The Concept of Intonation in Polyphonic Music
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Abstract
The concept of musical intonation has been interpreted in musicology rather ambivalently. Russian scholarship has
made productive use of it, following Boris Asafiev, who has become noteworthy for indicating the smallest imagesemantic
element in music. Musical intonation is characterized by a polymorphous quality, i.e. by its variability of
sound appearance. Intonation is discerned more easily in a monophonic melody, but its attribution creates difficulties
in multi-voiced music – in both the homophonic-harmonic and the contrapuntal varieties. In polyphony the sound
appearance of the intonation varies depending on the character of interaction of the voices and – correspondingly
– the type of polyphonic texture. In imitational and supporting-voice polyphony, as a rule, various sound forms
of one and the same intonation vibrate simultaneously. What appears is an “intonation field” or “poly-intonation
field” – a polyphonic type of texture shaped correspondingly by one or several intonations. In contrasting polyphony
different single-voice intonations sound simultaneously. A similar result – the simultaneous sound of two or more
intonations – is produced upon combination of several multi-voiced strata. The weighty semantic significance of
polyphonic coordination of voices – along with “timbre-intonation” (Sergei Slonimsky), “harmonic intonation”
(Yuri Kremlyov), rhythmic intonation” and “intonation of dynamics and articulation” (Yuri Kholopov) – also gives
life to “polyphonic intonation.”
Keywords: intonation, polyphony, polyphony of strata, polyphonic intonation.
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