Micropolyphony

Micropolyphony is a kind of polyphonic musical texture developed by György Ligeti, which consists of many lines of dense canons moving at different tempos or rhythms, thus resulting in tone clusters. According to David Cope, "micropolyphony resembles cluster chords, but differs in its use of moving rather than static lines"; it is "a simultaneity of different lines, rhythms, and timbres". Differences between micropolyphonic texture and conventional polyphonic texture can be explained by Ligeti's own description: Technically speaking I have always approached musical texture through part-writing. Both Atmosphères and Lontano have a dense canonic structure.