What sort of things can I say when I'm asked to talk about the texture of a piece?

AQA suggest the following, and my explanations of these are in brackets:

-harmonic/homophonic/chordal (All the lines sound at the same time, but they might not be playing the same notes. Think of "Here Comes the Bride", the melody line is there, but it's accompanied by other parts in harmony.) 

-polyphonic/contrapuntal (Each melody line is its own part. It would sound fine on its own.)

-imitative, canonic, layered (The easiest way to explain this is to have you imagine singing "London's Burning". Each part exactly copies the others, they just start at different times. If what is copied is part of a phrase, not the full phrase, it's more likely to be described as imitative rather than canonic.) 

-antiphonal (Question and Answer texture. Think of Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"; there's the initial phrase "da, da da, da da da da da daaa" which is met with the response "da, da da, da da da da da daaaa" [I'd need to sing this to you to make sense of that!]. One phrase is met by a similar, but more final version of the phrase.)

-a cappella (Voices alone without accompaniment, like Pitch Perfect but it could also refer to ancient monks- it's a broad field!)

-monophonic/single melody line (Either only one line is sounding, or all parts are sounding the exact same notes- no octave changes allowed). 

-melody and accompaniment (There is one clear melody line and another part that supports it. Think of any of your graded music exams, I can guarantee that unless you play the piano, you will have been accompanied as you play the melody line.)

 -unison, octaves (This is the same as monophonic, but octave differences are allowed; so the parts could all be sounding the same melody, but some parts might be playing an octave apart from the others.)