At higher grades you must be able to discuss with the examiner musical features such as texture, form, style, and period of a piece of music. My own web pages to help with these parts of the test at Grade 5+ and at GCSE are available here!
Think of a hymn tune or chorale. Typically the voices change notes together creating a series of chords.
Although occasionally one line may be more active or slightly more decorative than the others, the general feel is of block chords moving together.
JS Bach was the master of the chorale, and numerous examples can be found to listen to at www.cpdl.com.
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, the final chorale from Bach's early cantata BWV 12.
Try to play a traditional hymn from a hymn book if you have one at home, noticing how you have to move from one chord to another almost every time the melody note changes. Play just one line - say the alto part or the bass line. Is it particularly tuneful on its own?
The chorale uses homophony: the chords or vertical intervals 'work' with the melody but may have little melodic character of their own. Much popular music written today is predominantly homophonic — governed by considerations of chord and harmony.
Can you think of a piece you play that has this texture?
a piano prelude by Gliere which uses harmonic texture in the late Romantic idiom, performed by Jenny Lin.
