Editing Antiphon (section)

== Polychoral antiphony ==

When two or more groups of singers sing in alternation, the style of music can also be called ''polychoral''.  Specifically, this term is usually applied to music of the late [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]] and early [[Baroque music|Baroque]] periods. Polychoral techniques are a definitive characteristic of the music of the [[Venetian School (music)|Venetian school]], exemplified by the works of [[Giovanni Gabrieli]]: this music is often known as the [[Venetian polychoral style]].<ref>C. Parrish, ''A Treasury of Early Music: Masterworks of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Baroque Era'' (Courier Dover Publications, 2000), p. 138.</ref> The Venetian polychoral style was an important innovation of the late [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]]. This style, with its variations as it spread across Europe after 1600, helped to define the beginning of the [[Baroque music|Baroque]] era. Polychoral music was not limited to [[Italy]] in the Renaissance; it was also popular in France with [[Marc-Antoine Charpentier]] (37 settings H.16–H.52), in [[Spain]] and [[Germany]]. There are examples from the 19th and 20th centuries, from composers as diverse as [[Hector Berlioz]], [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[Béla Bartók]], and [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]].<ref>''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,'' Oxford University Press.</ref>