Homophony is music in which the top line has a dominant melody, and all the voices accompany it with chords in the same rhythm. Many hymn harmonisations are homophonic.
Homophonic music has distinct melody and harmony.
Homophony is contrasted with polyphony (in which each voice is contrapuntally independent and equal) and monophony (in which there is only one voice).
Homophony is also used to refer to music with a dominant melody and rhythmically independent secondary accompaniment. Thus most popular music is homophonic. This type of music could be considered a monody, but this is generally applied to Italian song of the early 17th century.
See Texture (music)
