From latin punctus contra punctum, note against note. The combination
into a single musical fabric of lines or parts which have distinct melodic
significance. A frequently used polyphonic technique is imitation, in its
strictest form found in the canon needing only one part to be written down
while the other parts are performed with a given displacement. Imitation is
also the contrapunctal technique used in the fugue which, since the
music of the baroque era, has been one of the most popular polyphonic
composition methods.
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Music Dictionary