page_title: Unison
section_title: Performance ensembles
hierarchical_section_title: Unison / Performance ensembles
caption_attribution_description: English: "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" melody doubled in four octaves: consonant and equivalent. Created by Hyacinth (talk) 14:52, 26 July 2009 using Sibelius 5.
context_page_description: In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. Rhythmic unison is another term for homorhythm.
context_section_description: Several singers singing a melody together.
  In orchestral music unison can mean the simultaneous playing of a note (or a series of notes constituting a melody) by different instruments, either at the same pitch; or in a different octave, for example, cello and double bass (all'unisono). Typically a section string player plays unison with the rest of the section. Occasionally the Italian word divisi (meaning divided, abbrev. div.) marks a point where an instrumental section, typically the first violins, is to be divided into two groups for rendering passages that might, for example, include full chords.  Thus, in the divisi first violins the "outside" players (nearer the audience) might play the top note of the chord, while the "inside" seated players play the middle note, and the second violins play the bottom note. At the point where the first violins no longer play divisi, the score may indicate this with unison (abbrev. unis.).
  When an entire choir sings the main melody, the choir usually sings in unison. Music in which all the notes sung are in unison is called monophonic. In a choir with two or more sections, such as for different vocal ranges, each section typically sings in unison. Part singing is when two or more voices sing different notes. Homophony is when choir members sing different pitches but with the same rhythm. Polyphony is when the chorus sings multiple independent melodies.
caption: "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" melody doubled in four octaves. About this soundPlay (help·info) piano
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