The Polyphonic Era is a term used since the mid-19th century to designate an historical period in which harmony in music is subordinate to polyphony . It generally refers to the period from the 13th to the 16th century . Most notated music consisted of the simultaneous flow of several different melodies, all independent and equally important, or polyphony. Usually made of four or five different choral parts, the music was originally for unaccompanied voices and was used mostly in the mass and motet of church music and the madrigal in secular music.