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'''Counterpoint''', from the [[Latin]]: “against note” is the combination of two separate musical lines to form an harmonic whole. It also refers to the academic discipline used throughout history to teach composers how best to combine voices in a musical texture. The term [[polyphony]] is sometimes used synonomously with counterpoint, and sometimes to distinguish medeival multi-voice music from that of the Renaissance and Baroque.

'''Counterpoint''', from the [[Latin]]: “against note” is the combination of two or more separate musical lines to form an harmonic whole. It also refers to the academic discipline used throughout history to teach composers how best to combine voices in a musical texture. The term [[polyphony]] is sometimes used synonomously with counterpoint, and sometimes to distinguish medeival multi-voice music from that of the Renaissance and Baroque.

Before the 10th or 11th century, all Western music was [[monophony|monophonic]], or consisting of only one voice, which was usually a liturgical [[Gregorian chant|chant]]. The earliest known example of polyphony, discovered in a document called the "Winchester Troper," adds voices to the chant moving at parallel intervals, such as the fifth and octave, a practice called [[organum]]. Later documents would yield examples of parallel organum at the third and sixth. The practice of singing independent lines (and often to completely different texts) began in the 14th century in France, and reached its first heights in the music of [[Palestrina]], [[William Byrd|Byrd]], [[Lassus]] and others during the 15th and 16th centuries.  

Before the 10th or 11th century, all Western music was [[monophony|monophonic]], or consisting of only one voice, which was usually a liturgical [[Gregorian chant|chant]]. The earliest known example of polyphony, discovered in a document called the "Winchester Troper," adds voices to the chant moving at parallel intervals, such as the fifth and octave, a practice called [[organum]]. Later documents would yield examples of parallel organum at the third and sixth. The practice of singing independent lines (and often to completely different texts) began in the 14th century in France, and reached its first heights in the music of [[Palestrina]], [[William Byrd|Byrd]], [[Lassus]] and others during the 15th and 16th centuries.