

A different type of call and response involves a simple refrain that is used as a response while the call varies.   For example, in the Kpanda Dance of the Baule people from the Republic of Ivory Coast, the response is a repeated refrain not dependent on the call. in the Kpanda Dance  the bell, sticks (softly) and drum enter first. Then two singers begin and are answered by a group. Through the course of the song, the bell that entered first always plays the same pattern (a five note pattern with a short pause between notes 3 and 4 and a longer pause between notes 5 and the repetition of the pattern staring on 1: 1 2 3..4 5 …..1 2 3.. 4 5). The response that the group sings is always the same: a melody made up of only two alternating pitches with a pause after the first three notes. While the stick and the drum parts are harder to hear because they are in the middle of the texture and are more complicated, they too, consist of repeated patterns. Only the call seems to vary.

Call and Response is extremely common in music from West Africa, as in the examples above,  and throughout the African Diaspora, including much American Music.  For example, in Lauryn Hill‘s Superstar, after the introduction ends and she begins the chorus at :24, the backup singers respond to her melodic lines with their own phrases.  When Brooks and Dunn sing Reba McIntire‘s “Why haven’t I heard from you” the backup singers repeat the lyrics sung by the lead singer in the chorus (the first chorus starts at :40)