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who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

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25(2) Drone polyphony,(3) Canonic polyphony,(4) Contrapuntal polyphony,(5) Ostinato polyphony,(6) Heterophonic polyphony,(7) Overlapping polyphony,(8) Chordal polyphony(9) Array of Syn<strong>the</strong>sis polyphonic subtypes;(1) Parallel polyphony is based on parallel movement of parts and can be dividedfur<strong>the</strong>r into at least two sub-types (<strong>the</strong>se two sub-types were distinguished anddescribed in Marius Schneider’s 1934-35 book):a. Tonally linked parallelism, or when parallel movement of differentparts is united into one tonal system. As a result, intervals do changeoccasionally, for example, parallel fourths sometimes change intoisolated thirds, or fifths (as this happens in some sub-Saharan Africantraditions), or, in o<strong>the</strong>r case, minor and major thirds follow each o<strong>the</strong>rin a tonally specified succession (this kind of parallelism is verypopular in most of European and some African traditions);b. Tonally unconnected parallelism, or when two or more parts aresinging <strong>the</strong> same melody in parallel movement, keeping all <strong>the</strong> time<strong>the</strong> same interval. In most cases this means that parts are singingwithout <strong>the</strong> unifying tonal system. Vocal parts singing without <strong>the</strong>shared tonality may indicate that this is a case of “thick unison”, orwhen singers intend to sing in unison, and sometimes <strong>the</strong>y believe <strong>the</strong>yare singing in unison, but in reality <strong>the</strong>y start from different pitchesand proceed as <strong>the</strong>y started – maintaining <strong>the</strong> initial intervalthroughout. This kind of singing is usually present in monophoniccultures. As a matter of fact, maintaining <strong>the</strong> same interval throughout<strong>the</strong> <strong>who</strong>le melody is an arduously difficult task for <strong>the</strong> representativesof polyphonic cultures, as <strong>the</strong>y tend to unite different co-soundingparts into a shared tonal system. If <strong>the</strong> reader of this book tries to sing,toge<strong>the</strong>r with any of musically gifted friend, <strong>the</strong> melody of <strong>the</strong> Beatles“Yesterday”, or any o<strong>the</strong>r well known melody, say, in parallel fourths,or even in major thirds, you will soon see how difficult this is. At <strong>the</strong>same time, at least for some representatives of monophonic singingcultures this task does not seem to be difficult at all, as <strong>the</strong>y seem tofollow <strong>the</strong> logic or horizontal melodic line, ignoring <strong>the</strong> verticalcoordination of parts and <strong>the</strong>refore, <strong>the</strong>y are singing without <strong>the</strong>interference of <strong>the</strong> desire to sing all parts into one shared tonal system.Russian musicologist Viktor Sergeevich Vinogradov told me howsurprised he was when his friend, choir master, working with <strong>the</strong> choirin one of <strong>the</strong> Central Asian republics (where singing traditions arestrictly monophonic), showed him how easily his students could singquite a complex classical melody in parallel fourths, fifths, sevenths,or even seconds and augmented fourths (personal communication from

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