Here is a brilliant illustration of how a musical texture is assembled. The screenshot above is from Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry Be Happy.” When you go to his website, there is a section called SING AND PLAY with Bobby. Drag the little colored boxes onto the white portion on the left to hear the layer. To get rid of it, just drag the white rectangle back to the colored box. Play with it, mix and match.
The sum of all these layers is called a musical texture. It is also orchestration, but for me, texture refers to our mind’s interpretation of the orchestration. The texture of this excerpt has a homogeneity because it all is his voice. He has an enormous vocal range, and each register has its own personality (aka tessitura).
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