Its qualifiers are best applied when describing certain characteristics of textiles. This is the most ancient of musical textures and occurs in present-day musics of many cultures.
Unaccompanied song is monophonic in texture.
A single musical instrument playing a melody or many instruments playing the same melody is monophonic texture. If a single melodic line is coupled with a contrasting percussion accompaniment of equal complexity the term monophony is inappropriate. The appropriate term for this texture is polyphony. Polyphony or Polyphonic Texture Music that is composed of two or more lines of melody of relatively equal complexity is said to have polyphonic texture . In the music of the West polyphony appeared first during the 9th century in the sacred music of the Roman Catholic Church.