A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Homophony

HOMOPHONE (ὁμόφωνος) [App. p.679 "Homophony"], voices or instruments sounding alike unison. The term is sometimes applied to music written in what was formerly called the Monodic style. [See Monodia.] But it is now ordinarily employed for music in plain harmony, the parts all sounding together, as opposed to the Polyphonic treatment, in which the several voices or parts move independently of each other or in imitation. Thus in Elijah, 'Cast thy burden' would in this laxer sense be called homophonic, while 'He that shall endure to the end' is polyphonic after the 6th bar. [Polyphone.]

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