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Finally, attention to structure as defined by melody wrought a revolution from polyphony, as the primary type of design, to monophony. Perhaps strictly this was hardly a revolution, since polyphony presupposed a melodic 'subject,' yet practically the shift of emphasis from a mesh of many voice-parts to the thought that at every point there should be a dominating melody, to which all else should contribute, was indescribably novel. Here lay the key to full lyric and dramatic expression, and until this key was in hand, entrance into the whole vast field of the artistic aria and of the lyric drama was impossible.
