Musical Link 2: Homorhythm

While Dueling Banjos is about the musical battle between a guitar and banjo, the piece uses homorhythmic textures in order to provide more support to various motifs found in the piece. The two melodic lines are tied together through these sections of homorhthym for it allows them to have basic motifs which they can then develop upon to form separate musical arguments.

An example of this is found at measure 57 of Dueling Banjos where the guitar and banjo parts find have a moment of homorhythm in order to bring back and emphasize a recurring motif in the piece (Figure 7). This motif is repeated throughout the piece as the guitar plays a simple version of it, just as in measures 57 and 58, while the banjo embellishes the original motif with ornamentation.

Homorhythm is used in order to stress an area of a piece. It enables a phrase to have more emphasis. In measures 91 and 92, the banjo and guitar parts come together in a homorhythmic repetition of sixteenth notes as the banjo line carries the melodic line. This homorhythmic section acts as an indicator of a turning point coming up in the song (Figure 8).

The instruments share one final chord together as the song ends in a unison tonic chord. (Figure 9).

The use of homorhythm in Dueling Banjos allows both instruments to develop a sound argument to battle the other while maintaining control as the homorhythmic sections reign in the chaos of the duel. These homorhythmic sections seem to pause the song in mid stride as the instruments come together for a short period, only to resume with their independent melodies.

            While Smith uses homorhythm to emphasize motifs and allow for solid ground between two independent melodies, the appearance of homorhythm in Bach’s Invention No. 8 is a result of imitation and sequencing that adds emphasis to a repeated motif. The homorhythmic sections occur where multiple sequences are played in both clefs.

For example, in measures 5 through 6 of this piece, Bach reiterates a motif introduced in measure 4 by using it in a sequence in both the treble and bass clef. This creates homorhythm in measures 5 and 6. In measure 9, a phrase previously introduced in the treble clef is imitated in the bass clef, causing the measures to contain sets of homorhythmic sixteenth notes (Figure 10).

The treble clef pattern played in measure 26 is imitative of measure 4. The interval relationships in these measures are different, thus measure 26 is imitative of measure 4 while measures 27 and 28 are sequences of measure 26. The bass clef at measures 27 to 29 shows evidence of sequencing in addition to being imitative of the treble clef at measure 26. The sequencing of this sixteenth note motif in both clefs establishes homorhythm in measures 27 and 28 as the sixteenth note motifs overlap (Figure 11).