polytonaladj.

1923 D. Milhaud in N. Amer. Rev. Apr. 554 What gives life to a work,..will never be its characteristics, polytonal or atonal, but, rather, its essential melody.

1949 Penguin Music Mag. July 24 The polytonal writing, in which different parts in the polyphony may have, not only their individual harmonization, but also each their own tonality, is chiefly a tentative realization of a stage that music is steadily approaching.

1976 New Yorker 15 Nov. 194/2 Rich in feeling, sometimes polytonal (or, at any rate, of indefinite tonality), the piece is not without interest.

1991 Classic CD Dec. 95/2 A few long, magically sweet, reassuring themes float like islands in a polytonal mosaic of carolling, fanfares, confetti motifs [etc.].

1924 E. Wellesz & A. Eaglefield-Hull in A. Eaglefield-Hull Dict. Mod. Music & Musicians 20 Schönberg uses atonality in a contrapuntal way, often polytonally.

1981 Times 4 Dec. 13/7 On paper Cowie's melodies look quite like traditional antiphony. But they proceeded polytonally, so that the harmony is chromatic.

2000 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 17 May c2 ‘Creation du Monde’ remains a classic of its kind, with its polytonally spiced echoes of Harlem jazz.