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| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Counterpoint |
 | | The desire for harmony, that is, the simultaneous sounding with the cantus firmus, tenor, or theme, of one or more voices on different intervals, first found expression in the so-called diaphony or "Organum" of Hucbald (840-930 or 932). |
 | | All these sporadic attempts at polyphony culminated, in the fourteenth century, in the addition of different melodies to the cantus firmus in accordance with well-formulated laws of counterpoint which are still valid at the present day. |
 | | The polyphony for four, five, six, eight, or more parts, produced in the century, with its prevailing consonance and unifying and life-giving principle, the cantus firmus (generally a Gregorian melody), is, in a sense, an image of the congregation of the Church itself. |
| www.newadvent.org /cathen/04436a.htm (516 words) |
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