Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Simultaneous use of two or more tonalities in a musical composition.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun music The use of multiple keys in the same composition, especially by multiple instruments at the same time

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun music that uses two or more different keys at the same time

Etymologies

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Examples

  • By the late 1940s, he was already employing modern classical ideas such as polytonality and dissonance, and working in unusual time signatures to create a distinctive jazz sound.

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • By the late 1940s, he was already employing modern classical ideas such as polytonality and dissonance, and working in unusual time signatures to create a distinctive jazz sound.

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • By the late 1940s, he was already employing modern classical ideas such as polytonality and dissonance, and working in unusual time signatures to create a distinctive jazz sound.

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • By the late 1940s, he was already employing modern classical ideas such as polytonality and dissonance, and working in unusual time signatures to create a distinctive jazz sound.

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • Many of Ives "compositions were ground breaking and anticipated 20th century musical techniques such as polytonality, atonality, 12 tone formations, polymetres, and polyrhythms.

    QCOnline Metro News 2009

  • Beyond rhythm, Dave Brubeck challenged the public's ear with polytonality, or playing in multiple keys simultaneously.

    Network Awesome: Brubeck's Signature, Signed with Time Network Awesome 2011

  • It was Dave Brubeck -- a man who could not read sheet music and who was nearly barred from graduating the College of the Pacific music school in 1942 because of it -- who reinvented the genre with his signature style of polyrhythms, odd time signatures, and polytonality.

    Network Awesome: Brubeck's Signature, Signed with Time Network Awesome 2011

  • It was Dave Brubeck -- a man who could not read sheet music and who was nearly barred from graduating the College of the Pacific music school in 1942 because of it -- who reinvented the genre with his signature style of polyrhythms, odd time signatures, and polytonality.

    Network Awesome: Brubeck's Signature, Signed with Time Network Awesome 2011

  • Beyond rhythm, Dave Brubeck challenged the public's ear with polytonality, or playing in multiple keys simultaneously.

    Network Awesome: Brubeck's Signature, Signed with Time Network Awesome 2011

  • Beyond rhythm, Dave Brubeck challenged the public's ear with polytonality, or playing in multiple keys simultaneously.

    Network Awesome: Brubeck's Signature, Signed with Time Network Awesome 2011

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