Music A-Level
Micropolyphony
What Micropolyphony means in Music A-Level, as defined for AQA.
Definitions of Micropolyphony
Exam boards and our study guides word this term in slightly different ways. Learn the version your board uses.
Check what you remember
Read the wording for your board, then hide it and explain Micropolyphony in your own words. Rough notes are fine. This is a self-check, with no mark or grade.
Reference: AQA
A highly dense texture consisting of many independent, closely spaced lines, so dense that individual lines cannot be distinguished, creating a mass of sound.
Employed by composers in orchestral music to build massive, evolving cluster chords.
A complex texture that unaccompanied voices can create in works from this period.
Topics that use Micropolyphony
- Area of study 7: Art music since 1910 - Musical elements (AQA A-Level)
Related terms
- 20th-century chord structures
- 20th-century compositional techniques
- 20th-century rhythmic innovation
- A cappella
- Additive and subtractive processes
- Alternatives to functional tonality
- Atonality
- Atonality and tonality
Using Micropolyphony in the exam
Check the command word and mark scheme for your exact question. After comparing your explanation with the reference, use the term in an answer on the linked topic. This practice does not predict an exam mark.
Practise Music questions
Create a free account to answer exam-style questions on this topic and get feedback on your answers.
Start free
All Music A-Level termsA week of Premium from your first lesson · Then the free plan continues · No card, no charge