We have all heard it, yet most of us would not be able to name it. The term polyphony (from the Greek for “many sounds”) is used to describe music that employs simultaneous yet independent melodies.

The Holy Father offered his praise to polyphonic music while welcoming participants at the June 18 event commemorating the 500th anniversary of the birth of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, a ...

A concert of Renaissance Christmas music might seem like an odd place for a world premiere, but a new composition by Nico Muhly found a way to harmonize with the polyphony of Palestrina, Byrd, and ...

Had Notre Dame Cathedral actually burned to the ground in yesterday's devastating fire, we would have lost one of the architectural wonders of the Western world – and so much more. We would have lost ...

Performances at Trinity Cathedral and the Musical Instrument Museum will feature sacred works for Holy Week and a spring-themed program marking the ensemble’s MIM debut. The Phoenix Chorale will ...

The Glee Club and Choral Society have just issued a 12-inch record of Sixteenth Century music, mostly Palestrina, with selections of Byrd, Lassus, and Amerio (Cambridge, CRS405). Some of this is a ...

On Blue Heron’s recent performance of English polyphony from the Peterhouse Partbooks. For their “Lost Music of Canterbury” concert, the thirteen members of the Blue Heron choir divided into five ...

Editor’s note: To listen along as you read, click the links in the text. These pieces were performed for The Economist by the choir of Jesus College, Cambridge. IN 1605 Charles de Ligny, a Frenchman, ...