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In music, monophony is the simplest of textures, consisting of melody without accompaning harmony. This may be realized as just one note at a time, or with the same note duplicated at the octave (such as often when men and women sing together). Monophony may also have a complex rhythmic element, as when percussion accompanies a melody in some types of Chinese or Hindu music. Most Medieval music was monophonic, including the Gregorian chant. According to Adris Butterfield (1997), monophony "is the dominant mode of the European vernacular genres as well as of Latin song...in polyphonic works, it remains a central compositional principle." DeLone et al. (1975, p.99) more loosely defines monophony as "passages, movements, or sections thereof in which notes sound alone, despite instrumental doubling" even if "such passages may involve several instruments or voices." Textures in Stravinsky's Renard, such as the first bars of the opening "March", border on heterophony, being “ragged unison”.
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