What's the difference between melodic and polyphony?

Melodic


Definition:

  • (a.) Of the nature of melody; relating to, containing, or made up of, melody; melodious.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Young children also are sensitive to melodic contour over transformations that preserve it (Study 5), yet they distinguish spontaneously between melodies with the same contour and different intervals (Study 4).
  • (2) The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate adult Ineraid and Nucleus cochlear implant (CI) users' perceptual accuracy for melodic and rhythmic patterns, and quality ratings for different musical instruments.
  • (3) "Huff was maybe sweeter and more melodic," Gamble agrees, warming to my notion that he was maybe the Lennon to Huff's McCartney.
  • (4) Melodic themes of target melodies were defined by correlating contour-related pitch accents with temporal accents (accent coupling) during an initial familiarization phase.
  • (5) The call to prayer blares out five times a day from a multitude of speakers across the city, some melodic others hellish.
  • (6) Experimental Series 2 showed that temporal and melodic parameters such as speed, rhythm, pitch range, and melodic structure also have clear and consistent effects on perceived urgency.
  • (7) But really, was this state of mind so alien from that of the composers who, at the turn of the 19th century and in the first decades of the 20th, sought to overturn the enlightenment conception of western classical music, with its formal properties of rhythmic, harmonic and melodic structure?
  • (8) Their eponymous debut, a melodic blend of guitar pop and dance beats released in 1989, is still regarded by many as one of the great first albums.
  • (9) Inspired by the idea of a city built around an airport (she grew up in Hounslow, near Heathrow), it leaves behind the constraints of any one genre, meandering through R&B-inflected garage (Beach Mode), instrumental grime (Backhand Winners) and Omar S-style stripped-back melodic techno (Eternal Mode).
  • (10) Expectations based on both familiarity and predictability were found to reduce restoration at the melodic level.
  • (11) By then, she was experimenting with a singing voice that was softer and more melodic than the harsh Jamaican patois she spat on the garage tracks.
  • (12) His flow is sick and the narratives he can weave over tough and gritty but surprisingly melodic beats are often nothing short of breathtaking.
  • (13) As this procedure proved not useful in this case, an adaptation of Melodic Intonation Therapy (signing plus an intoned rather than spoken verbal stimulus) was tried.
  • (14) The melodic pattern repeats itself several times throughout, then you have a mid eight, and for me the most thrilling part is the reprise, those rising notes, and then it hits the top.
  • (15) Global timing patterns reflected the hierarchical grouping structure of the composition, with pronounced ritardandi at the ends of major sections and frequent expressive lengthening of accented tones within melodic gestures.
  • (16) Many adult listeners are also able to consistently adjust two successive pure tones "one octave apart," which shows that they possess melodic octave templates.
  • (17) With Russians, what you see is a melodic thread in their dancing, an upper-body expressiveness that brings out another side of the work.
  • (18) Church's biggest hit – the melodic rock anthem Springsteen – has more in common with its titular hero than Nashville.
  • (19) Categorical perception was investigated in a series of experiments on the perception of melodic musical intervals (sequential frequency ratios).
  • (20) The relationship between melodic and text singing was also discussed.

Polyphony


Definition:

  • (n.) Multiplicity of sounds, as in the reverberations of an echo.
  • (n.) Plurality of sounds and articulations expressed by the same vocal sign.
  • (n.) Composition in mutually related, equally important parts which share the melody among them; contrapuntal composition; -- opposed to homophony, in which the melody is given to one part only, the others filling out the harmony. See Counterpoint.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The polyphony of themes that can be seen in the initial dream of psychoanalysis warns of monothematic interpretive proposals by therapists that are likely to be ill-understood or frankly rejected by patients in favor of openended interpretations.
  • (2) Judith Mackrell on Rien de Rien, Guardian, 2001 Do say "Yes, the music is often medieval polyphony, but then the choreography is itself a kind of polyphony."
  • (3) What it does is empower people to think differently.” In that respect, the show’s dense cultural polyphony is as clear a statement of purpose from a new voice as musical theater has heard in years.
  • (4) The latter refers to the "present day" sections of the film, in which Gainsbourg's character Joe recounts her past experiences to the man (played by Stellan Skarsgard) who finds her severely beaten in the street, who in turn analyses Joe's stories in terms of his intellectual passions, which include Bach polyphony, Edgar Allan Poe, and fly fishing.
  • (5) What Hamilton loved so much about Joyce was the mastery of language, the fluency of movement, the "polyphony of tongues, codes, ideolects" that released and inspired Hamilton himself to try out "some implausible associations in paint".