musician

musicians (plural)
musitian (alternative obsolete)

Inherited from Middle English musician, musicien, from Old French musicien (“musician”), equivalent to music + -ian.

Jenny is a talented musician, playing the cello, saxophone, piano and guitar.

He joined Little Jewford and other musicians — all with outlandish stage names, like Wichita Culpepper and Sky Cap Adams — to form Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys in 1973.

2024 June 27, Clay Risen, “Kinky Friedman, 79, Dies; Musician and Humorist Slew Sacred Cows”, in The New York Times:

Mr. Smith, a flesh-and-blood musician, produced A.I.-generated music and played it billions of times using bots he had programmed, according to the indictment.

2024 May 9, Maia Coleman, “The Bands and the Fans Were Fake. The $10 Million Was Real.”, in The New York Times:

A composer, conductor, or performer of music; specifically, a person who sings and/or plays a musical instrument as a hobby, occupation, or profession.

эʼйӈэнэӈэткульын

ėʼjṇėnėṇėtkulʹyn


MC

en-noun

MC (countable and uncountable, plural MCs or MC's)

Three MC's and one DJ / We be getting down with no delay

1999, “Three MC’s and One DJ”, in Hello Nasty, performed by Beastie Boys:

male circumcision
male circumcision#English


conductor

conductors (plural)
conductour (alternative obsolete)

Borrowed from Middle French conductour, from Old French conduitor, from Latin conductor.

(music) A person who conducts an orchestra, choir or other music ensemble; a professional whose occupation is conducting.


whistler

From Middle English whisteler, whistlar, whystelare, from Old English hwistlere (“a player on a flute; a piper”), equivalent to whistle + -er.

inh

Any of several passerine birds of the genera Pachycephala and Coracornis, of Australasia and the western Pacific.


violin

→ Japanese: バイオリン (baiorin)

→ Korean: 바이올린 (baiollin)

From Italian violino (“little viola”), from viola + -ino (forming diminutives).

The violins are seated with sufficient elbow room.

She is first violin in the London Symphony Orchestra.

(music, metonymic) A violinist in an orchestra or group.


bass

bass ] (canonical)
basses (plural)
base (alternative dated)

A respelling of base under the influence of Italian basso (“low”).

SATB

initialism of soprano, alto, tenor, bass

The musician swung the bass over his head like an axe and smashed it into the amplifier, creating a discordant howl of noise.

(music) An instrument that plays in the bass range, in particular a double bass, bass guitar, electric bass or bass synthesiser.

The score had been written without the treble and bass, but it was easy to pick out which was which based on the location of the notes on the staff.

The clef sign that indicates that the pitch of the notes is below middle C; a bass clef.


bass

en-noun

bass (countable and uncountable, plural basses)

Fibers from other plants, especially palm trees

BASS, 1, a door mat

[1865, William Stott Banks, A List of Provincial Words in use at Wakefield in Yorkshire, Wakefield: J.R.Smith, page 6:

I set off half-heartedly, as best I could sheltering my spare clothes (which were in the straw fish-bass) under my coat. […] The rain made a channel from my trilby down my neck and one handle of the fish-bass gave way.

1982 [1980], J L Carr, A Month in the Country, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books/Harvester Press, →ISBN, page 2:

Anything made from such fibers, such as a hassock, basket or thick mat.


band

→ Cantonese: band

→ German: Band (colloquial)

→ Japanese: バンド (bando)

→ Korean: 밴드 (baendeu)

Derived from Middle English band, from Old French bande, from Old Occitan banda (“regiment of troops”), perhaps from Frankish *bend, from Proto-Germanic *bandiz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie; bond, band”). Compare German Bande (“band”).


instrumentalist

(philosophy) An adherent of instrumentalism.


group

groups (plural)
groop (alternative nonstandard)
groupe (alternative obsolete)

→ Gulf Arabic: قروب (grūp)

→ Japanese: グループ (gurūpu)

→ Korean: 그룹 (geurup)

→ Tongan: kulupu

From French groupe (“cluster, group”), from Italian gruppo, groppo (“a knot, heap, group, bag (of money)”), from Vulgar Latin *cruppo, Renaissance Latin grupus, from Frankish *krupp, from Proto-Germanic *kruppaz (“lump, round mass, body, crop”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewb- (“to crumple, bend, crawl”).
In the “group theory” sense, calqued from French groupe, a term coined by the young French mathematician Évariste Galois in 1830.
Cognate with German Kropf (“crop, craw, bunch”); Old English cropp, croppa (“cluster, bunch, sprout, flower, berry, ear of corn, crop”) (whence English crop); Dutch krop (“craw”), Icelandic kroppr (“hump, bunch”). Doublet of crop and croup.

Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.

2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30:

there is a group of houses behind the hill; he left town to join a Communist group

A group of people is/are gathering in front of the Parliament to demonstrate against the Prime Minister's proposals.

A number of things or persons being in some relation to one another.

groep

number of things or persons being in some relation to each other

Throughout this section, we shall assume the existence of finitely presented groups with unsolvable word problem.

1977, Roger C. Lyndon, Paul E. Schupp, Combinatorial Group Theory, Springer, page 192:

In this chapter we give some examples of Fuchsian groups. The most interesting and important ones are the so-called "arithmetic" Fuchsian groups, i.e., discrete subgroups of PSL(2,R) obtained by some "arithmetic" operations. One such construction we have already seen: if we choose all matrices of SL(2,R) with integer coefficients, then the corresponding elements of PSL(2,R) form the modular group PSL(2,Z).

1992, Svetlana Katok, Fuchsian Groups, University of Chicago Press, page 112:

2007, Zhong-Qi Ma, Group Theory for Physicists, World Scientific, page 277,
In Chap. 4 the fundamental concepts on Lie groups have been introduced through the SO(3) group and its covering group SU(2).

(group theory) A set with an associative binary operation, under which there exists an identity element, and such that each element has an inverse.

(chemistry) A column in the periodic table of chemical elements.

(music) A number of eighth, sixteenth, etc., notes joined at the stems; sometimes rather indefinitely applied to any ornament made up of a few short notes.


duo

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From French duo or Italian duo, from Latin duo (“two”), from Proto-Italic *duō, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁. Doublet of two, which was inherited via Proto-Germanic.

Any cocktail consisting of a spirit and a liqueur.


accompanist

First attested in 1833. From accompany + -ist.

(music) The performer in music who takes the accompanying part.

akkompagnatør

performer who takes the accompanying part


trumpeter

From trumpet + -er (occupational suffix) or + -er (agent noun suffix).


interpreter

interpreters (plural)
interpretour (alternative)
enterpretour (alternative)
enterpretor (alternative)

/ɪnˈtɝpɹɪɾɚ/

/ɪnˈtɝpɹɪtɚ/

/ɪnˈtɜːpɹɪtə/

From Middle English interpreter, interpretour, etc., from Old French interpreteur, interpreteeur, etc., from Late Latin interpretātōr, from classical Latin interpretātus (“explained, translated”) + -or (“-er: forming agent nouns”), from interpretārī (“to explain, to translate”), from interpres (“go-between, translator”) + -ārī (“to be ~ed”), q.v. In reference to divine emissaries, a calque of Mercury's Latin epithet interpres divum (“go-between of the gods”). In reference to the rhetorical device, a calque of Latin interpretatio. Equivalent to interpret + -er.
Displaced native Old English wealhstod.

A person or thing that interprets the meaning of something for another, particularly:

(obsolete) Synonym of translator, one who translates various forms of texts.

linguister

colonial contexts, particularly West & Central Africa

Programs written in BASIC are usually run through an interpreter rather than a compiler.

(computing) A program that converts commands into machine language in real time rather than compiling it in advance.

tolk

one who interprets a language — see also dragoman

... one of the foremost interpreters of Beethoven's piano works ...

(music, theater) A performer who presents a piece of art in a distinct style, particularly so as to make older works relevant to their audience.


songster

From Middle English songster, sangester, sangstere, from Old English sangestre (“a female singer; songstress”), equivalent to song + -ster. Cognate with Scots sangstar (“singer; songster”). Compare also West Frisian sjongster (“singer; female singer; vocalist”).

cog

A man who sings songs, especially as a profession; a male singer.

A member of a Salvation Army family, she had been a songster accompanying the band around the streets of Chelmsford where she lived with her parents.

2012, Kevin Turton, Northamptonshire Murders, page 13:

On a later occasion he returned to the theme of keeping the individuality of Salvation Army music, and resisting the temptation for songster brigades to imitate chapel and mission choirs.

2011, Gordon Cox, The Musical Salvationist, page 173:

An adult chorister in the Salvation Army.

Because the Jew was often compelled to sing and dance to a fixed Mah Yafit melody at the wild orgies of the paritzim (wealthy Polish landowners), many deliberately discontinued singing Mah Yafit, thus causing the text to be removed from numerous Siddurim and songsters in the early 1900s.

1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 234:


songstress

From songster + -ess. Compare West Frisian sjongeres (“songstress”), Dutch zangeres (“songstress”).

The songstress paused, and was answered by one or two deep and hollow groans, that seemed to proceed from the very agony of the mortal strife.

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

At every pause in the music she gracefully waved her flower-basket round, inviting the loiterers to buy; and many a sesterce was showered into the basket, either in compliment to the music or in compassion to the songstress—for she was blind.

1834, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter II, in The Last Days of Pompeii. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […]; successor to Henry Colburn, →OCLC:

Were I to reproduce the nine other paragraphs, it would be a very curious, instructive, and tedious specimen of literature; and, who knows? I might corrupt some immaculate soul, inspire some actor or actress, singer or songstress, with an itch for public self-laudation, a foible from which they are all at present so free. Witness the Era, the Hornet, and Figaro.

Sally Yeh is the winsome and amiable character known as Stool, who’s living next door to the ambitious and tetchy songstress Shu-Shu, who’s both commanding and funny as portrayed by Sylvia Chang.

2025 June 19, Glenn Kenny, “‘Shanghai Blues’ Review: Slapstick Fun in a 1984 Tsui Hark Picture”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:


vocalist

→ Japanese: ボーカリスト (bōkarisuto)

lead vocalist

amateur vocalist

talented vocalist


violinist

[…] on Sunday four more violinists, a second violist and a harpsichordist were added to give the ripieno sections of the fast movements a heftier punch than the smaller group delivered.

2009 January 20, Allan Kozinn, “Shafts of Sun in Winter From the Italian Baroque”, in The New York Times:

Founded in 1975 and led by the violinist Richard Tognetti since 1989, the orchestra looks youthful and hip onstage, its players clad in varying shades of black semiformality.

2009 May 5, Steve Smith, “A Group That Doesn’t Sit, Adding Bounce to Haydn”, in The New York Times:


pianist

From French pianiste, from Italian pianista. Analyzable as piano + -ist.

By the time she became the world's greatest pianist, she had already practised for thousands of hours on her prized piano.

Table IV shows that the pianists were significantly better on both motor and perceptual timing than the nonpianists.

1987, Gordon H Bower, The psychology of learning and motivation: advances in research and theory:

The pianist was Jason Moran, another Houstonian, for whom the past converges with the present: he sometimes likes to find an unobtrusive sequence inside an old standard and turn it into fresh headlines.

2010 April 19, Ben Ratliff, “A Mischievous Convergence of Past and Present Jazz”, in The New York Times:

(music) A person who plays the piano, particularly with skill or as part of an orchestra.


guitarist

kitarist

person playing or performing on the guitar


saxophonist

They enjoyed music from a live saxophonist during the journey before visiting Braintree Town Hall for refreshments and Christmas cake.

2021 December 29, “Network News: Music train for dementia sufferers”, in RAIL, number 947, page 19:

A person who owns, plays or practices with the saxophone.

սաքսոֆոնահար

person who plays or practices with the saxophone


countertenor

countertenors (plural)
counter-tenor (alternative)
counter tenor (alternative)

From Latin contrātenor. By surface analysis, counter- + tenor.

The term countertenor first appeared in England during the mid 17th century. However, the style of singing originated in Elizabethan cathedral choirs, eventually falling out of favour during the Romantic period.

2014 August 8, Rupert Christiansen, “The truth about falsettos [print version: 12 August 2014, p. R8]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review):

A male singing voice far higher than the typical male vocal range.


trio

PIE word
 *tréyes
1715-25; borrowing from Italian trio.

I love his music, but it is a bit disconcerting to realize that you could die in extreme old age and still only be familiar with a mere handful of the baryton trios.

2013, Simon Winder, Danubia, Picador, published 2014, page 281:

(music) A piece of music written for three musicians.

trio

a piece of music written for three musicians

Any cocktail made with a spirit, a liqueur, and a creamy ingredient.


boy band

boy bands (plural)
boyband (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-boy band.wav

(music) A pop group whose members are all (usually attractive) young men.

男子組合 /男子组合

pop group whose members are all young men


girl group

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-girl group.wav

A pop group made up of (usually attractive) young women.


pop group

Despite their artistic ambitions, they were never able to escape the label of a pop group.

A musical group specializing in pop music.


alto

Borrowed from Italian alto (“high”). Doublet of old.


soprano

en-noun

soprano (plural sopranos or soprani or sopranoes)

sopranos (plural)
soprani (plural)
sopranoes (plural)

Borrowed from Italian soprano, from Vulgar Latin *superānus, adjective from preposition Latin super (“above”). Doublet of sovereign, from the same Latin root via Old French.

boy soprano

soprano saxophone

I was only once faced with the task of auditioning a nimiety of sopranos.

2008, Denis Norden, chapter 8, in Chips from a Life, →ISBN:

A person or instrument that performs the soprano part.


contralto

contralto (plural contraltos or contralti)

/kɒnˈtɹɑːltəʊ/

Contraction of contratenor alto, from Latin contratenor altus.

Out in the yard a womanʼs hoarse contralto intoned a hymn.

1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 68:

(music) The lowest female voice or voice part, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. The terms contralto and alto refer to the same musical pitch range, but among singers, the term contralto is reserved for female singers; the equivalent male form is counter-tenor. Originally the contratenor altus was a high countermelody sung against the tenor or main melody.


cantor

Borrowed from Latin cantor, agent noun from perfect passive participle cantus, from verb canere (“to sing”) + agent suffix -or. Doublet of chanter.

(Judaism) A prayer leader in a Jewish service; a hazzan


singer

→ Japanese: シンガー (shingā)

Inherited from Middle English synger, syngere, singere, singare, equivalent to sing + -er. Cognate with Scots singar, Saterland Frisian Sjunger, West Frisian sjonger, German Low German Singer. Compare also Old English sangere, Dutch zanger, German Low German Sänger, German Sänger (“singer”), Danish sanger, Swedish sångare, Icelandic söngvari.

It's the singer, not the song.

A person who sings, often professionally.


quartet

quartets (plural)
quartette (alternative)

From French quartette, from Italian quartetto. Doublet of cuarteto and quartetto.

The string quartet played some chamber music.

A group of four people or things, particularly

(music) A group of four musicians who perform classical music together.

квартет

four musicians who perform a piece of music together

The barbershop quartet performed the composition a cappella.

(music) A group of four singers, usually males, who sings together in four-part harmony.


emcee

Pronunciation spelling of MC (“master of ceremonies”).

pronunciation spelling of

[…] mutating into all-star line-ups of emcees spitting hot bars over familiar beats, then to a single crew spitting bars over familiar beats, then eventually to a single crew (or artist) spitting bars over unfamiliar beats.

2021, Jehnie I. Burns, Mixtape Nostalgia: Culture, Memory, and Representation (page 138)

Alternative form of MC in its senses as
(music) A rapper.

Alternative form of MC in its senses as
A rapper.


quartette

Another musical memory of the stationmaster was his Joint Railway Male Voice Quartette, comprising three local stationmasters and a booking clerk, whose items were very acceptable at social events. One thing that amused me was that the quartette included a Mr. Dove and a Mr. Crowe; and it was Mr. Dove, and not the latter, who took the bass parts.

1952 March, R. S. McNaught, “Joint Line Memories”, in Railway Magazine, page 195:


quintette

Alternative spelling of quintet A composition for five voices or instruments; also, the set of five persons who sing or play five-part music.


piper

From Middle English piper, pipere; equivalent to pipe + -er. Piecewise doublet of fifer.

A common European gurnard (Trigla lyra), having a large head, with prominent nasal projection, and with large, sharp, opercular spines.


chorus

en-noun

chorus (plural choruses or (dated) chorusses or (rare) chori)

choruses (plural)
chorusses (dated plural)
chori (plural rare)

The noun is borrowed from Medieval Latin chorus (“church choir”), Latin chorus (“group of dancers and singers; dance”), from Ancient Greek χορός (khorós, “group of dancers and singers, choir, chorus; dance accompanied by song; round dance”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“to encircle, enclose”) or *ǵʰoros. Doublet of choir, chore, and hora.
The plural form chori is from Latin chorī, from Ancient Greek χοροί (khoroí).
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

The main part of a pop song played after the introduction.

refreno

A group of organ pipes or organ stops intended to be played simultaneously; a compound stop; also, the sound made by such pipes or stops.

(often attributively) A feature or setting in electronic music that makes one instrument sound like many.


chorus

en-verb

chorus (third-person singular simple present choruses, present participle chorusing or chorussing, simple past and past participle chorused or chorussed)

choruses (present singular third-person)
chorusing (participle present)
chorussing (participle present)
chorused (participle past)
chorused (past)
chorussed (participle past)
chorussed (past)

Then she shouted: "Viva our Lady of Grace," and the crowd chorused.

1947 October 20, “Miracle Man”, in Time:

To echo in unison another person's words.


hype man

Hammer and the Posse, a group consisting of four dancers, two DJs and one hype man (“He’s the guy who pumps the crowd up,” Hammer explained), hope to win over rap fans.

1988 April 3, Lee Hildebrand, “M.C. Hammer Nails Down A Royal Reputation”, in San Francisco Chronicle, page 42:

Puff is up on stage with Biggie rappin’ almost as much as Biggie. He’s not just the hype man on stage goin’ Yea Yea, he’s rappin’ whole verses.

1995 August 30, Richard Payton, “Re: Suge Vs Puffy”, in rec.music.hip-hop (Usenet):

Hype men, for those of you unfamiliar with the lingo, are the fellas you see at rap shows who stand next to MCs and bellow certain words along with the rap to add emphasis.

2004 May 26, Jordan Harper, “I Love a Parade: Radar Station hitches a ride with great big rappers”, in Riverfront Times, St. Louis, Mo.:

Mills appeared first, performing with a hype man (someone who exorts the crowd and sings along with key lines) and a disk jockey.

2004 August 9, The New Yorker, page 100:

A hip-hop performer responsible for backup rapping and singing and increasing an audience’s excitement with call-and-response chants.


bard

From French barde. English since the late 15th century.


first violinist

en-noun

first violinist (plural first violinists)

A violinist who is assigned to play melody (usually more technically difficult music).


second violin

Holonyms: string section < orchestra

The second violin part in an orchestral score, generally a harmony to the first violin's melody and generally less technically demanding; the violin that supplies this part, or (metonymic) the violinist who plays it.


first fiddle

O'Neil had been first fiddle in the band for years.


fiddler

From Middle English fithelere, from Old English fiþelere, from *fiþele. By surface analysis, fiddle + -er.
(capstan-house): So called because the fiddle would sometimes be played to cheer the sailors working there.

A large species of cicada, Macrotristria angularis, of eastern Australia; cherry nose.


virtuoso

en-adj

virtuoso (comparative more virtuoso, superlative most virtuoso)

more virtuoso (comparative)
most virtuoso (superlative)

/ˌvɜ.tʃuˈəʊ.səʊ/

Borrowed from Italian virtuoso, from Late Latin virtuōsus (“virtuous”), from Latin virtus (“excellence”). Doublet of virtuous.

Instead, he was able to sit alongside De Bruyne on the City bench admiring a virtuoso performance from Foden, pulling every string in the number 10 role and illustrating again why he is so important to Guardiola, and why he simply must start for Gareth Southgate's England at Euro 2024.

2024 April 3, Phil McNulty, “Man City 4-1 Aston Villa: Phil Foden produces 'masterclass' to show worth again”, in BBC:


fifer

From fife + -er. Piecewise doublet of piper.


player

From Middle English pleyer, playere, from Old English pleġere (“player, athlete, wrestler”), from Proto-West Germanic *plegārī. Equivalent to play + -er.

inh

(music) One who plays on a musical instrument.

One that plays.
One who plays on a musical instrument.

But up to this time the application of the player mechanism had been confined to reed instruments, the piano manufacturers having successfully resisted the introduction of the player mechanism into the piano; but, in the meantime, the manufacturers of players had grown strong and the manufacturers were beginning to properly interpret the handwriting on the wall

1915, John McTammany, The Technical History of the Player:

A Technical Treatise on Piano Player Mechanism" contains detailed description of the various types of interior and exterior players, embracing manual, pneumatic, automatic, mechanical and electric

1909, William Braid White, Regulation and Repair of Piano and Player Mechanism, ..., page 179:

Electric players used either a four-lobe rotary pump belt-driven by an electric motor or a self-contained electric motor and ...

1970, Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume, Player piano: the history of the mechanical piano and how to repair it:

(historical) A mechanism that actuates a player piano or other automatic musical instrument.

koneisto

mechanism that actuates a player piano or similar

(computing) A software application that plays audio or video media, such as a media player.

Thunder only happens when it’s rainin’ / Players only love you when they’re playin’ / Say women, they will come and they will go / When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know

1977, Stevie Nicks, “Dreams”, in Rumours, performed by Fleetwood Mac, Warner Bros.:

(informal) A person who plays the field rather than having a long-term sexual relationship.


rapper

He rose from the ghetto to become a successful rapper.

(music) A performer of rap music, or someone who raps in any form of music.

A flexible strip of metal, 45-60cm long, with handles at each end, used for Northumbrian rapper sword dancing.

A mechanical, or later electric, signalling device formerly used in the mines of north-eastern England to signal to the engineman that the cages carrying men or coals up and down the shaft were ready to be raised or lowered.


first violin

(music) The lead or primary violin role in an orchestra or other ensemble, or in a musical composition, that typically contains the melody and is often more technically demanding than the second violin role. The first violin role is played by a first violinist, typically the best violinist in the orchestra.


busker

A person who solicits donations while entertaining the public, often by playing a musical instrument, on a street or in another public area such as a park or marketplace.


falsetto

en-noun

falsetto (countable and uncountable, plural falsettos)

Borrowed from Italian falsetto, from falso (“false”).

(music, countable) A person who sings in falsetto.


symphony

symphony (countable and uncountable, plural symphonies)

→ Burmese: ဆင်ဖိုနီ (hcanghpuini)

→ Japanese: シンフォニー (shinfonī)

→ Khmer: ស៊ីមហ្វូនី (siimfounii)

→ Malay: simfoni

→ Punjabi: ਸਿੰਫਨੀ (simphani)

→ Thai: ซิมโฟนี (sim-foo-nîi)

→ Welsh: symffoni

From Middle English symphonye, from Old French simphonie, from Latin symphonia, from Ancient Greek συμφωνία (sumphōnía). By surface analysis, sym- + -phony. Doublet of sinfonia, symphonia, tsampouna, and zampogna.

doublet

(music) An instrumental introduction or termination to a vocal composition.


orchestra

en-noun

orchestra (plural orchestras or (rare) orchestrae)

orchestras (plural)
orchestrae (plural rare)

→ Albanian: orkestër

→ Arabic: أوركسترا (ʔorkestrā)

→ Japanese: オーケストラ (ōkesutora)

→ Korean: 오케스트라 (okeseuteura)

→ Thai: ออร์เคสตรา (ɔɔ-kées-dtrâa)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-orchestra.wav

Borrowed from Latin orchēstra, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ὀρχήστρα (orkhḗstra) (a derivative of ὀρχέομαι (orkhéomai, “to dance”)).

The orchestra plays music for the dancers to dance to in the 19th century-styled dance hall.

It requires quite an orchestra to get a train to start; the guard blows his horn, the stationmaster rings a large bell, and the engine whistles.

1941 February, Voyageur, “The Railways of Greece”, in Railway Magazine, page 67:

Musicians play their instruments. I play the orchestra.

2015, Aaron Sorkin, Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs, spoken by Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender):

(music) A large group of musicians who play together on various instruments, usually including some from strings, woodwind, brass and/or percussion; the instruments played by such a group.


minstrel

The noun is derived from Middle English minstral, menestrel (“actor; juggler; mime; musician; singer; storyteller; (military) soldier playing a horn or trumpet as a signal”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman menestrel [and other forms] and Old French menestrel (“artisan; servant; itinerant musician or poet; worker”) [and other forms] (modern French ménestrel (“minstrel”)), from Late Latin ministerialis (“official or retainer owing household and military service to a feudal lord, a ministerial or ministerialis”), from Latin ministerium (“employment, ministration; office of a minister, ministry; action or attendance by an inferior person such as a slave, service”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives). Ministerium is derived from minister (“accomplice; agent; aide; attendant; servant; waiter”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“little, small”) + *-teros (contrastive or oppositional suffix forming adjectives)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). Doublet of ministerial and ministerialis.
The verb is derived from the noun.

nb...

menestral, menstrel, menstrelle, menstral, menstrale, menstrall, menstralle, menstrel, menstrell, menstrelle, minestral, minestrale, ministral, ministrele, minsterel, minstrale, minstrall, minstralle, minstrel, minstrelle, munstral, munstrel, munstrell, mynestral, mynistralle, mynsterel, mynstraell, mynstral, mynstrale, mynstrall, mynstralle, mynstrel, mynstrell, mynstrelle, mynystral, mynystrel, mynystrell

doublet

I forgette to tel you what a stirre he keepes against dumbe ministers, and neuer writes nor talkes of them, but hee calleth them minstrels, […]

1589?, Cutbert Curry-knave [pseudonym; Thomas Nashe], An Almond for a Parrat, or Cutbert Curry-knaues Almes. […], [London: […] Eliot’s Court Press], →OCLC; republished as An Almond for a Parrot; being a Reply to Martin Mar-prelate. […] (Puritan Discipline Tracts), London: John Petheram, […], 1846, →OCLC, page 26:

Should a Minſtrel ſing to a ſweet tune with her voice, and play to another with her hand that is harſh and diſpleaſing; ſuch muſick would more grate the judicious ear, than if ſhe had ſung to what ſhe plaid? Thus to ſing to truth with our judgement, and play wickedneſs with our heart and hand in our life, is more abhorring to God and all good men, than where the judgement is erroneous, as well as the life ungodly.

1669, William Gurnall, “A Short Point from the Connexion of This Piece of Armour with the First; Righteousness with Truth”, in The Christian in Compleat Armour. Or, A Treatise, of the Saints VVar against the Devil; […], 5th edition, London: […] Ralph Smith, […], →OCLC, page 77, column 1:

[page xv] The Minstrels ſeem to have been the genuine ſucceſſors of the ancient Bards, who united the arts of Poetry and Muſic, and ſung verſes to the harp, of their own compoſing. […] [page xvi] [T]he Minſtrels continued a diſtinct order of men, and got their livelihood by ſinging verſes to the harp, at the houſes of the great.

1765, Thomas Percy, compiler, “An Essay on the Ancient English Minstrels”, in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: […], volume I, London: […] J[ames] Dodsley […], →OCLC, pages xv–xvi:

But louder still the clamour grew, / And louder still the minstrels blew, / When, from beneath the greenwood tree, / Rode forth Lord Howard's chivalry; […]

1805, Walter Scott, “Canto Fourth”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza XVI, page 107:

The Minstrel-Boy to the war is gone, / In the ranks of death you'll find him; / His father's sword he has girded on, / And his wild harp slung behind him.

1813, Thomas Moore (lyricist), John Stevenson (composer), “The Minstrel-Boy”, in A Selection of Irish Melodies. […], number 5, London: J. Power, […], →OCLC, verse I, page 30:

A wandering minstrel I— / A thing of shreds and patches, / Of ballads, songs and snatches, / And dreamy lullaby!

1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC, Act I, page 4:

The hero of the verses, Adam Glen, who composed the air to which they are sung, was a well-known wandering minstrel, long a favourite in every farmer's ha', village, and fair, in the west of Angus, and in eastern Forfarshire.

1901, “Pawkie Adam Glen”, in Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland: With Many Old and Familiar Melodies […] (Second Series), Paisley, Renfrewshire, London: Alexander Gardner […], →OCLC, page 172:

(historical) Originally, an entertainer employed to juggle, play music, sing, tell stories, etc.; a buffoon, a fool, a jester; later, a medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment.

менестрэ́ль

One flame-winged brought a white-winged harp-player / Even where my lady and I lay all alone; / Saying: "Behold, this minstrel is unknown; / Bid him depart, for I am minstrel here: / Only my strains are to Love's dear ones dear."

1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “The House of Life. Sonnet IX. Passion and Worship.”, in Ballads and Sonnets, London: Ellis and White, […], →OCLC, part I (Youth and Change), page 171:

(chiefly poetic) Any lyric poet, musician, or singer.

After tea it was the entertainment. Songs and conjuring and a play called "Box and Cox," very amusing, and a lot of throwing things about in it—bacon and chops and things—and nigger minstrels. We clapped till our hands were sore.

1904, Edith Nesbit, The New Treasure Seekers, Chapter 2:

(US, historical) One of a troupe of entertainers, often a white person who wore black makeup (blackface), to present a so-called minstrel show, being a variety show of banjo music, dance, and song (now sometimes regarded as racist).

These include dexamphetamine ( Dexedrine 'dexies ' or 'oranges'), methylamphetamine (Methedrine—'speed'), dexamphetamine combined with amylobarbitone (Drinamyl—'purple hearts' or 'blues'), amphetamine combined with dexamphetamine (Anorexine 12.5 mg - black and white minstrels' and Anorexine 20 mg—'black bombs'), phemetrazine (Preludin), diethylpropion (Tenuate), and methylphenidate (Ritalin).

Lacking food, Jimmy reverts to his “minstrels'” — speed — and in a paranoia of drugs and near-starvation the pair fall out.

2008, Julian Evans, Semi-Invisible Man: The Life of Norman Lewis, page 510:

Roger had always been ... libidinous, aren't we all? ... but his powerful body began to writhe with the unearthly flexions of the Kundalini spirit, and after swallowing a couple of nigger minstrels Lesley had given him he spent most of one Friday morning house meeting sitting cross-legged, clutching his crotch and chanting, My dick is God, God is my dick ... over and over again, until Zack had though he would stick my fingers in his eyes, my thumb in his third one, and tear his bloody head off! – Skinning up and smoking a little shit – this Zack hadn't minded, and with two or three residents, in the right surroundings and carefully guided, he believed LSD could have therapeutic benefits.

Harry tipped the contents of Billy's bag on to his desk: boosters, purple hearts, black bombers, French blues, nigger minstrels spilled out, popping across the desk like jumping beans.

2018, J. L. Walker, Jump and Dance, page 151:

(by extension, slang) An amphetamine tablet, typically black, or black and white, in colour.

Green’s Dictionary of Slang
w:Green's Dictionary of Slang


marching band

No, republicans did not celebrate; they took their placards and their yellow T-shirts to Trafalgar Square, where their voices could (almost) be heard against a backdrop of marching bands and pealing bells.

2023 May 6, Rachel Cooke, “It was ludicrous but also magnificent: the coronation stirred every emotion”, in The Guardian:

A group of instrumental musicians who generally perform outdoors, and who often incorporate movement, usually some type of marching, with their musical performance.


quintet

quintets (plural)
quintette (alternative)

From French quintette, from Italian quintetto, diminutive of quinto (“fifth”), itself from Latin quintus, related to quīnque (“five”).

(music) A group of five musicians, fit to play such a piece of music together


sopranista

An adult male singer who sings music written in soprano range without the use of falsetto.


shredder

A machine that tears up objects into smaller pieces, especially a paper shredder, garbage shredder or gardening or farming shredder.


DJ

Last night a DJ saved my life / Last night a DJ saved my life from a broken heart

1982, Michael Cleveland, “Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life”, performed by Indeep:

Burn down the disco / Hang the blessed DJ / Because the music that they constantly play / It says nothing to me about my life

1986, Morrissey & Johnny Marr, “Panic”, in The World Won’t Listen, performed by The Smiths:

Three MC's and one DJ / We be getting down with no delay

1999, “Three MC’s and One DJ”, in Hello Nasty, performed by Beastie Boys:


organist

From Middle French organiste, from Medieval Latin organista. By surface analysis, organ + -ist.


jitterbug

desctree

Japanese: ジルバ (jiruba)
Chinese: 吉魯巴／吉鲁巴 (jílǔbā)

/ˈd͡ʒɪtə(ɹ)bʌɡ/

From jitter + bug, after the 1934 Cab Calloway song Jitter Bug.

Synonym of diddley bow (“type of stringed instrument”).


sextet

From French sextette, from Italian sestetto.

(music) A composition for six voices or instruments.

секстет

A group of six singers or instrumentalists.


bower

bowers (plural)
bowre (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English bour, from Old English būr, from Proto-West Germanic *būr, from Proto-Germanic *būrą (“room, abode”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Búur (“storage room, utility room; cage”), German Bauer (“birdcage”), Old Norse búr (“cage”) (Danish bur, Norwegian Bokmål bur, Swedish bur).

cog

(ornithology) A large structure made of grass, twigs, etc., and decorated with bright objects, used by male bower birds during courtship displays.

беседка

(ornithology) A large structure made of grass and bright objects


bower

From German Bauer. A doublet of etymology 2 and of the German-origin surname Bauer.

Yet the cards they were stocked / In a way that I grieve, / And my feelings were shocked / At the state of Nye's sleeve, / Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers, / And the same with intent to deceive.

1870, Bret Harte, Plain Language from Truthful James:

Either of the two highest trumps in the card games euchre and five hundred (where the joker is omitted).


bower

One who plays any of several bow instruments, such as the musical bow or diddley bow.


songwriter

We are now collaborating with a famous songwriter.

(music) A musician who composes songs; especially writing the song's lyrics and/or creating a melody or a tune for the song.

liedjieskrywer

someone who writes the lyrics and usually the music of songs


spanker

beyond the broad white wing of the spanker sail

1839, Charlotte Elizabeth, Glimpses of the Past:

(nautical) A fore-and-aft gaff-rigged sail on the aft-most mast of a square-rigged vessel.

(dated, music) A musician who plays his instrument well.

Egad, Jack, I am glad to see you, for I want a few spankers.

1772, The Town and Country Magazine, volume 4, page 344:


flautist

flautists (plural)
flutist (alternative)

The flautist Bezaly adds to the impressive list of flute concertos dedicated to her with the composer Pulkkis’s contribution to the genre.

2007 July 28, Rick Jones, “Sharon Bezaly / Uljas Pulkkis: Enchanted Garden”, in Times of London:


flutist

Probably from Middle French flutiste, equivalent to flute + -ist. Replaced Middle English flouter (“flute player”) from Old French flauteur.


cellist

→? Greek: τσελίστας (tselístas)

And the cello concerto was strikingly different on Sunday: at Weill, the ensemble included two violinists and one violist, cellist, bassist and lutenist, but on Sunday four more violinists, a second violist and a harpsichordist were added to give the ripieno sections of the fast movements a heftier punch than the smaller group delivered.

2009 January 20, Allan Kozinn, “Shafts of Sun in Winter From the Italian Baroque”, in The New York Times:

Though relative newcomers to classical music, they seemed closely attuned to the eight cellists onstage, raising their heads abruptly as the piece’s languid strains gave way to rapid-fire bow strokes.

2021 April 28, Lisa Abend, “When the Cellos Play, the Cows Come Home”, in The New York Times:


punk rocker

(informal) A person who plays, or is a fan of, punk rock.


gamelan

en-noun

gamelan (countable and uncountable, plural gamelans)

/ˈɡæ.məˌlæn/

Borrowed from Javanese ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀ (gamelan), from Old Javanese gamĕlan.

(music) A genre of music of Indonesian origin typically featuring metallophones, xylophones, drums, gongs and a bamboo flute (called a suling).


theorbist

theorbists (plural)
theorboist (alternative)


klezmer

klezmer (countable and uncountable, plural klezmers or klezmorim)

Borrowed from Yiddish קלעזמער (klezmer), from Hebrew כְּלֵי זֶמֶר (kléy zémer, “musical instruments”).

der

כְּלֵי זֶמֶר

The entire Muzikant family of klezmorim, enough for half a symphony orchestra.

2007, Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, 4th Estate (2010), page 213:


deejay

Pronunciation spelling of the abbreviation DJ.

Sasa, a deejay who owned a mobile disco, took him on for lifting and handling.

2014, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Kintu, Oneworld Publications (2018), page 256:


crooner

My mom likes to listen to old crooners like Frank Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey.

“But, you know, crooners gonna croon.”

2021 September 16, Sarah Naftalis, “The Casino” (8:14 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 3, episode 1, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou):

“Curious.” “Ah, don't waste those big Vulcan brain juices, T'Lyn. He's just a novelty beach crooner.” “Krog is my favorite musician.” “Oh. Sorry. I-I've heard he's very, uh, tropical.” “He is a master of the Vibe Tubes.”

2024 October 31, Stephanie Amante-Ritter, “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel” (8:44 from the start), in Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 5, episode 3, spoken by Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome):

One who croons; a singer, usually male, especially of popular music.


steel pan orchestra

en-noun

steel pan orchestra (plural steel pan orchestras)

A band made up of people who play the steel pan.


rocker

From Middle English rokker, rockere, rokkere, equivalent to rock + -er.


disc jockey

disc jockeys (plural)
discjockey (alternative)
disk jockey (alternative)
diskjockey (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-disc jockey.wav

Disc refers to the flat, circular shape of the traditional medium for recorded music. Jockey refers to a diminutive of jock, the Northern English or Scots colloquial equivalent of the first name John, which is also used generically for “boy, or fellow” (compare Jack, Dick), at least since 1529. So, disc jockey / DJ etymologically refers to a young person playing (discs holding) music.
Coined by journalist Walter Winchell in 1935 to describe Martin Block. Appeared in print in Variety in 1941.
Previously also called record man.

coin

A person who plays, and sometimes mixes, recorded music at nightclubs, dances, parties, or some other social event; and/or as a backup musician for spoken word, or hip hop performers.

platejoggie

person who plays recorded music in nightclubs etc.


basso profondo

From Italian basso profondo (“deep bass”).

I am normally a low baritone, almost basso profundo [sic], but under certain kinds of provocations my voice disappears into the higher registers, perhaps into the bat range.

1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 40:

(music) A singer with a bass voice of the lowest range.


troubadour

From Old Occitan trobar (“to find”) via Old French troubadour. Piecewise doublet of trouveur.

Sitting in the courtroom ..., their laptops and tablets propped before them, power cables snaking through convoluted adapters, the Twitterati have sight of witnesses at all times – the troubadours, or perhaps the tricoteuses, of the digital revolution.

2014 April 24, Alan Cowell, “At Pistorius trial, Twitterati have their day in court”, in The New York Times:

“"Not a human, not yet a vampire," to paraphrase one of your contemporary musical troubadours.”

2023 August 17, Jeremy Levick & Rajat Suresh, “Hybrid Creatures” (0:18 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 7, spoken by Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry):

An itinerant composer and performer of songs in medieval Europe; a jongleur or travelling minstrel.


caller

From Middle English callar, equivalent to call + -er.

(dance) The person who directs dancers in certain dances, such as American line dances and square dances.


yodeler

yodelers (plural)
yodeller (alternative)

One who sings so that their voice fluctuates rapidly between their normal chest voice and a falsetto, one who yodels.


drummer

From drum + -er (occupational suffix) or + -er (relational noun suffix).

march to the beat of a different drummer

Kate is the lead guitarist, Luna is the drummer, and Izzy is the bass guitarist.


hepcat

hepcats (plural)
hep cat (alternative)
hep-cat (alternative)

From hep + cat, from hep (“sophisticated, aware”). Compare cat (“jazz enthusiast”). Attested in the sense of “sophisticated person” from the 1920s.

(informal, music) A jazz performer, especially one from the 1940s and 1950s.

Everybody is asking, Why is Harry such a solid sender? Well, hear my version. As you are seated or are trying to stay seated you feel that sensation that hits every hep-cat. First your feet get the sensation, then it runs up your leg and you start to keep time to the music with your feet and you feel like getting up and jiving to that fine music that comes out of the magic trumpet of Harry James.

1943 May 9, Orlando Suero, “Jive, as a Hep-Cat Hears it”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Leaders of the eight or nine name dance bands, who can throw a cordon of jitterbugging youths around any big city's theatre on a half hour's notice, are not complaining aloud these days, but privately they admit that “government competition” is having a lot to do with their ability to get it hot or sweet to suit the mood of the hepcats.

1943 June 20, John Desmond, “Making Catnip for the Hepcats”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(informal, dated, now often humorous) A person associated with the jazz subculture of the 1940s and 1950s.

Finally the door opens and out comes Alex Aums in a sharp blue suit, like a hepcat, cigarette in mouth, squinting at us narrow-eyed, “O there you are,” to me, “how’ve you been? Wont^([sic]) you come in?” indicating the office.

1965, Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels, page 177:

Today he’s just a sleazy oldster, but in the beginning he was a faux philosopher, preaching a gospel cribbed from bohemia and various Freudian enemies of repression, in which the blessed pursuit of promiscuity was the human birthright. But really a male birthright, for a certain kind of man: The sort of hep cat who loved inviting the ladies back to his pad “for a quiet discussion on Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex.”

2016 August 14, Ross Douthat, “A Playboy for President”, in The New York Times:

(informal, dated) A sophisticated person, one who is stylish.


chorister

/ˈkwɪɹɪstəɹ/

/ˈkwɒɹɪstəɹ/

/ˈkwæɹɪstəɹ/

Derived from late Middle English queristre, from an Anglo-Norman variant of Old French cueriste, from cuer (see Middle French cuer). Equivalent to choir + -ster.

None of the new choristers can sing in tune but they will learn soon enough.

These be my querysters
To helpe me to synge,
My hawkes to mattens rynge!

c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 65, lines 122–124:

Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

And a Salisbury Cathedral chorister complained that after working late into Christmas Day, an absence of trains meant he and his brother would not be able to get home for "our proper Christmas" until the 27th.

2023 December 27, David Turner, “Silent lines...”, in RAIL, number 999, page 30:


philharmonic

From French philharmonique. By surface analysis, phil- + harmonic.


bassist

And the cello concerto was strikingly different on Sunday: at Weill, the ensemble included two violinists and one violist, cellist, bassist and lutenist, but on Sunday four more violinists, a second violist and a harpsichordist were added to give the ripieno sections of the fast movements a heftier punch than the smaller group delivered.

By and large back then, bassists weren’t bandleaders; Mingus was an anomaly.

2024 May 1, Marcus J. Moore, “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Jazz Bass”, in The New York Times:

A musician who plays a bass instrument, especially the bass guitar.


glam rocker

Lady Gaga has announced two UK dates – when she will be supported by glam rockers the Darkness – as part of her world tour.

2012 April 10, “Lady Gaga announces two UK dates as part of Born This Way Ball tour”, in the Guardian:


lutenist

lutenists (plural)
lutanist (alternative)

Borrowed from Medieval Latin lutanista, from lutana (“lute”), from Middle French lut.

A group of composers, variously known as the madrigalists, the lutenists, or the virginalists (depending on the medium for which they were writing), produced vast quantities of attractive music, mostly for amateur consumption.

2003, Edward L. Kottick, A History of the Harpsichord, page 200:

2009 January 20, Allan Kozinn, “Shafts of Sun in Winter From the Italian Baroque”, in The New York Times:


swinger

Shorten went to Blacktown to try and summon the spirit of Gough Whitlam to persuade the swingers it was time for a change of government. Shorten said vote one Labor, for the future.

2019 May 16, Katharine Murphy, “Campaign catchup 2019: close race sparks pre-election jitters”, in The Guardian:


swinger

/ˈswɪnd͡ʒəɹ/


keyboardist

The absence of keyboardist Sadie Shaw (who split for the Bay Area garage rawkers the Husbands) allows the group more space to indulge in dark wordless experiments; […]

2004, CMJ New Music Monthly, number 129, page 59:


precentor

precentors (plural)
præcentor (alternative)
precentour (alternative)

From French précenteur, from Latin praecentor, from praecentus (“sung before”), from praecinō (“I sing before”).

The person who leads songs or prayers in a cathedral, church, monastery, or synagogue and generally facilitates worship.


screamer

His screamer into the right field bleachers in the sixth with Scarborough and Viau on base put Hickory out in front 9 to 8 and the lead held for the rest of the game.

2006, R. G. Utley, Tim Peeler, Aaron Peeler, Outlaw Ballplayers: interviews and profiles from the Independent Carolina Baseball League:


backing band

(British) A group of musicians who accompany an artist at a live performance or on a recording. This can either be an established group, or else an ad hoc group assembled for the purpose.


rock band

(music) A group of musicians who play rock music.


songer

Perhaps dialectally inherited from Middle English songere, from Old English sangere, from Proto-Germanic *sangwārijaz (“singer”), whence German Sänger, Dutch zanger etc. Equivalent to song + -er. Alternatively newly formed from these components.

If a man who plays at ping pong is a "ponger," Then a singer of a "singsong" is a "songer"; If the "songer" is a singer. Then the "ponger" is a "pinger," And the man who says it's wrong must be a "wronger."

Will he sing it, I wonder?"
"Chantoozie, I ain't much of a songer any more. I just done that because I was told it was a colorful trait."

1976, Katie Lee, Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle:

No sound of songers chirping or jumbies, foraging for nuts.

2012, Susan St. Francis, A Tale of the Bug Fairies:

(rare, nonstandard, sometimes humorous) A singer (of songs); a songster.


harper

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-harper.wav

From Middle English harpere, from Old English hearpere (“harpist, harper”), equivalent to harp + -er. Cognate with Middle Low German harpære (“harper”), German Harfer and Harfner (“harper”).

inh

The Harpe. […]
 A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong
 Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge

1568, William Cornishe [i.e., William Cornysh], “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe otherwise Called Nyshwhete Chapelman with the Most Famose and Noble Kyng Henry the VII. His Reygne the XIX. Yere the Moneth of July. A Treatise betwene Trouth, and Information.”, in John Skelton, edited by J[ohn] S[tow], Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, Imprinted at London: In Fletestreate, neare vnto St Dunstan-in-the-West by Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: Printed for C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, 1736, →OCLC, page 290:

A harpist, especially one who plays a traditional harp without pedals.


harpist

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-harpist.wav

Someone who plays a harp, especially a pedal harp.


qawwal

2000: Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham, et al, eds, World Music: The Rough Guide, volume two of the new edition
What does It mean to be a qawwal?

A person who performs qawwali music or song.


vaudevillian

Harris was born in Richmond, Virginia, on February 9, 1947. His grandparents were vaudevillians, his father was a professional guitarist, and his mother was a leader of the church choir.

1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 322:

(US) Someone who performs in vaudeville.


violist

But those who attack violists shouldn't throw resin. Once the ergonomic viola catches on what instrument will be immune?

1997 August 9, Edward Rothstein, “A Comeback for the Viola. No Joking.”, in The New York Times:

[…] on Sunday four more violinists, a second violist and a harpsichordist were added to give the ripieno sections of the fast movements a heftier punch than the smaller group delivered.


harpsichordist

Some harpsichordists might have dismissed these works as not “authentic” Handel, Mr. Cooper said, though he surmised that the arrangements could have been prepared by Handel’s students.

2021 March 19, Anthony Tommasini, “Kenneth Cooper, Harpsichordist With Improviser’s Gift, Dies at 79”, in The New York Times:


choirboy

choirboys (plural)
choir boy (alternative)

Kordic is no choirboy. The tribunal has accused him of crimes against humanity for helping to orchestrate a massive campaign of persecution against Muslims in the Lasva valley in central Bosnia.

2004, Pierre Hazan, Justice in a Time of War, page 108:

puhdas pulmunen (compare puhdas kuin pulmunen)


harmonicist

harmonicists (plural)
harmonicaist (alternative dated)


backup vocalist

en-noun

backup vocalist (plural backup vocalists)

(music) A member of a group of singers who provide backup vocals to a song

háttérénekes

a member of a group of singers who provide backup vocals to a song


lead vocalist

(music) A singer (or one of a small group of singers) who provides lead vocals to a song


shouter

(music) A singer with an expressive, loud vocal style seen as reminiscent of shouting.

It certainly had merit as a punkish shouter with its machine-gun-spatter underbeat.

2013, James Arena, First Ladies of Disco, page 53:

(music) A song performed in this manner.


bandmaster

(music) The conductor of a musical ensemble, especially a brass or military band.


bandsman

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(mining, historical) A labourer (loader) working with a band of men.


caroler

carolers (plural)
caroller (alternative)

It's Christmas at ground zero / There's music in the air / The sleigh bells are ringing / And the carolers are singing / While the air raid sirens blare

1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!:


carol singer

A person, often one of a group, who sings carols, especially at Christmas.


singer-songwriter

singer-songwriters (plural)
singer/songwriter (alternative)

From dvandva compound of singer + songwriter.

A musician who both sings and composes, especially when recording or performing their own compositions.


toner

toner (countable and uncountable, plural toners)

→ Catalan: tòner

→ Czech: toner

→ French: toner

→ German: Toner

→ Portuguese: toner, tóner, tôner

→ Spanish: tóner

Powder used in laser printers and photocopiers to form the text and images on the printed paper.

то́нер

powder used in laser printers and photocopiers


girl band

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A pop group or rock band made up solely of young women.


frontman

Mr. Mostaque, 39, is an odd frontman for the generative A.I. industry.

2022 October 21, Kevin Roose, “A Coming-Out Party for Generative A.I., Silicon Valley’s New Craze”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

en:person acting as public face of covert group

Alternative spelling of front man: a person acting as the public face of an organization.

front man

“Baby, I was a loser / Several years on the dole / An Englishman with a very high voice / Doing rock ’n’ roll,” sings falsetto-happy frontman Justin Hawkins at the start of “Every Inch Of You,” Hot Cakes’ opener.

2012 August 21, Jason Heller, “The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)”, in The Onion AV Club:

In the rock world, the “Bono talk” is a moment in a young band’s career when the U2 frontman sits up-and-comers down to impart brotherly wisdom.

2025 June 2, Lizzy Goodman, “Shirley Manson, the Unexpected Godmother of Rock”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Alternative spelling of front man: the lead male singer in a band.


clarinetist

clarinetists (plural)
clarinettist (alternative)

“Benny Goodman was the King of Swing,” he used to tell Benny. “Best jazz clarinetist in the world.”

2021, Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness, Canongate Books (2022), page 56:


bassoonist

From bassoon + -ist (“a person who uses something”).

af

Actually there was recently a talented young female bassoonist who gave up a promising career on that sturdy instrument, not to do something more feminine but to take up bullfighting. This is Patricia Hayes of San Angelo, Texas, who has had spectacular success in the arenas of Mexico and Portugal. Unfortunately she is not America's only matadoress.

1956 December 24, Cornelia Otis Skinner, “Women are misguided: They are still waging a shrill, ridiculous war over the dead issue of feminism”, in Life, volume 41, number 26, page 75:

Using the “endangered species” model employed by the World Wide Fund for Nature, campaigners are highlighting the scarcity of bassoonists and paving the way for the promotion of some other orchestral instruments that are under threat, such as the oboe, French horn, viola, trombone and double bass.

2015 August 1, Vanessa Thorpe, “Musicians launch campaign to save the bassoon as shortage threatens orchestra”, in The Guardian:

A person who plays the bassoon, a musical instrument in the woodwind family.


concertmaster

From concert + master, as a calque of German Konzertmeister.

(music, US) The first violin in a symphony orchestra, which normally plays violin solos.

канцэртма́йстар

the first violin in a symphony orchestra


punker

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1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
Four big hippie bikers were out there drinking & eyeing up the punkers.

And famous punker Joe Strummer figures prominently in Mercury's life.

1988 July 29, Diana Spinrad, “Burnin' With the 8 Ball”, in Chicago Reader:

She was a crack-up, she thought she was such a punker. She always had some punk group on her headset.

2006, John De Herrera, The Kingsnake in the Sun, page 72:

(music, dated slang) Synonym of punk (“a musician known for playing punk rock or a fan of the genre”).


wind band

A musical group consisting solely of woodwind and brass instruments.


percussionist

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

A trained musician who plays percussion instruments, as opposed to a drummer who lacks formal training.


succentor

From Latin succinĕre, from sub (“under”) and canĕre (“to sing”).

A person who sings the responses to a precentor in a cathedral.


quirister

quiristers (plural)
quirrister (alternative obsolete)

Upon the highest spray of every mounting pole,
Those Quirristers are pearcht with many a speckled breast.

1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 13 p. 214:

'You are a tweake, aren't you, Nantwich?' said Morgan, a fat, ugly, Welsh quirister, reviled by the others but being allowed, too, into the menacing conpiracy against me.

1988, Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 110:


sideman

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(music) A soloist playing with a band or group of which he is not a regular member.


multi-instrumentalist

multi-instrumentalists (plural)
multinstrumentalist (alternative)

A musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency.

მულტიინსტრუმენტალისტი

one who plays more than one musical instruments


folksinger

folksingers (plural)
folk singer (alternative)


violer

(archaic) A musician who plays the viol.


griot

Griots may be the chroniclers of an important family or of a group of people — like the Bambara hunters’ griot — or itinerant poets and musicians who extol the praises of the person who has hired them for a special festivity.

1995, Françoise Pfaff, “Sembene, A Griot of Modern Times”, in Michael T. Martin, editor, Cinemas of the Black Diaspora: Diversity, Dependence, and Oppositionality, page 118:

When ethnographers are asked to read their works to gatherings of Songhay, elders, they, too, are considered griots.
Ethnographers, however, usually consider themselves scholars, not griots. They prepare themselves for their life's work in a manner altogether different from that of the griot.

1997, Paul Stoller, Sensuous Scholarship, page 15:

I decided that it would be better for a griot to take us back into the legend, rather than me, a contemporary man. Griots have deeply marked me. I already narrated my first film, Ta Dona, in the same way that a griot would have.

2003, Melissa Thackway, “Interview I: Adama Drabo, director”, in Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan Francophone African Film, page 183:

A West African storyteller who passes on oral traditions; a wandering musician and poet.

bàrɔ

West African storyteller, musician and poet


school band

A musical ensemble associated with a school, not necessarily a musical school; e.g. marching band.

skolekorps

a musical ensemble associated with a school


carillonneur

I had never played bells. Very few people have that clanging opportunity. But I could play a piano. So I said, “Shake hands with your new carillonneur.”


tap-dancer

(dance) Someone who performs a tap dance.


rock group

A group of musicians who regularly perform rock music together.

مَجْمُوعَة رُوك

musical group specializing in rock music


piano player

piano players (plural)
pianoplayer (alternative)

One who plays the piano (to make music); a pianist.


string band

(music) A music group consisting solely of stringed instruments.


rockstar

rockstars (plural)
rock star (alternative)

A member of a rock band, or a solo artist in the genre, especially one with celebrity status.


brass band

(music) A group of musicians who play brass instruments (sometimes accompanied by percussion).


tromboner

(nonstandard) A person who plays a trombone.


gleeman

From Middle English gleman, gleoman, from Old English glēomann, glīġman, corresponding to glee (“music; minstrelsy; entertainment”) + man. Cognate with Scots gle-man, gleman (“gleeman, minstrel”).

The ancient Celts carefully distinguished the poet, who was originally a priest and judge as well and whose person was sacrosanct, from the mere gleeman.

1948 (revised 1952), Robert Graves, The White Goddess, Faber & Faber 1999, p. 17

(historical) A professional singer, bard, or other entertainer.


divo

A male diva; a man with the traits characteristic of a typical diva.


tribute band

(music) A group of musicians and singers which exists solely to play the music of a well-known band that has disbanded or no longer tours.


strummer

One who strums a stringed musical instrument.


cornetist

The cornetist’s sombre repertoire had made her spirits drop.

2022, Kate Atkinson, Shrines of Gaiety, Doubleday, page 85:


ukulelist

ukulelists (plural)
ukuleleist (alternative)


bell ringer

bell ringers (plural)
bellringer (alternative)
bell-ringer (alternative)

Inherited from Middle English belringer, belle ringer, bellryngar, belryngere, equivalent to bell + ringer.

A person, especially one of a group, who rings bells.


chorus line

A line of performers in a revue or other show, dancing in unison.

芭蕾舞團 /芭蕾舞团

a line of performers in a revue or other show, dancing in unison


gitarrist

what the fuck do i care about some heavy metal poser jackass hardrock gitarrist?

1996 April 2, Johann Jacoby, “Abo Joke and Nigger Joke”, in alt.skinheads (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-12:

GUITAR SPEAK ('No Speak' Label, Cat No EIRSA 1025)
An instrumental sampler only with gitarrists. Tony Iommi appears with one track called 'Miranha' which means 'Goddess Of Death'.

1998 May 11, jourg...@hotmail.com, “The Black Sabbath FAQ v1.00 [large] pt 4”, in alt.music.black-sabbath (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-12:

Hallo Gitarrists.

1998 December 31, Jerry Manley, “Guitar-Pro”, in alt.guitar.tab (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-12:

Anybody will tell you that Mr. Green has influnced^([sic]) many many great current gitarrists including Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck ,Mick taylor Steve Morse and the late great Mike Bloomfield , ammong^([sic]) others .

1999 July 4, victor m mora, “Fleetwood Mac,”, in alt.music.deep-purple (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-12:

do country gitarrists use wah-wah pedals. I saw just a few weeks ago Rock-gitarrists using all the same wah-wah pedal 'cry baby'. Is it the best? And what's about pedal-steel, is it done with the volume pedal.

2000 May 3, Roland Mueller VS/ESH3 #49458, “Do country gitarrists use wah-wah”, in alt.guitar.effects (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-12:

Yes, the solo shows what a fine rock-gitarrist Ritchie could be :-(

2001 August 14, Karl-Heinz Baier, “Fires at Midnight solo”, in alt.music.deep-purple (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-12:

Would you post the lyrics to that song? I also wrote a song about unicycling... well there are two at the moment. Punk-Songs (Hmm, Unipunk :D). So, when we make it into a studio I will post them here, too. First I guess we have some accoustic^([sic]) version ready. I recently finished with the second song and our gitarrist is on the rythm^([sic]) (I'm the drummer, chaos and that haha *g*).

2006 October 2, gossi, “A Unicycle Song..LISTEN TO IT!!!”, in rec.sport.unicycling (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-12:

(non-native speakers' English) Misspelling of guitarist.


bandmate

Someone with whom one shares membership in a band.

Bandmitglied

someone with whom one shares membership in a band


session band

She performed on 12 albums as a soul singer in a session band before she was able to begin her solo career.

A group of musicians who play for the recording of an album but are not considered part of the recording artist's normal band.


yodeller

(British) Alternative spelling of yodeler.


one-man band

one-man bands (plural)
one man band (alternative)

A musician who plays several musical instruments at once.


supergroup

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In 1974, David Geffen, Asylum's main man, applied his negotiating abilities to creating a country-rock supergroup along the lines of Crosby, Stills & Nash.

1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 365:

A supergroup is a rock and pop music term for a group whose members are already successful and well known, either as solo performers or part of other groups. It was first applied in 1968, to Cream, whose three members had already achieved prominence, […]

[2017, Norman Abjorensen, Historical Dictionary of Popular Music, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 487:

(music) A group of musicians, each a star of another band (especially in rock music).

supergroep

group of star musicians, from other bands


recordist

Audio Devices, Inc., announce two prize contests, one for Home Recordists, and the other for Church Recordists.

1954, Kansas Music Review - Volumes 16-18, page 23:

A Concert for Three Recordists by Matthew Locke was the program piece.

1960, The American Recorder - Volumes 1-2, page 19:

The more our young recordists can be encouraged to play among themselves in groups with and without piano accompaniment, in their own homes, the better.

1961, Watkins Shaw, Music in the Secondary School, page 71:

For that matter Somary doesn't lack name performers: John Wilbraham is the trumpet soloist and one of the recordists is David Munrow.

1981, Arthur Cohn, Recorded Classical Music:


chorine

Their theatrical performances consisted of buxom chorines, weepy soubrettes, vaudeville acts, and a piano-pounding "professor".

1964, John Hendrix, If I Can Do It Horseback: A Cow-Country Sketchbook, page 40:

A female chorus line dancer; a chorus girl.


bandleader

bandleaders (plural)
band leader (alternative)

Before Brooklyn became the World Historical Hipster Hub, there were the Hepsters of Harlem. And well before there was an Urban Dictionary for every last nuance of non-standard English, the bandleader and amateur linguist Cab Calloway cataloged some of the unique speech of the 1930s and ’40s in his Hepster’s Dictionary.

2010 July 9, J. David Goodman, “Of Local History and Hepcats”, in New York Times City Room:

By and large back then, bassists weren’t bandleaders; Mingus was an anomaly.

2024 May 1, Marcus J. Moore, “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Jazz Bass”, in The New York Times:

A musician who conducts or leads a band of musicians.


recording artist

en-noun

recording artist (plural recording artists)

A person who records music for distribution to the public.


ensemblist

A musician specializing in ensemble performances.


punkster

From punk + -ster, with connections to youngster.

Someone, especially a young person, associated with the punk subculture or a performer of punk-influenced music.


bebopper

For its French readers, Paris' Le Jazz Hot review was trying to explain the artistry of U.S. bebopper Charlie ("Yard-bird") Parker.

1949 May 23, “Do You Get It?”, in Time, retrieved 2014-02-11:

A bebopper whose spare, rhythmic style was shaped by his love of Thelonious Monk, he performed at countless clubs, bars and cafes in North Beach and other San Francisco neighborhoods.

2008 September 7, Jesse Hamlin, “Influential jazz pianist BJ Papa dies in S.F.”, in San Francisco Chronicle, retrieved 2008-10-02:

A musician or aficionado of the bebop genre.


jazzman

→ French: jazzman

→ Spanish: jazzman

I was cut out to be a jazzman the way the righteous are chosen for the church.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Don’t Cry, Ma”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 3:


multireedist

(music) Someone who can perform on multiple reed instruments


fusioneer

They like Sting as much as flamenco, and though the famous Gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt is a strong influence, so is fusioneer Al DiMeola […]

1989, “Gipsy Kings Stay True to Musical Roots”, in Atlanta Journal-Constitution, archived from the original on 2016-03-05:

(music) A performer or composer of fusion music


bluesman

But creepily enough, from '30s delta bluesman Robert Johnson's beating-until-satisfied "Me and Devil Blues" to Jackie Gleason's 1954 "One Of These Days — Pow!" to Dion's face-slapping 1962 "Little Diane" to Lou Reed exclaiming "you better hit her" in "There She Goes Again" to the Intruders chasing girls and beating 'em up in their 1968 beach-soul hit "Cowboys to Girls" to the "wifebeating has been around for 10,000 years" headline fronting Guns N' Roses Lies, those in favor seem more prevalent.

1997, Chuck Eddy, The Accidental Evolution of Rock'n'roll, page 22:


hornist

Someone who plays the horn (any of several kinds of musical instruments).


beatboxer

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-beatboxer.wav

(music) A performer who imitates the sound of musical instruments, especially percussion, with his or her voice


melodist

Debussy was the last melodist.

1929, Arthur Lourié, “An Inquiry into Melody”, in Modern Music, volume VII, number 1, page 10:

At the same time Mr. Elling has proved his finesse as a Hartman-like melodist, on multiple albums and many more stages.

2009 January 24, Nate Chinen, “Playfully Laying Claim to Songs of Two Jazz Greats”, in New York Times:


chamber orchestra

chamber orchestra (plural chamber orchestras)

An orchestra of modest size, to play chamber music, yet larger than the various chamber ensembles named after their number of instruments (from duo to nonet).


hitmaker

But those who stayed saw a strong set from the hitmaker Akon, who did “I Tried” with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.

2007 June 5, Kelefa Sanneh, “In Search of New York at a Hip-Hop Summit”, in New York Times:

(music) A musician who frequently produces hits; a star


pop musician

A person who composes, plays, or sings pop music.


tunesmith

Indications that the top tunesmiths are rewriting their version of the music publishers pot o' gold role in the tune biz can be found in reports here that Edwin H. (Buddy) Morris's relations with film cleffers Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen will be changed shortly from a "pub affiliate" structure to a "writer participation" basis.


lyrist

On “Kabibi” he connects breezily with the Tanzanian singer and thumb pianist Anania Ngoliga; on “Pakugyenda Balebauo,” also in Tanzania, he trades phrases with a lyrist named Warema Masiaga Cha Cha. The title track, which Mr. Fleck wrote in his own style, features the Malian ngoni players Bassekou Kouyate and Haruna Samake.

2009 March 2, The New York Times, “New CDs”, in New York Times:


trancester

(music, informal, rare) A musician who composes trance music.


flugelhornist

Radulph could not help but notice how the breasts of a lady flugelhornist trembled whenever she blew into her instrument.

1993, Rikki Ducornet, The Jade Cabinet, Dalkey Archive Press, page 109:

Shank returned in 1974 in the company of the LA Four, a Latin-influenced, cool-bop ensemble that featured Almeida and the great double bassist Ray Brown - sometimes extending this successful group's style into broader recording projects, including the excellent trumpeter and flugelhornist Bobby Shew.

2009 April 6, John Fordham, “Bud Shank”, in The Guardian:


spasm band

Late 19th- and early 20th-century New Orleans slang.

A musical band that plays instruments made from items not originally intended for music.


jazzbo

"Men come in and have no hesitancy about buying jazzbo neckties, "snazzy" collars, passianate^([sic – meaning passionate?]) hats or thunderous hosiery, but they lower their voices and cast their eyes from side to side to avoid detection when they say they want to purchase a two-ply undergarment," said one local gents furnishing merchant. "One would think they were giving an order to their pet bootlegger," he added.

1922 November 12, “Using wool clothes before cold comes”, in The Duluth Sunday News Tribune, volume 54, number 183, Duluth, Minn.: News Tribune Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 7, column 2:

And he slowed down the car for all of us to turn and look at the old jazzbo moaning along.

1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 1, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC, part 2:


jazzer

(colloquial, rare) Something with energy or pizzazz.


ragtimer

A musician who plays or composes ragtime music.


calypsonian

The fourth and newest volume (subtitled “African Dreams and the Piccadilly High Life”) is scattered with calypsonians like Lord Kitchener, Young Growler and Young Tiger, and high-life bands like the African Messengers.

2007 January 14, Ben Ratliff, “If You’re Going to London, Nashville or San Francisco”, in New York Times:


gambist

(music) Someone who plays the viola da gamba


kobzar

Borrowed from Ukrainian кобзар (kobzar).

An itinerant Ukrainian bard, often blind, who played the kobza


shoegazer

A musician who performs in the shoegaze style.


string orchestra

string orchestra (plural string orchestras)

string orchestras (plural)
string band (alternative)
string ensemble (alternative)

A music group consisting solely of stringed instruments.


string ensemble

string ensemble (plural string ensembles)

string ensembles (plural)
string orchestra (alternative)
string band (alternative)

jousiyhtye

A music group consisting solely of stringed instruments


philharmonic orchestra

philharmonic orchestra (plural philharmonic orchestras)

(music) A large group of musicians who play together on various instruments, usually including some from strings, woodwind, brass and/or percussion; the instruments played by such a group.


session musician

session musician (plural session musicians)

(music) A professional musician employed by other musicians or singers, either to play live or to make recordings.


chamber ensemble

chamber ensemble (plural chamber ensembles)

A musical ensemble of modest size, to play chamber music; can be more specifically named after its number (from duo to nonet) and/or type(s) (e.g. wood, brass, strings) of instruments.

kamerorkest

a musical ensemble of modest size, to play chamber music


gigster

(dated) A horse that pulls a gig (a two-wheeled carriage).


soulster

Both the linguist and the soulster recognized that language was an indispensable vehicle for the transmission of social mores.

1992, William L. Van Deburg, New Day in Babylon: the Black Power Movement And American Culture, →ISBN, page 219:

Meanwhile, at Rockefeller's, local rhythm-and-blues soulster Aubrey Dunham celebrates the release of his debut CD, Now I'm Singing the Blues.

1994 June 2, Brad Tyer, “Young, Gifted and Dead”, in HoustonPress:

After a brief respite from the music biz, the blue-eyed soulster is back with a brand new band […]

1995 September 29, Steve Kiviat, “Billy Price”, in Washington City Paper:

Corinne Bailey Rae. The Brit soulster has been dubbed the new Norah Jones, Macy Gray and Billie Holiday, but she's equally comfortable with Van Morrison ballads and Stevie Wonder's epic groove.

2006 December 6, Jed Gottlieb, “If the Grammys REALLY rewarded music's best . . . [abstract]”, in Boston Herald, archived from the original on 2013-06-30:


big band

big band (countable and uncountable, plural big bands)

(countable) A large dance or jazz band of 10 to 30 musicians usually featuring improvised solos by lead players, but otherwise playing orchestrated music.


vibist

(US, slang) A vibraphone player; someone that plays the vibraphone.


bassooner

(rare, dated, now chiefly humorous) Synonym of bassoonist.


acoustic guitarist

acoustic guitarist (plural acoustic guitarists)

someone who plays, or performs on, the acoustic guitar


bass guitarist

Someone who plays, or performs on, the bass guitar.


electric guitarist

electric guitarist (plural electric guitarists)

Someone who plays, or performs on, the electric guitar.

電吉他手 /电吉他手

someone who plays or performs on the electric guitar


progger

But the 90s being the decade of guilty pleasures, it's not uncommon these days to encounter ghosts of proggers past in the least likely places.

1997 June 27, John Corbett, “Broken Wire”, in Chicago Reader:


fadista

[…]in recent years pomo fadistas have mixed it with everything from pop to chamber music.

2000 July 14, Peter Margasak, “Misia”, in Chicago Reader:


folk singer

Alternative spelling of folksinger, someone who sings folk music.


dhaki

A traditional drummer who plays the dhak.


jazzperson

jazzperson (plural jazzpersons or jazzpeople)

jazzpersons (plural)
jazzpeople (plural)


mastersinger

A German lyric poet of the late Middle Ages.


bandoneonist

The first public concert is a performance by the Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo, Pablo Cohen and the bandoneonist Daniel Binelli on Wednesday evening.

2009 July 3, “Classical Music/Opera Listings”, in New York Times:


vuvuzelist

This is the distinguishing feature of the accomplished vuvuzelist. The vuvuzela blower lives by one golden rule: never stop blowing.

2009 June 11, “Our Bafana lads are full of tricks”, in The Star:

Not having been able to test it in more extreme conditions, we're not sure how well it would cope in, say, a stadium full of vuvuzelists - but it should hopefully lead to a good deal less shouting into the mobile on the train.

2010 June 18, Tom Phillips, “Orange unveils HD Voice, promising better call quality”, in Metro:

Demand from would-be vuvuzelists out there in Couch Potato Land is now outstripping supply, according to analysts of the short-life-cycle consumer products industry.

2010 June 18, Jonathan Guthrie, “Horn of Plenty is set to run dry”, in Financial Times, archived from the original on 2010-06-21:

Someone who blows a vuvuzela, a type of traditional South African horn.


jug band

Not only do they sing but they broadcast tunes from their "jug band," consisting of a gallon jug, as washboard and a skillet, a fiddle and a guitar.

1933 March 18, “The Southern Singers”, in The Afro-American, page 9:

A jug band, for those who haven't had the pleasure, is a band composed of unusual instruments which plays old timey jazz, country blues and folk music. The instruments in the Kweskin band, which are typical, include guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, jug, washtub bass, washboard, kazoo, and penny whistle.

1968, "Jug Band: Washboard Virtuosos," Evening Independent (Florida, USA), 14 March, p. 5D (retrieved 23 Aug. 2010)

"We present to you, the jug band!" We pulled out straw hats, banjos, jugs, horrible buck-toothed dentures, and commenced to pickin' and grinnin'.

2004, Adam Copeland, Adam Copeland on Edge, →ISBN:

(music, especially US) A group of rustic musicians, specializing in bluegrass or folk music, whose instruments include empty jugs, bottles, and similar containers of various sizes which produce musical sounds when the player blows across the openings at the tops of their necks.


noisemonger

Tomorrow’s bill has the most potential, with the veteran Japanese noisemongers Merzbow and Keiji Haino, as well as Demons, Religious Knives, Tom Recchion and Oblivia.

2007 May 18, The New York Times, “Pop and Rock Listings”, in New York Times:

(music, slang) A musician who produces noisy music.


synthesist

By taking widely disparate streams that haven't been formally in contact with each other, you become a synthesist and create new forms.

2006, Peter Lavezzoli, The dawn of Indian music in the West: Bhairavi, page 163:


jazz band

jazz bands (plural)
jazzband (alternative)

(Northern England) A children's marching band, often using kazoos.


reedman

In Chicago he'll hook up with reedman Douglas Ewart, bassist Yosef ben Israel, and drummer Hamid Drake, and you can bet it won't be boring.

1989 July 7, Neil Tesser, “Dennis Gonzalez Quartet”, in Chicago Reader:


organ grinder

organ grinders (plural)
organ-grinder (alternative)

/ˈɔːɡən ˌɡɹaɪndə/

/ˈɔɹɡən ˌɡɹaɪndəɹ/

From the repetitive grinding involved in playing a barrel organ. In figurative senses, from the common 19th-century practice of training monkeys to dance to an organ grinder's music in order to perform on the street and solicit donations and spare change.

I want to speak to the organ grinder, not the monkey.

(figurative) The person who is in charge, rather than a lackey or representative; the person truly responsible for another's actions.


charanga

charanga (countable and uncountable, plural charangas)

(countable) A traditional ensemble of Cuban dance music


ukuleleist

(And also, depending on the song, a trumpeter or a ukuleleist.)

2007 September 26, Kelefa Sanneh, “Before Erasing Borders You First Traverse Them”, in New York Times:


uilleann piper

Partial calque of Irish píobairí uilleann, or from uilleann pipes.

partial calque

Associated with The Long Note, he became its producer in 1978, in this series devoting time to documentary features, such as that on nineteenth-century uilleann piper and composer, Johnny Patterson.

1999, Fintan Vallely, The companion to Irish traditional music, page 38:

A twentieth-century master uilleann piper and mentor of many of today's finest pipers.

2001, June Skinner Sawyers, Celtic music: a complete guide, page 106:

He went on to become one of Ireland's foremost uilleann pipers [...]

2004, Claire McKenna, A Complete Guide to Learning the Irish Tin Whistle, page 41:

Uilleann bagpipes in Ireland differ from Scottish pipes in that the uilleann piper uses bellows under the arm to keep the bag full rather than blowing into the bag.

2008, Jo Sprague, Douglas Stuart, David Bodary, The Speaker's Handbook, page 157:


fuguist

(archaic) A musician who composes or performs fugues.


harpress

the soft sigh of the evening breeze in the rustling leaves of an aspen which overhung the seat of the fair harpress

1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:


hautboyist

hautboyists (plural)
hautboist (alternative)


crowder

crowders (plural)
crowther (alternative)

From Middle English crowdere; equivalent to crowd + -er.

Certainly, I must confess my own barbarousness, I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet; and yet it is sung but by some blind crowder […]

a. 1587 (date written), Phillip Sidney [i.e., Philip Sidney], An Apologie for Poetrie. […], London: […] [James Roberts] for Henry Olney, […], published 1595, →OCLC; republished as Edward Arber, editor, An Apologie for Poetrie (English Reprints), London: [Alexander Murray & Son], 1 April 1868, →OCLC:

One who plays on a crwth, a string instrument of Welsh origin; a fiddler.


ripienist

(music) A musician in the ripieno portion of an orchestra, especially as opposed to a soloist or concertino section.


sightsman

[…] indeed the lessons are evidently the production of a man who either never knew, or has forgotten, the elementary steps and helps necessary to make the future sightsman.

1842, The Musical World, volume 17, page 268:


aulete

From the Ancient Greek αὐλητής (aulētḗs), from αὐλέω (auléō, “I play the flute”), from αὐλός (aulós, “flute”).


support act

An entertainer or musician, or group thereof, that performs before the main event.


drumslade

From Middle Dutch trommelslach (“drumbeat”), from trommel (“drum”) + slach (“beat”) (modern Dutch slag).


choruser

From chorus (verb) + -er (agent noun suffix) or chorus (noun) + -er (occupational suffix).

suf

Someone who choruses, or sings in a chorus.


cyclic chorus

(historical) The chorus that performed the songs and dances of the dithyrambic odes at Athens, dancing round the altar of Bacchus in a circle.


street musician

en-noun

street musician (plural street musicians)

A musician who performs in a public place, often for money.


chorus girl

chorus girls (plural)
chorus-girl (alternative)
chorusgirl (alternative)


milonguero

Someone who performs milonga music, especially as a singer.


popular beat combo

popular beat combo (plural popular beat combos)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-popular beat combo.wav

From popular + beat + combo (“small musical group”).

compound

I thought it was a bit odd that the world's most popular beat combo should choose a golf tournament at Waldviertel for their reunion concert.

1999 June 12, Lawrence Donegan, Maybe It Should Have Been a Three Iron: My Year as Caddie for the World's 438th Best Golfer, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 199:

An early indication of crabbitness can be identified in teenage years by an inability to move either hips or shoulders no matter what popular beat combo are playing.

2006 October 5, John K. V. Eunson, Crabbit Old Buggers!, Black & White Publishing, →ISBN:

When I was younger, I was quite an adherent of the popular beat combo known as The Moody Blues.

2020 April 10, Brian Taylor, “Coronavirus: 'A question of balance' over lockdown exit”, in BBC News:

(British, music, humorous or ironic) A pop group.


pipe band

A musical band featuring bagpipes with musicians (pipers) dressed as kilted Scotsmen.


foo-foo band

We sighted the Jennie Harkness, obviously American, at daylight right ahead in the S.E. trades; at noon we were alongside her, and our Foo-Foo band played "Yankee-Doodle" as we passed her.

1921, Basil Lubbock, The Colonial Clippers, pages 158–159:

(nautical) An impromptu musical band on late 19th-century sailing vessels, made up of members of the ship's crew.


cover band

(music) A band that plays mostly or exclusively cover songs.


xylorimbist

As a xylorimbist you put new pep into any party — "make" the school orchestra — maybe even pay your way through college.

She did not belong either to that gentler but more rhapsodic band who seek to extract strange worshipful music from the male, the xylorimbists or tympanists or flute players.

1999, Howard Jacobson, Peeping Tom, page 207:


noisenik

Bjork's musical dalliance with German punk noisenik Alec Empire has long been a point of contention for fans, many of whom resent the way he generally suffocates his source material with a giant cloud of distortion.

2003, Mark Pytlik, Bjork: Wow and Flutter:

(informal) A musician who produces harsh, discordant music.


hurdy-gurdyist

hurdy-gurdyists (plural)
hurdy-gurdist (alternative)

viellist

in the context of French people or French music


lirnyk

Borrowed from Ukrainian лірник (lirnyk).

(historical) An itinerant Ukrainian musician who performed religious, historical and epic songs to the accompaniment of a lira, the Ukrainian version of the hurdy-gurdy.


ashugh

ashughs (plural)
ashough (alternative)
ashik (alternative)
ashiq (alternative)

Ultimately from Arabic عَاشِق (ʕāšiq). The forms ashugh, ashough are borrowed from Armenian աշուղ (ašuġ).

A mystic bard, balladeer, or troubadour in the South Caucasus, Iran or Turkey who accompanied their songs with a long-necked lute (saz).


twangster

The brooding, black-clad singer bridged a stark divide that emerged in the recording industry in the 1950s, as post-Elvis pop singers diverged into two camps and audiences aligned themselves with either the sideburned rebels of rock 'n' roll or the cowboy-hatted twangsters of country music.

2012, Christoper Zara, chapter 1, in Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, part 1, page 28:

(music, informal) A musician who plays a twangy instrument.


gigger

Rick accepted and joined the Eccentrics, but left in 1965 to form his own group of giggers, the DeViles.

1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 236:


jam band

(music) A type of band that plays any of several styles of country-influenced folk-rock and is associated with a particular subculture known for following said bands to shows, trading recordings of them and keeping their fandom alive.


routiner

Around the turn of the century, however, "routiner" or "head" music and "ear" musicians began to appear at parades. This was music more exclusively rooted in black traditions, played by men who often could not read music but who instead improvised.

1999, Reid MITCHELL, ALL ON A MARDI GRAS DAY, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 153:

Tom Albert, present during this interview, stated that Vincent was at first a routiner (i.e., playing by rote or ear) [...]

2005, Lawrence Gushee, Pioneers of Jazz: The Story of the Creole Band, Oxford University Press, USA, →ISBN:

It seemed to the uptown routiners that aurality had its own set of advantages, and in the absence of strong evidence to the contrary it is hard to argue against them.

2006, Thomas Brothers, Louis Armstrong's New Orleans, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 236:

The rougher bands, like Kid Ory's or Frankie Dusen's Eagle Band, thrived; they were the “routiners,” the improvisers who worked from their ear rather than reading music.

2014, Dennis McNally, On Highway 61: Music, Race, and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom, Counterpoint, →ISBN, page 141:

(jazz) A jazz musician who plays by ear (i.e. not using sheet music, but rather following along with the band and memorizing music when needed).


iron band

en:musical band that uses pieces of metal as musical instruments

(music, Antigua and Barbuda) A kind of traditional musical group in the folk culture of Antigua and Barbuda, characterized by the use of pieces of metal as musical instruments.


melodicist

(music) A musician who performs the melody, as opposed to one who plays the rhythm.


zinkist

(music) A person who plays the zink (cornett).


baritone hornist

en-noun

baritone hornist (plural baritone hornists)


hautboist

hautboists (plural)
hautboyist (alternative)


acoustic bassist

acoustic bassist (plural acoustic bassists)

acoustic bass guitar
acoustic bass guitar

Someone who plays the acoustic bass guitar.


archlutist

The remaining musicians were grouped in the following fashion : two archlutists, eight violinists, two contrabassists, one harpist.

1970, Gordana Lazarevich, The Role of the Neapolitan Intermezzo in the Evolution of Eighteenth-century Musical Style: Literary, Symphonic and Dramatic Aspects, 1685-1735:

MARION VERBRUGGEN AND JAKOB LINDBERG — The recorder player and the archlutist / Baroque guitarist perform sonatas, suites, divisions, and variations by Jakob van[…]

The 'Prince of Venosa' referred to in the letter to Albani is the famous archlutist and madrigalist Carlo Gesualdo, and 'Stella' is Gesualdo's protégé, Scipione Stella, who […]

2002, Richard E. Spear, From Caravaggio to Artemisia: Essays on Painting in Seventeenth-century Italy and France:


balalaikist

(music) Someone who plays the balalaika.


bull fiddler

A double bassist; someone who plays the bull fiddle (double bass)


bass violist

bass violists (plural)
bass-violist (alternative)

(music) Someone who plays the bass viol (double bass).


bass violinist

A double bassist; someone who plays the bass violin (double bass).


chitarronist

(music) Someone who plays the chitarrone.


washtub bassist

washtub bassist (plural washtub bassists)


upright bassist

upright bassist (plural upright bassists)

A double bassist; someone who plays the upright bass (double bass).


electric bassist

electric bassist (plural electric bassists)

Someone who plays the electric bass guitar.


stand-up bassist

stand-up bassist (plural stand-up bassists)

Someone who plays the stand-up bass (double bass).


string bassist

A double bassist; someone who plays the string bass (double bass).


tea chest bassist

tea chest bassist (plural tea chest bassists)


doghouse bassist

doghouse bassist (plural doghouse bassists)

A double bassist; someone who plays the doghouse bass (double bass).


double bassist

double bassists (plural)
double-bassist (alternative)


English hornist

English hornist (plural English hornists)

Someone who plays the English horn (cor anglais).


trumpetist

[…] without ever spoiling the high-range adjustment of his lips by descending into the lower registers of principal trumpetists […]

1948, Curt Sachs, Our Musical Heritage: A Short History of Music, page 268:

The trumpet was late in joining the orchestra, partly because the self-styled "knightly" guild in which the trumpetists were organized precluded, or at least discouraged, any cooperation with ordinary musicians.

1957, The Encyclopedia Americana: The International Reference Work, page 647:

On another night at the Rosebud, the whole upper deck of the club was taken over by performers accompanying famous Cuban trumpetist and former bandmember of the Havana Latin fusion band […]

2016, Miguel A. Sagué-Machiran, Canoa: Taino Indigenous Dream River Journey:

(rare) A trumpeter; someone who plays a trumpet.


drummist

(rare) A drummer; someone who plays a drum.


cigar box guitarist

cigar box guitarist (plural cigar box guitarists)


guitjoist

This band of countrymen consists of fiddler Ketch Secor, guitjoist Kevin Hayes, upright bassist Morgan Jahnig, guitarist Willie Watson, and banjoist Critter Fuqua.

2008, Daniel Martin, "Old Crow Medicine Show's third release heavy on folk", Pioneer (Oklahoma City Community College), Volume 37, Issue 7, 29 September 2008, page 3

Featuring cellist Hannah Alkire and double-neck guitjoist Joe Scott, this eclectic duo blends Celtic, folk, and world music.

2010, Glen Starkey, "His aim is true", NewTimes (San Luis Obispo County, California), Volume 24, Issue 36, 7 April 2010

Double-neck guitjoist Joe Scott and cellist Hannah Alkirem have performed across the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe and have released 10 albums of acoustic, instrumental fusion.

2014 February 27, Asher Brown-Pinsky, “10-Day Forecast”, in The Gainesville Sun:


banjitarist

Someone who plays the banjitar (guitjo).


classical guitarist

classical guitarist (plural classical guitarists)


console steel guitarist

console steel guitarist (plural console steel guitarists)

console steel guitar
console steel guitar

Someone who plays the console steel guitar.


steel guitarist

steel guitarist (plural steel guitarists)


diddley bower

(music) Someone who plays the diddley bow.


hammered dulcimerist

hammered dulcimerist (plural hammered dulcimerists)

Someone who plays the hammered dulcimer.


komuzist

[…] that undergo continuous transformation on the lips of the singers and under the fingers of the komuzists in accordance with individual talents, artistic intent and experience, as well as the peculiarities of a given text.

1970, Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council, page 79:


mandocellist

From mandocello + -ist, influenced by cellist.


lap steel guitarist

lap steel guitarist (plural lap steel guitarists)


pedal steel guitarist

pedal steel guitarist (plural pedal steel guitarists)

Someone who plays the pedal steel guitar.


table steel guitarist

table steel guitarist (plural table steel guitarists)

Someone who plays the table steel guitar.


tenor guitarist

tenor guitarist (plural tenor guitarists)

Analyzable as tenor guitar + -ist or as a Blend of tenor guitar + guitarist.


sarodist

He has produced many of the most outstanding sarodists around the world, but especially in America, where he has a very strong following because of his school there.

2006, Peter Lavezzoli, The Dawn of Indian Music in the West, page 432: