Perhaps it's worth stating that how we define these musical textures can be tricky, especially in orchestral music, which can often contain layers of textures. That's why I sometimes refer to these techniques as 'heterophonic elements', heterophony used within the orchestral complex. Obviously "purer" forms of heterophony can be found in non-Western music, but of course they belong to a different musical paradigm in which this would be expected.
One example of heterophony that immediately comes to mind is the opening of the first movement of brahms 4. It's between the strings with the melody and the winds with a sort of echo. It's a really beatiful a unique effect in the way he uses it.
Berlioz is using a different technique: Hoqueting! Coolest technique on the block since the middle ages. Andriessen became a master of it. Perhaps a good topic for the next video?
"Hocketing is a musical technique that involves rapidly alternating between instruments or vocals to create interlocking rhythms or melodies. The result is a broken melody line that sounds like a hiccup. Here are some characteristics of hocketing: Rapid alternation: Each musician is usually responsible for one or two notes at a time. Interlocking rhythms: Hocketing can create a steady pulse or rhythm that's passed around between instruments. Broken melody line: The result is a broken musical line that sounds like a hiccup. Compositional technique: Hocketing can be used to tell a musical story in different ways by using multiple instruments. Hocketing originated as a vocal tradition practiced by the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert and the Central African Pygmies. Medieval composers may have assumed they invented the technique because they never interacted with the hocketing peoples of Africa."
Nice analysis, and some beautiful clips! The Western aversion to heterophony arose in late medieval/Renaissance times. Indeed, the traditional ban on parallel octaves is a kind of heterophony ban, and when Tallis wrote a 40-part motet, it was really 40 independent parts. In the Baroque era this texture was brought back. Some cutting-edge examples can be found between the instrumental and vocal bass lines in bass arias (e.g. Caronte's aria from Monteverdi's Orfeo at the dawn of opera).
The first example which came to my mind is the « wandering by the brook » passage in The Alpine Symphony from R. Strauss. It is such a clever gesture, and for once, not trying to imitate something dark or tumultuous.
Schumann uses a lot of heterophony in his songs, where he often has the upper piano line double the voice, but in a rhythmically different version (often syncopated). Also his chamber and orchestral music is full of heterophonic textures.
Today I am playing in a concert and one of the pieces we are playing is Harry Potter Symphonic Suite. I noticed during Hedwigs theme after the celesta and glockenspiel solo, that the clarinets and flutes are doing sixteenth note runs, sharing the runs between the 1st and second flutes and clarinets, while the glockenspiel and celesta do eighth note runs, based on the sixteenth note runs, nonstop. I believe in the orchestral version it is the violins and upper woodwinds that do the sixteenth note runs. It is so cool to listen to just this part because it has that element of magic to it, as well as picturing yourself flying in the air as Hedwig, while the trumpet play the melody. Not absolutely positive if it is hetrophony, but it reminds me of what you are talking about. Wish me luck on the concert, I’m playing the glockenspiel solo in Hedwig’s Theme
Very common in baroque concerti, where the left hand doubles the basso continuo but with diminutions. Take a look at Bach's no. 7 in G minor, where the bassline from the violin concerto on which it is based is replicated in the left hand but with further divisions of the beat to create a more equal counterpoint with the right hand.
A great detail in La Mer (mvt 3 b.157-72) where flute and oboe have the same line but oboe is pulsing quavers with the flute on sustained notes. The flute dominates the sound at first in the higher register but as the melody descends the oboe sound naturally gets stronger and the flute weaker, so the tone changes colour. Also fascinating to look more deeply at the examples outside western music like gamelan, some Middle Eastern and Thai orchestral music where everyone in the orchestra is playing a version of the same melody
Loved the video!! Your enthousiasm is really inspiring and really overlooked topic indeed in music education as far as Ive had it, thank you so much :)
OK, so now I have a name for something I do. Thanks. I see it just as demarking the most important notes with some instruments, while adrning with others.
My favurite exapmle of this technique is in N. Medtner's 2nd movement of 2nd piano concerto, where violins in the 3rd part of the mvt. plays the main theme and piano is gently tinkling simple campanela-like figuration of the melody. It sounds amazing, mainly in Sudbin's interpretation it sounds so heavenly and lovely!!
Awesome work. Would you fw making a video bout analyzing heterophony in non-western music, and the differences between how it's approached in the west vs the east as well?
I’ve played Balinese gamelan for over 15 years, an amazingly sophisticated form of music that’s largely heterophonic. It’s interesting to see these examples from the western canon. Though, it’s not surprising that it’s not very common as the principal focus of western music since the early renaissance (notre dame school) has been contrapuntal harmony, which heterophony is by definition unable to explore.
A lot of these examples should arguably be explained in a different way. In these examples, the heterophonic "elements" (because they are not in heterophonic textures) are mostly a symptom of another concept. The Mendelssohn and first Beethoven example demonstrate how composers sometimes write simpler parts for basses to make them easier, and how the dissonances between those parts might not be relevant to the composer when it's all a low rumble anyway. The next two examples are linked to harmony and counterpoint, fundamentally suggesting a polyphonic rather than monophonic texture. I think it's important that you singled the lines out for us, and I'm aware it was for clarity of listening. However, doing so suggests that in order to hear the texture, something that should be a big-picture concept, you have to ignore half of the orchestra. I'm not a fan of that implication, even if it wasn't your intention. The Dvorak was a great example, and I enjoyed hearing your perspective on heterophonic elements in western classical music. I haven't thought of these pieces in this way, and it was a worthwhile watch. I just think framing heterophony as a texture "loved by the masters" is an overgeneralization.
While I agree with your general statement, I don't think the first two are exactly examples of writing easier (bass) line to double basses. The first one I think is the opposite and second one is just effect. I know, I'm being pedantic! :D Better example of writing easier bass part for contrabbassi is Tchaikovsky 1st symphony 4th movement (reh.B-C).
@@BlueMeeple I think that's a reasonable opinion to have, but I am confused as to what you mean by "The first one I think is the opposite". Could you further clarify?
@@samwhitty3434 I meant that the double bass line is the "real" bass line and the celli is a more difficult variation of it. Mostly for shimmering/wavy/watery effect. But this is all a question of POV, I guess.
How about the asria in the Bach Saint Matthew Passion which sympathizes with Pater, who is weeping bitterly? Between the violin soloist and the vocal soloist, there is a lot of counterpoint, but there is also a lot of unison.
Yes, espceally when it comes to ornamnents and that the reasons can be many, but one could be just practical. Maybe all the ornaments couldn't be reliable performed by the musicians of the 1800-th century on natural trumpets, for instance, which mainly played notes from the harmonic series in orchestral works. And you can have stuff like shifting octaves in eights on a piano and the same notes in quarter nots in other instruments.
Mozart has a heterophonic texture in the slow movement of K. 526. The Piano part has a rising chromatic scale in both hands offset by a sixteenth note.
You, sir, saved my music theory classes. This kind of texture is so interesting! I'll certainly show it to my students in the next class. Thanks for the useful compilation :)
In a worship setting last night there was a place in a song where keys played iiDim and guitar played regular ii. And it actually sounded together very good, wholesome etc. Spacious. (The bass was holding down I (the tonic)). Goes wel together with the idea of “muddy” heterophony u were talking about. “Dissonance” should not always be avoided. (For anyone wondering it was the second chord to Great Are You Lord)
Interesting. You convinced me more as you went through your examples. I started off thinking it was a stretch to refer to heterophonic texture when it’s happening within a clearly homophonic texture. It’s clear that in most if not all of these examples, the composer is thinking in terms of harmony first. But by the end I was thinking about other examples of heterophony in pre 1900 music. Brahms F Minor Piano Quintet Scherzo (bar 158 on) came to mind. Thanks for the perspective.
Beethoven: th-cam.com/video/1qOxeeOCuV4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=1vs50Y3eyWWldl6z&t=85 - the left hand is staccato and on the beat, the right hand is legato but off-beat! The heterophony only lasts two bars, because the arpeggios then go into contrary motion.
4:16 "the main melodic feature in this passage is obviously the first violin part, but a simplification of this violin part can also be found in the woodwinds" disagree. the 3rd movement is a theme and variations, and the woodwinds here are playing the theme, basically verbatim from how it's introduced at the start of the movement. the first violins are the decorative elaboration
Non western traditional music that we call heterophonic has nothing to do with your examples from western classical music. You just ignore the non-harmonic aspect, which again divides western classic from non western traditional music. The Wikipedia article in turn ignores the element of improvisation in true heterophonic music, another divider. Heterophony can be found in rock music though, where guitarists sometimes mime their vocal lines on the guitar, with slight variations. Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter etc. The essence of heterophony is monophony, a single melody. It’s origin is very natural and logical: when you have monophonic music, and you want to use an orchestra, for instance gamelan, variations on the main melody will naturally develop. Embellishments of the main melody is in fact a better description. You should look at 20th century music, there’s your best chance to find anything like heterophony. Written-out heterophony, that is. Ligeti comes to mind.
The finale of Bruckner's 3rd Symphony has a "3rd subject" which consists of a "disjointed unison" theme which is offset in various parts of the orchestra by a quaver, somewhat reminiscent of the echo in a church. Also the half dozen bars before letter N in the first movement of Bruckner's 5th. Bruckner often has octave/unison passages which are treated in this way: one group of instruments playing a less elaborate version of the material (often the winds while the strings play more notes).
Tempo is crucial to my understanding of music. When it's too fast, I can't process anything; it becomes just noise. It's like trying to grasp a quantum physics lecture that's being speed-read and shouted at you.
I'm not sure if I'd class all of those examples as truly heterophonic to be honest. Not that I totally reject your analysis but heterophonic texture requires either different tempi or rhythmic augmentation/diminution. Whilst some of these examples do kind of fit into that I think that you might find some better examples in western music if you look a little further back. Renaissance composers occasionally employed heterophonic textures in their polyphony for truly amazing results. See Josquin: Missa L'homme Armé Super Voces Musicales - 5b. Agnus Dei 2. Unbelievable counterpoint of the same melody (which seems oxymoronic I know) at three different tempi with the middle voice at the fifth if I recall correctly.
![Chris Langan - The Interview THEY Didn't Want You To See - CTMU [Full Version; Timestamps]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9miVG2xT5jY/mqdefault.jpg)
Perhaps it's worth stating that how we define these musical textures can be tricky, especially in orchestral music, which can often contain layers of textures. That's why I sometimes refer to these techniques as 'heterophonic elements', heterophony used within the orchestral complex. Obviously "purer" forms of heterophony can be found in non-Western music, but of course they belong to a different musical paradigm in which this would be expected.
One example of heterophony that immediately comes to mind is the opening of the first movement of brahms 4. It's between the strings with the melody and the winds with a sort of echo. It's a really beatiful a unique effect in the way he uses it.
"Orchestral runs" at 09:22 made me quit internet for today :D
Immediately subscribed after watching this awesome video
Thank you so much for this lovely video. Your explanations are so clear and insightful!
Yoooooo romantic era! My fav era! Dvorak, Mendolson, BEETHOVEN THE GOAT These are my heroes!
Berlioz is using a different technique: Hoqueting! Coolest technique on the block since the middle ages. Andriessen became a master of it. Perhaps a good topic for the next video?
What’s that
Oh, we do hocketin' in America, too!
it's like when you alternate notes in a line between instruments
"Hocketing is a musical technique that involves rapidly alternating between instruments or vocals to create interlocking rhythms or melodies. The result is a broken melody line that sounds like a hiccup.
Here are some characteristics of hocketing:
Rapid alternation: Each musician is usually responsible for one or two notes at a time.
Interlocking rhythms: Hocketing can create a steady pulse or rhythm that's passed around between instruments.
Broken melody line: The result is a broken musical line that sounds like a hiccup.
Compositional technique: Hocketing can be used to tell a musical story in different ways by using multiple instruments.
Hocketing originated as a vocal tradition practiced by the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert and the Central African Pygmies. Medieval composers may have assumed they invented the technique because they never interacted with the hocketing peoples of Africa."
Yes, it’s a good topic for the next video
In the adagietto of Mahler 5 the melody is often double heterophonically (if thats a word)... My favorite example of this!
Nice analysis, and some beautiful clips!
The Western aversion to heterophony arose in late medieval/Renaissance times. Indeed, the traditional ban on parallel octaves is a kind of heterophony ban, and when Tallis wrote a 40-part motet, it was really 40 independent parts. In the Baroque era this texture was brought back. Some cutting-edge examples can be found between the instrumental and vocal bass lines in bass arias (e.g. Caronte's aria from Monteverdi's Orfeo at the dawn of opera).
The first example which came to my mind is the « wandering by the brook » passage in The Alpine Symphony from R. Strauss. It is such a clever gesture, and for once, not trying to imitate something dark or tumultuous.
Schumann uses a lot of heterophony in his songs, where he often has the upper piano line double the voice, but in a rhythmically different version (often syncopated). Also his chamber and orchestral music is full of heterophonic textures.
Today I am playing in a concert and one of the pieces we are playing is Harry Potter Symphonic Suite. I noticed during Hedwigs theme after the celesta and glockenspiel solo, that the clarinets and flutes are doing sixteenth note runs, sharing the runs between the 1st and second flutes and clarinets, while the glockenspiel and celesta do eighth note runs, based on the sixteenth note runs, nonstop. I believe in the orchestral version it is the violins and upper woodwinds that do the sixteenth note runs. It is so cool to listen to just this part because it has that element of magic to it, as well as picturing yourself flying in the air as Hedwig, while the trumpet play the melody. Not absolutely positive if it is hetrophony, but it reminds me of what you are talking about. Wish me luck on the concert, I’m playing the glockenspiel solo in Hedwig’s Theme
wish you the best of luck at your performance! the glockenspiel is a very pretty instrument 💙
Weird that I’ve never encountered this concept precise in my music education until now :( thank you so much for this!
This made me heterophony curious.
Very common in baroque concerti, where the left hand doubles the basso continuo but with diminutions. Take a look at Bach's no. 7 in G minor, where the bassline from the violin concerto on which it is based is replicated in the left hand but with further divisions of the beat to create a more equal counterpoint with the right hand.
Heterophony of Two Pianos and Orchestra by Akira Nishimura! It is a fantastic piece!
Very interesting talk- thank you. The Beethoven 9 example is the one I first thought of.
A great detail in La Mer (mvt 3 b.157-72) where flute and oboe have the same line but oboe is pulsing quavers with the flute on sustained notes. The flute dominates the sound at first in the higher register but as the melody descends the oboe sound naturally gets stronger and the flute weaker, so the tone changes colour.
Also fascinating to look more deeply at the examples outside western music like gamelan, some Middle Eastern and Thai orchestral music where everyone in the orchestra is playing a version of the same melody
Loved the video!! Your enthousiasm is really inspiring and really overlooked topic indeed in music education as far as Ive had it, thank you so much :)
Instant subscribe loved this so much THANKS!!!!
OK, so now I have a name for something I do. Thanks. I see it just as demarking the most important notes with some instruments, while adrning with others.
Thanks for the clear explanations and powerful examples of Heterophony! Liked and subscribed and will look for some of your other videos.
My favurite exapmle of this technique is in N. Medtner's 2nd movement of 2nd piano concerto, where violins in the 3rd part of the mvt. plays the main theme and piano is gently tinkling simple campanela-like figuration of the melody. It sounds amazing, mainly in Sudbin's interpretation it sounds so heavenly and lovely!!
fantastic video!!!
I do loads of wind runs that use heterophony it creates a wonderful effect in real life
Heterophony makes anything more rich and complex with a different timBre, great for the orchestra
Music notation is so unbelievably difficult, almost more so than composition. Just about every composer who can notate is a genius.
Awesome work. Would you fw making a video bout analyzing heterophony in non-western music, and the differences between how it's approached in the west vs the east as well?
This is great! love this kind of music content. I feel like we would have a lot to talk about
Can you do a video on saxes in general. Maybe go into detail about the current role in classical music and the whole sax family.
... not a bad idea
I’ve played Balinese gamelan for over 15 years, an amazingly sophisticated form of music that’s largely heterophonic. It’s interesting to see these examples from the western canon. Though, it’s not surprising that it’s not very common as the principal focus of western music since the early renaissance (notre dame school) has been contrapuntal harmony, which heterophony is by definition unable to explore.
Heterophomy seems to add an different kind of vibrato to the whole orchestal sound. It is more wide in range and can have more complex patterns.
A lot of these examples should arguably be explained in a different way. In these examples, the heterophonic "elements" (because they are not in heterophonic textures) are mostly a symptom of another concept. The Mendelssohn and first Beethoven example demonstrate how composers sometimes write simpler parts for basses to make them easier, and how the dissonances between those parts might not be relevant to the composer when it's all a low rumble anyway. The next two examples are linked to harmony and counterpoint, fundamentally suggesting a polyphonic rather than monophonic texture. I think it's important that you singled the lines out for us, and I'm aware it was for clarity of listening. However, doing so suggests that in order to hear the texture, something that should be a big-picture concept, you have to ignore half of the orchestra. I'm not a fan of that implication, even if it wasn't your intention.
The Dvorak was a great example, and I enjoyed hearing your perspective on heterophonic elements in western classical music. I haven't thought of these pieces in this way, and it was a worthwhile watch. I just think framing heterophony as a texture "loved by the masters" is an overgeneralization.
I agree!
this is very smart
While I agree with your general statement, I don't think the first two are exactly examples of writing easier (bass) line to double basses. The first one I think is the opposite and second one is just effect. I know, I'm being pedantic! :D
Better example of writing easier bass part for contrabbassi is Tchaikovsky 1st symphony 4th movement (reh.B-C).
@@BlueMeeple I think that's a reasonable opinion to have, but I am confused as to what you mean by "The first one I think is the opposite". Could you further clarify?
@@samwhitty3434 I meant that the double bass line is the "real" bass line and the celli is a more difficult variation of it. Mostly for shimmering/wavy/watery effect. But this is all a question of POV, I guess.
Oh that makes sense
Wonderful video! Easy subscribe ^-^
Martinu used this all the time.
Jazz likes heterophony as well as having eveyone play the same thing occasionally. Check out A Lotus On Irish Streams by Mahavishnu Orchestra.
»Rette dich, Tristan!«
Those who know, know.
I guess you can call it that. It was a good way for classical composers to duplicate voices while keeping it intereating.
How about the asria in the Bach Saint Matthew Passion which sympathizes with Pater, who is weeping bitterly?
Between the violin soloist and the vocal soloist, there is a lot of counterpoint, but there is also a lot of unison.
John Williams’s music is flooded with these techniques. Dizzying.
There's loads of it in baroque music
Interesting. I believe even Baroque composers and Mozart did the same.
Yes, espceally when it comes to ornamnents and that the reasons can be many, but one could be just practical. Maybe all the ornaments couldn't be reliable performed by the musicians of the 1800-th century on natural trumpets, for instance, which mainly played notes from the harmonic series in orchestral works. And you can have stuff like shifting octaves in eights on a piano and the same notes in quarter nots in other instruments.
Yes. Nice example in the recorder lines at the beginning of BWV 106
Mozart has a heterophonic texture in the slow movement of K. 526. The Piano part has a rising chromatic scale in both hands offset by a sixteenth note.
@@CalebCarman Yes, also the main theme in the piano in the recapitulation.
You, sir, saved my music theory classes. This kind of texture is so interesting! I'll certainly show it to my students in the next class. Thanks for the useful compilation :)
Chopin used this exponentially well in his 2nd, 3rd and 4th ballade. 1:28 etc
How about that -- thought it went out in the Renaissance or MA! Is that fun O Sacred Head example your creation?
In a worship setting last night there was a place in a song where keys played iiDim and guitar played regular ii. And it actually sounded together very good, wholesome etc. Spacious. (The bass was holding down I (the tonic)). Goes wel together with the idea of “muddy” heterophony u were talking about. “Dissonance” should not always be avoided. (For anyone wondering it was the second chord to Great Are You Lord)
😍
Been waiting for your video on homophobic texture
Interesting. You convinced me more as you went through your examples. I started off thinking it was a stretch to refer to heterophonic texture when it’s happening within a clearly homophonic texture. It’s clear that in most if not all of these examples, the composer is thinking in terms of harmony first. But by the end I was thinking about other examples of heterophony in pre 1900 music. Brahms F Minor Piano Quintet Scherzo (bar 158 on) came to mind. Thanks for the perspective.
not classical, but ligeti´s second weores song is almost somewhere in the middle between heterophony and polyphony. the best example i can think of
Beethoven: th-cam.com/video/1qOxeeOCuV4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=1vs50Y3eyWWldl6z&t=85 - the left hand is staccato and on the beat, the right hand is legato but off-beat! The heterophony only lasts two bars, because the arpeggios then go into contrary motion.
4:16 "the main melodic feature in this passage is obviously the first violin part, but a simplification of this violin part can also be found in the woodwinds"
disagree. the 3rd movement is a theme and variations, and the woodwinds here are playing the theme, basically verbatim from how it's introduced at the start of the movement. the first violins are the decorative elaboration
You're right, I probably should have made that clearer.
Non western traditional music that we call heterophonic has nothing to do with your examples from western classical music. You just ignore the non-harmonic aspect, which again divides western classic from non western traditional music.
The Wikipedia article in turn ignores the element of improvisation in true heterophonic music, another divider.
Heterophony can be found in rock music though, where guitarists sometimes mime their vocal lines on the guitar, with slight variations. Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter etc.
The essence of heterophony is monophony, a single melody. It’s origin is very natural and logical: when you have monophonic music, and you want to use an orchestra, for instance gamelan, variations on the main melody will naturally develop. Embellishments of the main melody is in fact a better description.
You should look at 20th century music, there’s your best chance to find anything like heterophony.
Written-out heterophony, that is. Ligeti comes to mind.
In the closet. ❌
Heterophony. ✅
The finale of Bruckner's 3rd Symphony has a "3rd subject" which consists of a "disjointed unison" theme which is offset in various parts of the orchestra by a quaver, somewhat reminiscent of the echo in a church.
Also the half dozen bars before letter N in the first movement of Bruckner's 5th. Bruckner often has octave/unison passages which are treated in this way: one group of instruments playing a less elaborate version of the material (often the winds while the strings play more notes).
Tempo is crucial to my understanding of music. When it's too fast, I can't process anything; it becomes just noise. It's like trying to grasp a quantum physics lecture that's being speed-read and shouted at you.
I'm not sure if I'd class all of those examples as truly heterophonic to be honest. Not that I totally reject your analysis but heterophonic texture requires either different tempi or rhythmic augmentation/diminution. Whilst some of these examples do kind of fit into that I think that you might find some better examples in western music if you look a little further back. Renaissance composers occasionally employed heterophonic textures in their polyphony for truly amazing results. See Josquin: Missa L'homme Armé Super Voces Musicales - 5b. Agnus Dei 2. Unbelievable counterpoint of the same melody (which seems oxymoronic I know) at three different tempi with the middle voice at the fifth if I recall correctly.
The Hebrides and Beethoven examples are not perfect heterophony because they are displaced by an octave (contrabass transposes an octave lower)
The worst texture of all.