polyphonic
/pɒlɪˈfɒnɪk
/adjective
1Producing or involving many sounds or voices: a 64-voice polyphonic sound module figurative dialogue is a staple of all polyphonic novels...
- The Z600 supports 32-voice polyphonic ringtones and sounds.
- It has a 40-voice polyphonic sound system for ringtones, and operates on GSM and GPRS networks.
- The phone has what's known as polyphonic sound, which means it has multiple ‘voices’ or tones.
1.1 Music (Especially of vocal music) in two or more parts each having a melody of its own; contrapuntal. Compare with homophonic. polyphonic choral music...
- The publication of polyphonic music, and particularly the Latin motets that Byrd insisted that East print, was not especially profitable.
- Attwood attests that a partiality for the polyphonic music of JS Bach motivated Mozart to supplement his fortepiano with a pedal board.
- When the Council of Trent inveighed against polyphonic music for sacred purposes, although the target of their arrows was Palestrina, they might just as well have been speaking of Gombert.
1.2 Music (Of an instrument) capable of producing more than one note at a time: keyboards and other polyphonic instruments...
- Using two iterations, I had nine polyphonic instruments up and running, with polyphony occasionally spilling over 100 notes simultaneously.
- The Storm Music Studio now comes with 13 virtual instruments and also includes the new Shadow virtual analog polyphonic synth.
- The harp becomes the polyphonic instrument of choice as will be continually explained.
Derivatives
polyphonically
- One of its verses is set polyphonically in the 9th-century Musica enchiriadis, yet it is only in the 16th century that polyphonic settings, many of them designed for alternatim performance, proliferate.
- As I have been arguing here, middle-class knowledge and ignorance are invoked strategically and polyphonically in ways that answer many needs at once.
- CreamWare took some liberties and improved on the original by allowing the synth to be played polyphonically and integrating a multi-effects section.
Origin
Late 18th century: from Greek poluphōnos (from polu- 'many' + phōnē 'voice, sound') + -ic.