(from Gk. monos: ‘single’, and phōnē: ‘voice’).
Music for a single voice or part, for example plainchant and unaccompanied solo song. The term is contrasted with Polyphony (music in two or more independent parts), Heterophony (the simultaneous sounding of a melody or line and a variation of it) and Homophony (which implies rhythmic similarity in a number of parts).
For monophonic vocal forms in Western music see Plainchant; Troubadours, trouvères; Minnesang; Meistergesang; Lauda and Song; see also Estampie. Monophonic music is also important in non-Western and traditional cultures, where it may have an improvised or drone accompaniment.