Homophonic Style in 16th-Century Music: A Concise Guide for Students and Listeners

Music of the 16th century, such as that of the great Giovanni Palestrina, is noted mainly for its polyphonic (contrapuntal, imitative, fugal) style. Often overlooked, by both students and listeners, is the importance during that period of its homophonic (chordal) style, in which the parts move entirely or mostly in the same rhythm, that is, note against note.

Advantages of Homophonic Style
In certain circumstances, homophonic style offers some advantages over polyphonic style.

(1) Where text is important, the words will be heard more clearly in homophonic style because all the parts are singing the same words at the same time.

(2) When there is a large amount of text, more words can be set in a short time in homophonic style.

(3) Because of the simplicity of homophony, the musical effect can more distinctly evoke the character of the text.

(4) Homophonic passages can provide a welcome musical relief from, and contrast to, polyphonic passages, thus making the return to polyphony more effective.

Composers applied this interplay between polyphony and homophony to most genres of the period. A good example is the Ordinary of the Mass, whose textures typically, though not invariably, follow this pattern in 16th-century Mass compositions (with P indicating polyphonic and H indicating homophonic): Kyrie-Christe-Kyrie (P); Gloria (mainly H); Credo (mainly H, especially at solemn moments, such as Et incarnatus est); Sanctus (P); Hosanna (H); Benedictus (P); Hosanna (H, sometimes a repeat of the previous Hosanna); Agnus Dei (P).

Because 16th-century music, like most music since then, is triadic (based on triads, that is, three-tone chords consisting of a root plus its third and fifth), modern students usually learn 16th-century homophonic techniques by studying three-part writing first. Four-part writing, mostly a matter of doubling one of the three principal parts, is added later. The following concise guide covers three-part homophonic style.

Interval Combinations (Chords)
Composers in the 16th century conceived of vertical structures (that is, simultaneous tones) in terms of intervals between tones. Intervals are measured from the lowest tone, or bass, upward.

Above the bass, there may always be the interval of a third. There may also be above the bass the interval of a fifth or a sixth.

Such combinations produce what are now called chords in the root position (third plus fifth) and first inversion (third plus sixth). However, those are post-16th-century terms and concepts, first mentioned by Jean-Philippe Rameau in a 1722 harmony treatise.

Chords involving dissonances, such as seconds and sevenths, result only from nonharmonic tones, commonly suspensions, which must be approached and resolved according to the rules of 16th-century counterpoint.

Chords involving chromatically induced unusual intervals, such as a diminished fourth, are rare. Composers in the 16th century used them mainly for dramatic or pictorial purposes, as in the Orlando Gibbons madrigal The Silver Swan.

However, the diminished triad that naturally occurs in the diatonic modal system of the 16th century, such as B-D-F in the C ionian mode, which contains a B-F diminished fifth or an F-B augmented fourth, is an acceptable vertical structure. Its practical usefulness varies depending on its position in a given mode (for example, in the phrygian mode, the diminished triad is on the fifth degree, making that degree unable to serve its usual dominant function).

Part Movement
Part movement in three-part homophonic style can be summarized in ten observations that are based on the actual practices of 16th-century composers.

(1) Spacing between the parts should be as even as possible, with no wide gaps between any two adjacent parts.

(2) Complete triads should be used as much as possible. However, there is no "rule" against an occasional chord with either the third or the fifth missing.

(3) In cases where a complete triad is not used, doubling may occur on any of the three tones-root, third, or fifth. The determining factor in the doubling is the appropriateness of the part movement, such as smoothness of line or avoidance of unwanted parallelisms. (But see No. 4 below for an exception.)

(4) An exception to No. 3 is the leading tone at a cadence. It must not be doubled. Students with a background in common-practice harmony are already familiar with this rule.

(5) Parts may cross if the purpose is to produce effective melodic lines in each of the affected parts. However, if a middle part crosses below the bass, that "middle" part in effect becomes the bass and must be written with its new function in mind.

(6) Avoid moving all parts in the same direction at the same time. Such movement invites the strong possibility of forbidden parallel fifths or octaves, or undesirable (in 16th-century style) direct fifths or octaves.

(7) If direct fifths or octaves do occur between two parts, the thinning effect on the texture can be mitigated by contrary motion in the third part.

(8) While, as mentioned above, the diminished fifth of the leading-tone triad is allowed in three-part homophony, parallel fifths, even if one of them is a diminished fifth, are still incorrect.

(9) Parallel fourths in the upper parts are acceptable. In fact, 16th-century composers often harmonized brief or lengthy portions of a treble melody by parallel fourths and parallel sixths beneath it, a technique called fauxbourdon. The result is what modern musicians would call parallel sixth (first-inversion) chords.

(10) The three parts should maintain a sense of independence, which is still achievable, even in the block-chord style of homophony. The treble should be elegantly, melodically shaped with mostly stepwise movement and in mostly contrary motion to the bass. The middle part, while secondary to the two other parts, can and should generate independent interest, as by having attention-drawing suspensions at cadences. The bass has even more musical potential than the treble has, being amenable to both conjunct, melodious possibilities and to basslike, often fifth-related, strong leaps to the roots of chords.

From both the student's and the listener's point of view, 16th-century homophonic music can present just as many challenges and just as much beauty as the better-known polyphonic music of the same era.
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Grout, Donald Jay, and Claude V. Palisca. A History of Western Music. 5th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed. London: Macmillan, 2001.

Swindale, Owen. Polyphonic Composition. 1962. Reprint, London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1972.