Polyphonic music originated in Western Europe around the 9th century, and its development is roughly as follows: The style of composers’ works in the 20th century has undergone tremendous changes compared to the previous century, including tonality, mode and chord structure. The complexity has replaced the basic natural sound system techniques of the past. Since 1910, many composers have been keen to use all 12 tones of the chromatic scale completely freely. Some have tonal centers, such as P. Hindemith; some deny tonal centers, such as A. Schoenberg. Grid; some adopt a combination of bi-tonality and polytonality, such as D. Millaud. Bitonality or polytonality, due to the different tonality of several tunes, has a considerable degree of independence, thereby strengthening the counterpoint effect. The effect of atonal music depends mainly on the organization of the motive, which gives prominence to the melodic line and relegates harmony to the background. The modern term line counterpoint was originally used to describe early polyphonic music forms, but now it is often used to describe a structure that has nothing to do with harmony and is purely formed by the interweaving of melody lines. Compared with the 19th century, polyphonic music is dominant again in the 20th century, but not in the sense of Palestrina or Bach's era. In terms of writing techniques, the melody mostly adopts free and flexible development; the theme is often reflected. Or retrograde processing; when forming counterpoint, more complex rhythmic combinations are used, which is the main feature of modern polyphonic music.

Polyphony as a course includes counterpoint, canon, fugue, etc. Its writing methods can be divided into two categories: contrastive polyphony (see counterpoint) and imitative polyphony (see imitation). Music composed in the form of polyphonic music includes inventive pieces, cantatas, canons, fugues, etc.