Homophony as a term first appeared in English with Charles Burney in 1776, emphasizing the concord of harmonized melody.[4]
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History
European and German music
While homophony can be heard in nearly all European musical traditions, the first notated examples appeared during the Medieval periodin dance music, such as the Estampie.[5] However, because manuscript was expensive to produce, there is little record of Medieval homophony, most notated music being monophonic.[5] There was similarly little record of homophony during the Renaissance period.[6]
Homophony first appeared as one of the predominant textures in Western music during the Baroque period in the early 17th century, when composers began to commonly compose with vertical harmony in mind, the homophonic basso continuo becoming a definitive feature of the style.[3] The choral arrangement of four voices (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass) has since become common in Western music.[3] Homophony began by appearing in sacred music, replacing polyphony and monophony as the dominant form, but spread to secular music, for which it