Text: The addition of a part or parts to a tenor or subject. This art, the forerunner of modern counterpoint and harmony, grew out of the still earlier art of diaphony or the organum. The real difference between diaphony and descant seemsto have been that theformer was rearely, if ever, more complicated than note against note, whereas descant made use of the various proportionate values of notes.

See Also: DIAPHONY; ORGANUM

Source: 125