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Multiple performers playing slightly different versions of the same melody simultaneously — varying in ornamentation, rhythm, or phrasing.
Heterophony is rare in Western classical music but common in folk and non-Western traditions. Debussy and Britten use it for exotic color. The slightly-out-of-sync quality creates a shimmering, organic texture.
Britten's "Curlew River" — the heterophonic texture of the instrumental ensemble imitates Japanese gagaku music.
Heterophony is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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