polyphony
noun
po·lyph·o·ny
pə-ˈli-fə-nē 
: a style of musical composition employing two or more simultaneous but relatively independent melodic lines : counterpoint
Examples of polyphony in a Sentence
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This is music at once pristine and forbidding, redolent of the austere polyphony of the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance.
—
Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 2 Dec. 2024
In Saunders’s indelible portrait, set in a graveyard populated by garrulous spirits, these images collide and coalesce, transforming Lincoln’s private grief — his 11-year-old boy, Willie, died in the White House in 1862 — into a nation’s, a polyphony of voices and stories.
—New York Times, 8 July 2024
Under cover of jokes and the expert polyphony of the overlapping dialogue, David Adjmi leads us to a story about the disaster of maleness, and thus of mating, behind the pop-rock revolution of the period.
—Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Times, 4 Dec. 2023
The book, the story of Seymour, an ambitious would-be filmmaker and a second-rate husband, explores different temporalities, creating a polyphony of the sweeping, legato past and the rhythmic present.
—Sam Thielman, The New Yorker, 21 July 2023
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Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 2 Dec. 2024
In Saunders’s indelible portrait, set in a graveyard populated by garrulous spirits, these images collide and coalesce, transforming Lincoln’s private grief — his 11-year-old boy, Willie, died in the White House in 1862 — into a nation’s, a polyphony of voices and stories.
—New York Times, 8 July 2024
Under cover of jokes and the expert polyphony of the overlapping dialogue, David Adjmi leads us to a story about the disaster of maleness, and thus of mating, behind the pop-rock revolution of the period.
—Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Times, 4 Dec. 2023
The book, the story of Seymour, an ambitious would-be filmmaker and a second-rate husband, explores different temporalities, creating a polyphony of the sweeping, legato past and the rhythmic present.
—Sam Thielman, The New Yorker, 21 July 2023
See all Example Sentences for polyphony
Dictionary Entries Near polyphony
Cite this Entry
“Polyphony.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polyphony. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
polyphony
noun
po·lyph·o·ny
pə-ˈlif-ə-nē
: music consisting of two or more independent but harmonious melodies
polyphonic
adjective
ˌpäl-i-ˈfän-ik
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