Final answer:
Neoclassical composers predominantly favored homophonic textures in their music, seeking to achieve clarity of form and balance inspired by classical period ideals. They avoided the emotional excesses of Romantic music and the atonality of avant-garde composers, focusing more on harmony and thematic development.
Step-by-step explanation:
Neoclassical Composers and Musical Qualities
Neoclassical composers favored homophonic textures in their music. Neoclassicism in music is characterized by clarity of form and a return to the musical ideals of the classical era. Unlike the Romantic composers who pursued programmatic music and often emphasized emotional expression, neoclassical composers sought to revive the balanced forms and controlled expressions of the earlier classical composers like Haydn, Mozart, and particularly Beethoven.
The neoclassical approach was a response to the highly expressive and often complex textures of Romantic music, as well as to the atonal and twelve-tone compositions of avant-garde composers like Arnold Schoenberg. By contrast, neoclassical music emphasizes strong thematic development and often features clear polyphonic textures as a nod to the masters of the Baroque and Classical periods. It's an art form that is cerebral rather than sensual, prioritizing rationalism and traditional harmony over emotional volatility and exotic scales.
While clear polyphonic textures are also used within neoclassicism, the emphasis on rational harmonies and melody generally leads to a texture where one voice, usually the melody, is accompanied by chordal harmony rather than multiple independent melodic lines interweaving with each other as in complex polyphony.