librettistics

The brief comparative excursions into the >remaining< Italian librettists are both rare and unsystematic, not to mention the entire European librettistics.

1970, Ennio Stipčević, “Review: Musica e storia tra Medio Evo e Età moderna”, in International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, volume 22, number 2:

Attention is given firstly to arguments within the system which generate the typical and frequently mentioned literary defects of libretto texts, but is also directed at texts and groups of texts to which prejudices about librettistics as a second-rate dramaturgy cannot be applied.

2000, International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, page 125:

For this reason, the attention I devote to the libretto might seem out of proportion to its status in the opera as a whole, yet I feel encouraged in this direction by the recent interest kindled by librettistics, a subject for which we owe much to our German and Italian colleagues.

2005, Nelly Valtat-Comet, “From Novella to Opera: Dominick Argento's The Aspern Papers”, in E-rea. Revue électronique d'études sur le monde anglophone:

(see title)

2007, Fabrizio Della Seta, “Shakespeare at the opera. Drama in Italian librettistics”, in VIUZZO DEL POZZETTO:


lidden

From earlier leaden, ledden, leden, from Middle English leden, liden, lyden, from Old English lēoden, lȳden (“speech, language”), related to Scots leid (“language”). See leid.
Alternative etymology derives lidden from Old English hlȳd, hlȳden (“sound, noise, clamour, din”) or Old Norse hljóð (“sound, clap, roar, ringing, tone, tune”). Compare also Old English lēoþ (“song, tune, poem”).

der

She kept up this lidden all through breakfast, and the meal was no sooner cleared away than she slipped on a shawl and stepped across to the churchyard to discuss the robbery.

1905, Arthur Quiller-Couch, “Frenchman's Creek”, in Shakespeare's Christmas and other stories:

(archaic, dialectal) A saying, song or story.


underfire

en-verb

underfire (third-person singular simple present underfires, present participle underfiring, simple past and past participle underfired)

underfires (present singular third-person)
underfiring (participle present)
underfired (participle past)
underfired (past)

/ˌʌndəˈfaɪə/

Often home owners select a [wood] stove that is too hot for the space to be heated. Many stove owners compensate by underfiring the stove, which causes poor performance, increased emissions and potential chimney fires by creosote buildup.

1999 June, “Homes & the Canadian Experience”, in Alexandra R. McKirdy, editor, The Canadian Renewable Energy Guide, 2nd edition, Burnstown, Ont.: General Store Publishing House [for the] Solar Energy Society of Canada, →ISBN, page 16, column 2:

If the burner is underfiring, the nozzle may need to be changed or the pressure at the outlet of the fuel pump may need to be adjusted.

2012, Eugene Silberstein, Residential Construction Academy: HVAC, 2nd edition, Clifton Park, N.Y.: Delmar, →ISBN, page 680:

(intransitive) To burn fuel at less than the desired level, thus not providing heat efficiently.


scorereader

Musical notation
musical notation#English

(music) Musical notation reading software, used to read sheet music (especially for piano) and play it back.


virtual piano

(music, computing) An online software application designed to simulate playing a piano (or other keyboard instrument) on a personal computer, mobile device or a tablet computer.


go gold

go gold (third-person singular simple present goes gold, present participle going gold, simple past went gold, past participle gone gold)

goes gold (present singular third-person)
going gold (participle present)
went gold (past)
gone gold (participle past)

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

(music) To reach 500,000 in sales, thus becoming a gold record.


yunluo

Borrowed from Mandarin 雲鑼／云锣 (yúnluó, literally “cloud gongs”).

bor+

There are two kinds of yunluo music popular among the people, one is "parade music" played on the streets and during temple fairs; the other is "chamber music" played inside houses. Usually, two sets of yunluos are used in playing […]

In ensembles, a set of tuned gongs called yunluo (literally “cloud gong”) may be heard; these are small gongs several inches in diameter, and ten yunluo are hung on a single wooden rack.

2010, Robert André LaFleur, China, →ISBN, page 292:

A Chinese musical instrument, consisting of a set of tuned flat gongs in a frame, which are played with a stick; (sometimes) an individual gong, as a part of this instrument.


radium jaw

A disease, with necrosis of the jaw and bleeding of the gums, caused by the ingestion of radium and its subsequent absorption into the bones.


abbandonatamente

en-adverb

abbandonatamente (comparative more abbandonatamente, superlative most abbandonatamente)

more abbandonatamente (comparative)
most abbandonatamente (superlative)

(music) With abandonment; so as to make the time subordinate to the expression.


vacuum catastrophe

quantum field theory
quantum field theory

(cosmology) The disagreement of over 100 orders of magnitude between measured values of the vacuum energy density and the theoretical zero-point energy suggested by a naïve application of quantum field theory.


unburn

en-verb

unburn (third-person singular simple present unburns, present participle unburning, simple past and past participle unburned)

unburns (present singular third-person)
unburning (participle present)
unburned (participle past)
unburned (past)

Similarly, you cannot 'unstir' the sugar from a cup of coffee once it has been dissolved, and you never see a pile of ash in the fireplace 'unburn' to become a log of wood again.

2002, Jim Al-Khalili, Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines, page 122:

In your class last year we learned that increase in entropy is why matches burn but never unburn, why cans rust but never unrust, and why engines are never perfectly efficient.

2009, Bradley Harris Dowden, The Metaphysics of Time: A Dialogue, page 122:

(intransitive) To undergo the process of burning in reverse.


BDE

en-noun

BDE (countable and uncountable, plural BDEs)

bond dissociation energy
bond dissociation energy#English

(physical chemistry) Initialism of bond dissociation energy.

Swear to God I tried to be the big shot lawyer, that BDE meat eating, Johnny American Football, beer chugging, Sunday Christian he wanted.

2019, Justin Blackburn, The Bisexual Christian Suburban Failure Enlightening Bipolar Blues, page 14:

(uncountable) Initialism of big dick energy.

(uncountable) Initialism of big dyke energy.


cinquillo

(music) A type of Latin American musical rhythm consisting of five-beat units.


ashugh

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).


dark-haired

en-adj

dark-haired (comparative more dark-haired or darker-haired, superlative most dark-haired or darkest-haired)

more dark-haired (comparative)
darker-haired (comparative)
most dark-haired (superlative)
darkest-haired (superlative)

And M. [Henri-François-Alphonse] Esquiros, in describing the Dutch generally, speaks of beauties both blondes and brunettes, ‘for black hair is not uncommon in the Netherlands.’ These words seem to imply that black hair does not preponderate; and, if not, there must be a marked difference between the Dutch and the English. Here again is confirmation of the opinion that the modern English are somewhat more dark-haired than the ancient Saxons.

1866, Luke Owen Pike, “The Evidence of Physical Characteristics”, in The English and Their Origin. A Prologue to Authentic English History., London: Longmans, Green, and Co., pages 145–146:

Perhaps people felt by some form of symbolism or imitative magic that if the very first foot over the threshold was that of a dark-haired man, so might that hearth be safe for a whole year from the marauding Northmen. We listened to the chimes of Big Ben on the radio, and then as the last notes of the Old Year died away, Humphrey, who was the darkest-haired man present, ran to the door so as to come in and first foot us.

1968, Cherry Evans [pseudonym; Cherry Drummond, 16th Baroness Strange], Creatures Great and Small, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 88:

Maura was sixteen, with the Salter good looks. Darker-haired than her big sister Bridie, but she had the same soft grace.

2017, James Patterson with Alison Joseph, The Exile, New York, N.Y.: BookShots / Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 48:

Having hair of a dark color, usually dark brown.


silvery-haired

Alternative form of silver-haired (“having greyish-white hair”).


ginger-haired

having ginger-coloured hair, reddish-yellow or orangey-brown.


Big Four

(music) A jazz rhythm derived from the marching band beat.


logogenic

logogenic (comparative more logogenic, superlative most logogenic)

more logogenic (comparative)
most logogenic (superlative)

In the earliest biblical and historical contexts prior to the diaspora, cantillation and music were fundamentally logogenic, with distinctions between song and instrumental practices being critical to the origins of musical sound in worship.

2012, Philip Bohlman, Jewish Music and Modernity:

(music) In which the words dominate any melody


melogenic

melogenic (comparative more melogenic, superlative most melogenic)

more melogenic (comparative)
most melogenic (superlative)

In this connection, I take note of the earlier theories of Curt Sachs, postulating three kinds of origins for melodic traditions: "logogenic," from language; "pathogenic," from motion; and "melogenic," from music (Sachs 1937, pp. 181-203; 1943, pp. 30-43).

1991, Joseph Harris, The Ballad and Oral Literature, page 226:

(music) In which the melody dominates any words.


downbow

(music) A note performed on a string instrument by drawing the bow downward or to the right across the instrument, moving its point of contact from the frog toward the tip of the bow.


upbow

(music) A note performed on a string instrument by drawing the bow upward or to the left across the instrument, moving the point of contact from the bow's tip toward the frog.


aftersound

(acoustics) The second, slower phase of decay in the sound made by a piano string when it is struck.


argamannu

Learned borrowing from Akkadian 𒅈𒂵𒈠𒉡 (argamannu).

lbor

The least frequently used dye was argamannu, which was also red and probably produced a shade of blue-purple, although different from that of takiltu.

2006, Stefan Zawadzki, Garments of the Gods: Studies on the Textile Industry and the Pantheon of Sippar According to the Texts from the Ebabbar Archive, Volume 1:


torchiere

A floor lamp with a bowl on top for reflecting light upwards.


apollonicon

Formed from Apollonic, like harmonicon from harmonic.

(music) A particular type of barrel organ that also had a keyboard.


(physics) A radioactive isotope, ⁸⁵₃₆Kr, having thirty-six protons and forty-nine neutrons


tenor saxophone

en-noun

tenor saxophone (plural tenor saxophones)

A member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments that is smaller than the baritone saxophone but larger than the alto saxophone, with a range of A♭₂ to E₅ or similar.


dombra

From Kazakh домбыра (dombyra) via Russian домбра́ (dombrá).

A long-necked lute found in parts of Asia and Eastern Europe.


enka

(music) A genre of Japanese music that originated in the 1960s and often features melodramatic themes.

(music) A genre of political songs spread by members of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement of Japan during the Meiji period (1868–1912).


spouge

A genre of music that originated in Barbados, a fusion of ska and calypso.


sounding stone

A Chinese musical instrument, usually L-shaped, made of stone or jade, hung and struck as a xylophone.


surf rock

A style of rock music stylised by a fast tempo, and a melody played by a saxophone or electric guitar


lithophone

Lithophones are the oldest of the bar idiophones. We have already mentioned the ten note neolithic lithophone from Vietnam, but such instruments have died out.

1970, Musical instruments: handbook to the Museum's collection, Horniman Museum, →OCLC, page 25:

A third line of evidence—the production of sound using the natural rock as lithophones—is, like the two just discussed, geographically widespread, covering all continents except perhaps Antarctica.

2018, Bruno David, The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art:

Any musical instrument in which sound is produced by percussion of a stone.


orutu

A one-stringed African fiddle, played especially by the Luo people.


star lifting

(science fiction) A hypothetical process wherein a portion of a star's mass is removed, generally to serve as an energy source.


NSBM

National Socialist
National Socialist#English

(music) Initialism of National Socialist black metal.


Penrose process

Named after English mathematician Roger Penrose.

A hypothetical process whereby the ergosphere of a black hole can be used as an energy source due to its angular momentum.


Kardashev scale

Named after Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev (1932–2019).

named-after

Let us think of an ethical scale for civilizations in the same spirit as the Kardashev scale. I'll modestly call it the Hall scale.

2012, John R. Shook, Liz Stillwaggon Swan, Transformers and Philosophy: More than Meets the Mind, Open Court, →ISBN, page 10:

Earth's civilization during the late twentieth century when the Kardashev scale was first proposed, utilizing roughly 15 terawatts globally, would have been defined as approximately K0.71.

2014, Ian Douglas, Dark Matter (Star Carrier, Book 5), HarperCollins UK, →ISBN:

A scale that measures the technological level of a civilization by the extent of its energy consumption.


catch on fire

en-verb

catch on fire (third-person singular simple present catches on fire, present participle catching on fire, simple past and past participle caught on fire)

catches on fire (present singular third-person)
catching on fire (participle present)
caught on fire (participle past)
caught on fire (past)

(informal, sometimes proscribed) Synonym of catch fire


northern soul

The overwhelmingly young population involved in northern soul needed to find a way out of the depression slowly taking over the UK in the seventies. Speed gave them the edge they needed to rise above all the pain and frustration of a country losing its way.

2000, Julian Durlacher, Miriam Joseph, Speed: Its History and Lore, Carlton Books, →ISBN, page 48:

Meanwhile more people were either leaving behind the Northern Soul scene and enjoying the jazz-funk scene, or combining the two.

2012, David Nowell, The Story of Northern Soul, Portico, →ISBN:

For many young people throughout Britain in the 1970s, Northern Soul became a truly alternative lifestyle with the rites and values of the scene replacing many of the traditional strictures of society.

2013, Elaine Constantine, Gareth Sweeney, Northern Soul: An Illustrated History, Random House, →ISBN, page 12:

A music and dance movement of northern England in the late 1960s, mainly based around black American soul music.


œil-de-perdrix

Borrowed from French œil-de-perdrix (literally “eye of a partridge”).

bor

an œil-de-perdrix pattern

(art) Characterized by, or decorated with, small round spots or rings.

Having a brownish-red colour; used especially of light-coloured red wine.


Nunc dimittis

Named after its incipit, Latin nunc dimittis (literally “now you dismiss”).

(Christianity, music) A canticle from a text in the second chapter of Luke in the Bible, often used as the final song in a religious service.


clap out

en-verb

clap out (third-person singular simple present claps out, present participle clapping out, simple past and past participle clapped out)

claps out (present singular third-person)
clapping out (participle present)
clapped out (participle past)
clapped out (past)

(transitive) In feng shui, to remove negative energy from (a space) by clapping.


bebung

en-noun

bebung (usually uncountable, plural bebungs)

(music) A tremolo effect, such as that produced on the piano by vibratory repetition of a note with sustained use of the pedal.


protometal

(music) A style of music that was a precursor to heavy metal.


clapstick

A kind of drumstick used by striking one against another, to maintain rhythm in Aboriginal voice chants.


foresing

en-verb

foresing (third-person singular simple present foresings, present participle foresinging, simple past foresang, past participle foresung)

foresings (present singular third-person)
foresinging (participle present)
foresang (past)
foresung (participle past)

Jacob with the patriarchs (Himself their patriarch) through all his own Life's space the gladdest times of Christ foresang By words, act, virtue, toil.

1870, Alexander Roberts, Sir James Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Christian Library:

God grant that I as thou May still at heart have Spring, Still may the fair To-be feel through the niggard Now And in the Winter-night the summer-day foresing!

1908, John Payne, Carol and Cadence: New Poems:

They whispered like the windy river-reeds In thoughts that rise far under heights of Heaven — Did they foresing to Heaven of this day ?

1912, Isabella Fiske Conant, Gabriel: A Pageant of Vigil:

(transitive) To sing beforehand or in advance.


California Sound

(music) A popular music aesthetic engendered by 1960s pop and rock recording artists from the California area, associated with optimistic youth culture.


sunshine pop

(music) A pop music genre originating in the United States in the mid-1960s as an offshoot of the California Sound, and characterized by a cheerful attitude, warm sounds, prominent vocal harmonies, and sophisticated production.


nut-brown

en-adj

nut-brown (comparative more nut-brown, superlative most nut-brown)

more nut-brown (comparative)
most nut-brown (superlative)

From Middle English nute-brun, equivalent to nut + brown.

nut-brown:

I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow; a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man; his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat; his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails; and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white.

Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, (1883), Chapter 1


break the silence

en-verb

break the silence (third-person singular simple present breaks the silence, present participle breaking the silence, simple past broke the silence, past participle broken the silence)

breaks the silence (present singular third-person)
breaking the silence (participle present)
broke the silence (past)
broken the silence (participle past)

The Free Tibet campaign is calling on world leaders to break the silence, claiming they "continue to refrain from publicly speaking out for Tibet".

2012 June 19, Julian Baggini, “Why it's not the Dalai Lama's job to break the silence on Tibet”, in The Guardian:

To state an opinion on a subject that has been taboo for a period of time.


false note

Sometimes he even thrums a little on the piano, and takes a part in a trio, in which his voice can generally be distinguished by a certain quavering tone, and an occasional false note.

1819, Washington Irving, “The Lovers”, in Bracebridge Hall:

Her fingers wavered on the piano—she struck a false note, confused herself in trying to set it right, and dropped her hands angrily on her lap.

1860, Wilkie Collins, chapter 15, in The Woman in White:

(music) An incorrect note which is sung or played in a musical performance.


Finsen light

en-noun

Finsen light (countable and uncountable, plural Finsen lights)

After Niels Ryberg Finsen (1860-1904), Faroese-Danish physician.

Highly actinic light, derived from sunlight or from some form of electric lamp, used in the treatment of lupus and other cutaneous disorders.


pralltriller

Coordinate term: mordent

(music) A melodic embellishment consisting of the quick alternation of a principal tone with an auxiliary tone above it, usually the next in the scale.


quindecima

From Italian quindecima, from Latin quindecima (“15th”), from quindecim (“15”).

(music) The interval of a fifteenth, a double octave.


undernote

(music) A low or subdued note, such as a drone, that forms a background to the melody.


Cobainiac

(slang) A fan of American grunge musician Kurt Cobain and/or his band Nirvana.


telharmonium

(historical) An early electric musical instrument for producing music at a distant point or points by means of alternating current. An operator plays a keyboard, and the music is reproduced remotely by a receiving instrument resembling a telephone, but not held to the ear.


Wheatstone's rod

Wheatstone's rod (plural Wheatstone's rods)

Named after Charles Wheatstone, who devised them.

(acoustics) Either of a pair of flexible rods whose periods of vibration in two planes at right angles are in some exact ratio to one another. When one end of such a rod is fixed, the free end describes through vibration the corresponding Lissajous figure.


RATM

(music) Rage Against The Machine, an American rap metal band.


fake book

From fake (verb) + book: a fake book helps a musician to "fake" knowing how to play a song.

(music) A collection of musical lead sheets intended to help a performer quickly learn new songs.


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.


kugelblitz

Specifically, what she’s talking about is called a kugelblitz—a kind of black hole formed not from the collapse of matter, but from an overwhelming intensity of heat or radiation...or light.

2022, N. K. Jemisin, The World We Make, Orbit, page 303:

(theoretical physics) A concentration of light so intense that it forms an event horizon and becomes self-trapped, forming a black hole.


walking bass

(music) A style of bass accompaniment or line, common in baroque music and jazz, which creates a feeling of regular quarter note movement, akin to the regular alternation of feet while walking.


double canon

(music) A canon with two simultaneous themes.


nasard

Both conical nasards have a low 2 semitones above the corresponding cylindrical quint stops.

1975, Christhard Mahrenholz, The calculation of organ pipe scales from the middle ages to the mid-nineteenth century, page 83:

(music) An organ stop that has a nasal, flutelike quality.


fustin

Cotinus coggygria
Cotinus coggygria#Translingual

A yellow dye obtained from fustic, Venetian sumach (Cotinus coggygria).


kaiso

kaiso (countable and uncountable, plural kaisos)

An individual musical work in this style.


freakbeat

From freak + beat, coined by English music journalist Philip Lloyd-Smee.

coin

The couple had already put in the hard yards: Fred started out in '60s freakbeat combos The Weeds and Lollipop Shoppe, with Toody joining him in early '80s punk trio The Rats.

2021 December, Jon Dale, “Dead Moon fever!”, in Uncut, →ISSN, page 8:

A genre of hard-driving British rock music, often from the 1960s and associated with a mod following.


deep house

A style of house music, typically with complex melodies and soulful vocals.


vaporwave

Largely ignored by the mainstream press, vaporwave has instead flourished on websites such as Bandcamp and SoundCloud and on Reddit […] Because vaporwave exists almost entirely outside the sphere of PR and the music industry at large, it has tremendous “underground” appeal. […] Vaporwave is critical of Western culture's preoccupation with the past, but it is not the only art form to call our collective regression into question.

2016, Grafton Tanner, Babbling Corpse: Vaporwave And The Commodification Of Ghosts, John Hunt Publishing, →ISBN, page 7:

Vaporwave arose in reaction to huge economic and social forces that are still very much a part of our lives: globalization, runaway consumerism, and manufactured nostalgia chief among them.

2016 August 18, “How Vaporwave Was Created Then Destroyed by the Internet”, in Esquire:

Recess’s website features the charms of vaporwave internet art and Lisa Frank-style nostalgia, while their Instagram account evokes the combined look of “Endless Summer” with “Floridian retiree” and the summer-camp psychedelia that has replaced “Lifestyle Lumberjack” as the default millennial style choice.

2019 January 8, Kate Carraway, “How to Make a Millennial Feel Cozy in Just One Beverage”, in New York Times:

The haunting affect of Vaporwave's ghostly music is clearly seductive to a political moment which revels in dystopia, the golden years of the 90s and the sounds of the 90s: financial boom, pedestalled American Dreams and […]

2019, Emile Frankel, Hearing the Cloud: Can Music Help Reimagine The Future?, John Hunt Publishing, →ISBN:

(music, art) A genre of electronic music and visual arts style that emerged in the early 2010s. As a musical genre, it evolved from chillwave and seapunk with influences from lounge music, elevator music, smooth jazz, and 1980s dance-pop. As an aesthetic, it is influenced by 1990s web design and digital art, anime, and cyberpunk.


spacesynth

A style of synthesizer-based disco music with futuristic themes.


Chernobyl syndrome

Mistrust of nuclear energy technology as a result of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.


organistrum

en-noun

organistrum (plural organistrums or organistra)

organistrums (plural)
organistra (plural)

Those brought into use again were several forms of lutes, violins, and bagpipes, which were played upon proficiently by the "jongleurs," some of whom played also upon psalteries, organistrums, guitars, and tambours with great skill.

1912, Frederick Converse Beach, The Americana:


meykhana

An Azerbaijani literary tradition involving unaccompanied songs improvised to a beat.


komuz

Borrowed from Kyrgyz комуз (komuz), from Proto-Turkic *kopuŕ.
Doublet of kobza and cobza.

(music) A stringed instrument (chordophone) played by plucking, with three strings and no frets, used throughout Central Asia but especially important as a national symbol of the Kyrgyz people.


Balearic beat

(music) A style of DJ-led electronic dance music associated with the nightclubs of Ibiza.


flamin'

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling


electronic music

electronic music (usually uncountable, plural electronic musics)

(music) A type of music that employs electronic musical instruments and other electronic technology in its production.


raptivist

The participants (rhetors) included ”raptivist" Sister Souljah, as well as some older, more traditional male leaders from the African-American community and one white, female sociologist.

1995, Peter J. Caulfield, “Teaching Rhetoric as a Way of Knowing”, in Karen Fitts, Alan W. France, editors, Left Margins: Cultural Studies and Composition Pedagogy, State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 163:

Born in a Peruvian military hospital and raised in Harlem, Immortal Tech is a fatigues-rocking raptivist who humanizes his left-wing-nut conspiracy spiels by filtering them through a past that includes time served at a Pennsylvania jail.

2004 March, Jon Dolan, “More New Music to Hear Now”, in Spin, page 35:

As legendary raptivist KRS-One remembers about the older generation's position on the emerging culture, “Our own people prevented our voices from being heard. And that's the real politics that need to be addressed.”

2009, M. K. Asante, Jr., It's Bigger Than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post-Hip-Hop Generation, St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN:

(slang) A rapper who is involved in political and/or social activism.


promenade concert

promenade concert (plural promenade concerts)

(music) A concert at which the audience remains standing (originally promenading)


sidechaining

(music) The use of an audio compressor that controls the gain from main input to output based on the level of the signal at the side-chain input, typically by a disc jockey to lower the music volume automatically when speaking.


musicscape

The metaphorical landscape of forms and genres of music.


Amen break

(music) A short drum solo from the 1969 song "Amen, Brother" by the American soul group The Winstons; later very widely sampled for use in various electronic music genres such as breakbeat and drum and bass.


Schillinger system

(music) A method of musical composition based on mathematical processes, comprising theories of rhythm, harmony, melody, counterpoint, form, and semantics.


haircut band

(colloquial, derogatory) A musical group that achieves success based on physical appearance rather than musical talent.


djent

Onomatopoeia for a high-gain, distorted palm-muted, low pitch guitar sound; coined by guitarist Fredrik Thordendal (b. 1970) of the Swedish extreme metal band Meshuggah.

[…] they later evolved into a progressive technical metal band with elements of mathcore and djent.

2015, Brian Giffin, Encyclopaedia of Australian Heavy Metal, page 2232:

(neologism) A style of progressive heavy metal music characterized by rhythmic and technical complexity, and typically featuring heavily distorted, palm-muted guitar chords, syncopated, downtuned riffs, and polyrhythms alongside virtuoso soloing.


Afropunk

[…] women whom he feels his Afropunk musical tastes and skateboard transportation would otherwise drive away.

2014, Zandria F. Robinson, This Ain't Chicago, page 139:

(music) Punk music or subculture with black African influences.


dihu

A large, bowed Chinese string instrument of the huqin family, with a large soundbox covered at one end with snakeskin.


zhonghu

(music) A large low-pitched lute-like string instrument (chordophone) similar to the erhu, usually with two strings and played with a bow; it is part of the huqin family of instruments originating in Chinese traditional music.


subcontrabass

a subcontrabass saxophone

a subcontrabass flute

a subcontrabass tuba

(music) Having a pitch below contrabass.


face-melter

And then they launch into a face-melter by way of acoustics, playing so hard that one expects Thile's fingers either to spontaneously combust or at least start spurting blood.

2005, No Depression, numbers 55-60, page 97:

Can You Rock, an Indy-based live karaoke band, gives those face-melters some actual context.

2009, Indianapolis Monthly, volume 32, numbers 10-14, page 10:

Whenever it is uttered by a character on the show, the first person in the room to dash off a searing face-melter of a musical run wins the round.

2010, Greg Horne, The Couch Potato Guitar Workout, page 47:

“Wee-weewee [Psycho music].” “Marvin Glasscock! Dude comes in with the total facemelter!!!”

2013, William Landay, Defending Jacob: A Novel, page 209:

(slang, music) Particularly in heavy metal music, a musical passage or sung note that is particularly intense.


light-sensitive

en-adj

light-sensitive (comparative more light-sensitive, superlative most light-sensitive)

more light-sensitive (comparative)
most light-sensitive (superlative)

All lights are automatically extinguished at daylight by light-sensitive relay.

1963 August, “The semi-automatic Tees Yard of the North Eastern Region”, in Modern Railways, page 124:

святлоадчува́льны

affected by or sensitive to light — see also photosensitive

(of substances and surfaces) changing chemically or physically when exposed to light.

(biology) (of cells, tissue or organs) able to detect the presence (or intensity) of light.


unnoisy

unnoisy (comparative more unnoisy, superlative most unnoisy)

more unnoisy (comparative)
most unnoisy (superlative)


frontperson

It's rock and roll, a frenetic chock-a-block pulse dressed up in fuzzy guitar, all of which functions as a perfect setting in which Fetchin Bones' frontperson and secret weapon, Hope Nicholls, can gyrate and snarl in a manner that suggests a cross between Patti Smith and Janis Joplin.

1988 March 4, Renaldo Migaldi, “Fetchin Bones”, in Chicago Reader:


microhouse

en-noun

microhouse (countable and uncountable, plural microhouses)

From micro- + house, in the music sense attributed to Philip Sherburne.


Marshally

en-adj

Marshally (comparative more Marshally, superlative most Marshally)

more Marshally (comparative)
most Marshally (superlative)

The Tube King gives me a really good Marshally crunch, or a sweeter lead tone if I use the neck humbucker in my guitar.

1996 June 3, Matthew William Brock, “Re: Effects preferences?”, in rec.music.makers.guitar (Usenet):

The tone and tremolo controls and the inputs make a lot more sense on the AC-15 than on the AC-30. The AC-15 also has reverb which the AC-30 does not. On the AC-30 you can cascade the inputs and get a very Marshally sound at higher volumes.

2001 March 24, Mike Thomas, “Re: VOX AC-15 Reissue”, in alt.guitar.amps (Usenet):

The "Love" channel has a Fender and old Boogie vibe to it. The "Lust" channel has a more Marshally tone to it. It is an extremely loud amp, but it is not a high gain amp.

2006 May 14, Gung Ho, “Re: Mesa Boogie Heartbreaker”, in alt.guitar (Usenet):

(music, informal) Resembling or characteristic of the sound of guitar amplifiers of the brand Marshall Amplification.


vessel flute

A type of flute with an enclosed rather than cylindrical body - i.e. a vessel rather than a tube - such as the ocarina, xun, etc.


tenora

(music) A tenor form of the Catalan shawm


musicaholic

I'm such a compulsive musicaholic in my life and always have been, so music inevitably becomes monstrously important in the finishing of a movie, and in this one maybe more during the shooting of it.

1987, The Reggae & African Beat, volumes 6-7, page 29:

I am a musicaholic. I admit it; I'm even proud of it. Yes, I do spend far too much money on compact disks and tapes, but they give me great pleasure, and we all know that music can be a healing addiction.

1994, Zenith Buck, "Not So New Age", Yoga Journal, September/October 1994, page 122

I'm a musicaholic. Losing my hearing is one of the worst things I can think of. I'd have a lot of trouble living in a world without sound.

1999 August 16, Chance [username], “Re: Quick!”, in alt.romance.teen (Usenet):


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:


nyckelharpa

en-noun

nyckelharpa (plural nyckelharpas or nyckelharpor)

nyckelharpas (plural)
nyckelharpor (plural)

(music) A string instrument (chordophone) with a long body and a boat-shaped soundbox, with keys attached to tangents that act like frets when the keys are depressed, and most commonly featuring chromatic and sympathetic strings in modern instruments, originating in the traditional music of Sweden.


sprechgesang

(music) A form of recitative between speaking and singing


ghana

From Maltese għana, from Arabic غِناء (ḡināʔ).


pull-off

(music) The technique, when playing a string instrument, of using a finger of the fret hand to pluck a string by pulling the finger off the fretboard.


TARDIS blue

From the color of the TARDIS, a time machine and spacecraft shaped like a police box, from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

He wore a black button-down shirt and gray slacks. […] On his feet, he wore his lucky shoes. The TARDIS blue was the only real color on him.

2014, Michele Zurlo, Kiss Me by Moonlight, Omnific Publishing, →ISBN:

The dark blue color of a traditional police box.


TARDIS blue

She wears a tacky T.A.R.D.I.S blue cardigan, buttoned to the max, over khaki slacks.

2014, Emma Gray, Groupies, Lulu Press, →ISBN, page 39:

She took a long drag and put the cigarette out in the blue ashtray on the living room table. Alex had given it to her two months after they first met. It was an odd, almost circular shape, but it was TARDIS blue and he thought Die might like it.

2015, Lucia Moroşanu, When Impossible Events Occur, →ISBN:


NWOAHM

New Wave of American Heavy Metal
w:New Wave of American Heavy Metal

(music) Initialism of New Wave of American Heavy Metal.


khomok

As Paban sings, he twangs a khomok hand drum or thunders away at the dubki, a sort of rustic tambourine.

2009 September 11, William Dalrymple, “Singing and dancing with the Bauls of Bengal”, in Guardian:

(music) A type of drum from Bangladesh, incorporating a plucked string.


dubki

From Bengali ডুবকি (ḍuboki), apparently equalling Hindi डुबकी (ḍubkī, “dive”) instead of Persian تنبک (tombak, “drum, tombak”).

The Lal Bazar area is still of some significance, for Kolkata is known for its excellent musical instrument production, especially its sitars, sarods, surbahars, tanpuras, violins, tablas, and harmoniums, as well as many so-called folk-music instruments, among them: thumbas, bongos, dotara, djembe, drums, violin, flute, khanjira, mandolin, banjo, khamak, matka, handi, guitar, castanets, tambourine, kanshar ghanta, conch, resso, blues harp, pan flute, spring drum, steel drum, melodica, harmonium, piano, moorcing, ektara, recorders, balalaika, dugdugi, dubki, edakkaii, cowbells, chimes, dholak, khol, madol—and more.

2018, Lars-Christian Koch, “String Instruments as Urban Icons and Rural Products”, in Sebastian Klotz, Philip V. Bohlman, Lars-Christian Koch, editors, Sounding Cities. Auditory Transformations in Berlin, Chicago, and Kolkata (KlangKulturStudien. SoundCultureStudies; 9), Zürich: LIT, →ISBN, page 190:

(music) A type of drum from Eastern India and Bangladesh.


power metal

A subgenre of heavy metal music, often with anthem-like songs with fantasy-based subject matter and a strong, dramatic chorus.


fourpiece

The London-based fourpiece – fronted by the shaven-headed Skin, who combined the vocal range of Mariah Carey with the swagger of Michael Hutchence, alongside bassist Cass and drummer Mark Richardson – had sold 4m albums, headlined Glastonbury, and played at Nelson Mandela's 80th birthday party.

2009 September 23, Laura Barnett, “Skunk Anansie: 'We burnt out'”, in The Guardian:

(music) A group (of musicians and/or singers) comprising four people; a quartet.


hillbilly music

(historical, to the 1930s, US) A mix of Appalachian, Southern and western music, performed by rural white people in a range of styles for commercial recording in the early United States popular music industry; the precursor to country music.


Jawaiian

Blend of Jamaica + Hawaiian (also referencing Jah).

(music) A Hawaiian style of popular music that combines native styles with reggae and other Caribbean influences.


verse-chorus

(music) (of a song, sound or recording) Structured such that choruses and verses alternate, in a manner characteristic of pop music.


third stream

Coined by composer Gunther Schuller in 1957.

coin

The movement they brought into existence, "Third Stream", was for the most part an effort by jazz composers and musicians to adopt some of the conventions […]

2001, Ellen Koskoff, editor, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: North America, Garland Publishing, page 335:

(music) A form of jazz created in the 1950s, performed in ensembles in a style influenced by Western classical music, such as by using musical notation and eschewing improvisation.


call and response

(singing) A musical technique in which one or more performers calls and others, often the audience, respond with alternating musical phrases.


percussion break

en-noun

percussion break (plural percussion breaks)

(music) A percussion-focused segment of a song, chosen by a hip-hop DJ to manipulate through cutting, mixing, and other techniques in order to create rhythmic music.


ethnic music

ethnic music (countable and uncountable, plural ethnic musics)

2012. Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Volume 8. "Ethnic Music". Martin Stokes. Pg 204.
By 1920 Columbia and Victor had issued around 21,000 copies of ethnic music each.

2003. Horn Man: The Polish-American Musician in Twentieth-century Detroit. Laurie Palazzolo. Pg. 83.
This period marked the beginning of a wonderful, if short-lived, era for ethnic music.

1992. [A Passion for Polka: Old-time Ethnic Music in America]. Victor Greene. Pg. 245.
Welk is much better known for his immensely successful programs over television, which began in the early 50s after the era of "ethnic music" acceptance

(music, US) The classic body of recordings of Central and Eastern European immigrants to the United States from the early to mid-20th century, and music in that style.


answer song

(music) A song whose lyrics serve as a response or sequel to the lyrics of another song.

(music, specifically) A type of popular song in 1980s hip-hop, composed by one artist as a satirical response to a specific song by another artist.


country & western

country and western
country and western#English

(music) Alternative form of country and western


gapped scale

(music) A vocal technique in which certain tones out of a complete set of tones are omitted.


high lonesome sound

(music) An expressively emotional, powerful and earthy style of musical expression associated mainly with bluegrass, old-time and country music, characterized by unmetered music and use of gapped scales in singing.


call-response

call and response
call and response#English

(music) Alternative form of call and response


album-oriented rock

album-oriented radio
album-oriented radio

(music, US) The kind of rock music played on album-oriented radio (AOR), a popular FM radio format in the United States from the 1970s to the 1980s.


album-oriented radio

(music) An FM radio format in the United States popular from the 1970s to the 1980s, using 1960s music perceived as underground arranged into preset playlists.


hardbop

Benny Green Trio (through Saturday) The pianist Benny Green is an astute pupil of the hardbop tradition, as he reconfirms on his fine new album, “Live in Santa Cruz.”

2015 June 25, “Jazz Listings for June 26-July 2”, in New York Times:


hard bop

A subgenre of jazz music that extends bebop with influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues.


guzheng

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 古箏／古筝 (gǔzhēng).

Then the next moment, to an “oooh” from the seats around me, the spotlight picked out Chou playing the guzheng, a Chinese plucked zither.

2024 January 20, Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, “An Asian megastar who fills arenas in Europe–so who is he?”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 14:

A zither-like stringed instrument with at least eighteen strings and moveable bridges, played with a plectrum, originating in the traditional music of China.


concert performance

concert performance (plural concert performances)

(music) A performance of an opera or similar piece without the normal dramatic action, or of a religious piece without the accompanying liturgy


saxtuba

An obsolete valved brasswind instrument inspired by the Ancient Roman cornu and tuba.


DNZ

(acoustics) Abbreviation of density-near-zero.


konghou

From Mandarin 箜篌 (kōnghóu), from the name of this instrument in the local language of the region of Central Asia whence it came to China; the Sogdian name for the angular harp was [script needed] (cngryʾ /čangaryā/), [script needed] (cyngryʾ /čingaryā/), which derives perhaps from Turkic čingar.

(music) A plucked stringed instrument (chordophone) with a harp-like construction, originating in ancient Chinese music as a horizontal instrument but now made to be played vertically, and with strings that are double to allow for techniques like vibrato.


soul-blues

(music) A genre of vocal soul music with a gospel-influenced bluesy sound.


punk-jazz

(music, jazz) A genre of punk rock that is influenced by jazz.


Baltimore club

(music) A genre of staccato, dance-oriented house music associated with Baltimore, Maryland.


punk-blues

(music) A genre of punk rock that is influenced by the blues.


bluegrass gospel

(music) A genre of bluegrass influenced by black gospel and Southern gospel.


post-bop

(jazz) A style of jazz derived from hard bop but influenced by more traditional jazz styles like swing.


club blues

(music) A genre of popular blues music intended to be played in nightclubs.


brown-eyed soul

(music) A genre of soul music characteristically performed by Latinos, mainly in southern California in the early 1960s.


Miami bass

(music) A genre of hip hop dance music associated with raunchy lyrics, deep bass rhythms and the area of South Florida.


Paisley Underground

(music) A genre of psychedelic alternative rock mostly associated with California in the 1980s.


New Weird America

(music) A genre of modern dark psych folk influenced by Americana.


progressive bluegrass

(music) A genre of bluegrass that subverts tradition by adding drums, electric guitar and other modern elements of popular music.


psychedelic soul

(music) A genre of popular soul music influenced by psychedelic rock and funk.


San Francisco sound

(music) A genre of psychedelic rock associated with the hippie subculture of San Francisco in the late 1960s and early 1970s.


Southern rock

(music) A genre of rock music originating from the Southern United States with influences from blues and country music.


drone metal

(music) A genre of heavy metal that is influenced by drone music.


Cubop

(jazz) A genre of Afro-Cuban jazz influenced by bebop.


Southern gospel

(music) A genre of harmonic vocal Christian music that developed from the sacred harp (shape-note) style of singing in the Southern United States.


sacred harp

From the name of a songbook first published in 1844, The Sacred Harp.

(music) A genre of Christian music based on shape-note singing.


Chicago blues

(music) A genre of popular electric guitar-based blues associated with Chicago.


swamp blues

(music) A genre of blues influenced by Cajun and Creole music and associated with Baton Rouge, Louisiana.


quiet storm

In reference to Smokey Robinson's album A Quiet Storm (1975).

(music) A radio format and genre of R&B that is performed in a smooth, romantic, jazz-influenced style usually associated with the mid to late 1970s.

A Quiet Storm
Smokey Robinson
quiet storm


rap rock

(music) A genre of rock music that uses elements of hip-hop, especially rapping.


post-punk revival

(music) A modern genre of post-punk influenced by indie rock and other modern styles.


hill country blues

(music) A genre of country blues from Mississippi.


garage punk

(music) A genre of indie rock influenced by garage rock and hardcore punk.


funk-metal

(music) A genre of funk that combines it with elements of thrash metal.


horror punk

(music) A genre of hardcore punk with influences from Gothic rock, characterized by a lyrical connection to horror movies.


Celtic rock

(music) A genre of Celtic music influenced by rock music and punk rock.


funk-rock

(music) A genre of funk that combines it with elements of rock music.


folk-metal

(music) A genre of heavy metal influenced by folk music and various traditional musical forms.


folk punk

(music) A genre of usually acoustic punk rock influenced by folk music.


classic female blues

(music) The style of popular vocal blues performed by women in the early 20th century.


glam punk

(music) A genre of punk rock influenced by glam rock.


noise rock

(music) A genre of indie rock influenced by noise music.


Afro-Cuban jazz

(jazz) A genre of jazz strongly influenced by Cuban dance music like mambo and the Cuban clave rhythm.


noise pop

(music) A genre of indie pop influenced by noise music.


post-grunge

(music) A genre of grunge music influenced by pop music and heavy metal.


post-disco

Coordinate term: predisco

Not many artists could pull off such a variety of styles (funk, post-disco, rock, easy listening, ballads) back then.

a. 2008, M. Heyliger, A State-of-the-Art Pop Album:

Bridging the so-called death of disco and the birth of house, all this early-to-mid-'80s music lacks a name beyond drably functional and neutral terms like "dance" or "club music." Post-disco is better because this was music created by and for people […]who refused to accept the official decree of disco’s demise.

2009 May 29, Simon Reynolds, “Grunge's Long Shadow”, in Slate:

(music) A genre of dance music formulated in the late 1970s, after a backlash against disco.


art punk

(music) A genre of punk rock influenced by art music and art rock.


Celtic metal

(music) A genre of heavy metal influenced by Celtic music and punk rock.


glam metal

(music) A genre of heavy metal from the 1980s influenced by glam rock.


gospel-blues

(music) A genre of blues with Christian lyrics and influenced by gospel music.


Texas blues

(music) A genre of blues that uses electric guitars and power riffs, associated with Texas.


contemporary R&B

(music) A genre of modern popular hip hop dance music influenced by funk and pop music.


speed metal

(music) A genre of heavy metal characterized by an extremely swift, rhythmic style.


melodic hardcore

(music) A genre of hardcore punk with melodic singing, influenced by modern rock music.


cool jazz

(music, jazz) A genre of jazz associated with a light, calm sound and a West Coast aesthetic.


Canterbury sound

(music) A genre of progressive rock associated with the city of Canterbury.


reggae rock

(music) A genre of reggae mixed with elements of rock music.


industrial metal

(music) A genre of heavy metal influenced by industrial music.


modal jazz

(music, jazz) A genre of jazz that uses chord progressions as a harmonic framework.


industrial rock

(music) A genre of rock music influenced by industrial music.


country blues

(music) A genre of blues with a rural style and elements from folk music.


pub rock

So called because bands rejected stadium venues and returned to the small pubs and clubs of the early years of live rock music.

(music, UK, Australia) A kind of popular bluesy rock music, specifically unrelated forms of British and Australian music with a similar sound.


oi!

Synonym of oi (a genre of British punk rock)


alternative metal

(music) A style of modern heavy metal influenced by alternative rock.


Viking metal

(music) A genre of heavy metal featuring lyrical and visual themes focused on the Vikings, and influenced by black metal, folk-metal and Nordic traditional music.


Celtic punk

Best exemplified by the English band Pogues (which was fronted by the legendary Shane MacGowan) in the 1980s, Celtic punk at its best successfully blended traditional Celtic music and punk rock with some fascinating results.

2022, Rich Weidman, Punk: The Definitive Guide to the Blank Generation and Beyond, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 80:

(music) A genre of punk rock influenced by Celtic rock.


unblack metal

As already noted, the black metal-related church arsons in Norway in the early 1990s also spurred the development of unblack metal.

2015, Marcus Moberg, Christian Metal: History, Ideology, Scene, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 51:

(music) A genre of black metal marked by Christian lyrics.


melodic death metal

(music) A genre of death metal with a melodic and harmonic riffing style.


indie rock

Coordinate term: indie pop

alternative rock
alternative rock#English

(music) A genre of modern rock, originally synonymous with alternative rock but now referring to a specific style of popular rock music.


hardcore punk

(music) A particularly fast and intense form of punk rock.


alt-rock

Launching a startup in 2016 is akin to assembling an alt-rock band in 1996 or protesting the Vietnam War in 1971—an act of youthful rebellion gone conformist.

2016 October 3, Tad Friend, “Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny”, in The New Yorker:


psychedelic rock

(music) A genre of rock music influenced by psychedelia, blues, jazz, folk music, electronic music and the hippie counterculture of the 1960s.


indie folk

(music) A genre of folk music influenced by indie rock.


extreme metal

(music) Any style of modern heavy metal, especially thrash metal, speed metal, doom metal, black metal or death metal.


alder buckthorn

alder buckthorn (plural alder buckthorns)

Frangula alnus
Frangula alnus#Translingual

A deciduous shrub, Frangula alnus, native to Europe and neighboring areas of Asia and Africa, bearing glossy leaves, flowers in sessile umbels, and inedible red berries that turn black when ripe, and historically used as a laxative and to produce dyes.


indie pop

Indie pop tends to be “more melodic and less loud” than indie rock, which is often more raucous.

2016, Geoff King, editor, A Companion to American Indie Film, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 110:

(music) A genre of pop music that has little mainstream appeal and is influenced by alternative rock or indie rock.


psych folk

You have possibly heard the terms “psych folk” (sometimes applied to artists in the vein of Devendra Banhart) or “psych country” (which is vaguely similar to what used to be called “outlaw country”) or “psych rock” (which is what Courtney Taylor of the Dandy Warhols call his band's sound in the documentary DIG!.)

[2005 May, Chuck Klosterman, “The Rock Lexicon”, in SPIN, page 60:

More recently, a second wave of psych folk bands have surfaced, influenced by and connected to the music of Keenan's New Weird America.

2016, Ross Hair, Thomas Ruys Smith, editors, Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 203:

(music) A genre of folk music influenced by psychedelic rock and possessing a dark, sinister tone.


club music

electronic dance music
electronic dance music

(music) Music intended to be played in a nightclub


electric blues

(music) Any genre of blues that uses the electric guitar.


Celtic music

(music) A genre of modern world music influenced by New Age and the music of Celtic cultures, mainly Ireland and Scotland.


Piedmont blues

(music) A genre of guitar-based blues from the East Coast of the United States.


roots-rock

[…] door finds him or herself a millionaire superstar and gradually tax avoidance seems more important than roots rock.

1977, Marxism Today, volumes 21–23, London: Communist Party of Great Britain, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 13:

They are favored by most blues, jazz, country, and roots-rock guitarists.

1980, Will Schmid, Hal Leonard Guitar Method, complete edition, Winona, Minn.: Hal Leonard Pub. Corp., →OCLC, page 140:

Doug [Clifford] was the well-known drummer in Creedence Clearwater Revival throughout their phenomenally fruitful existence as one of America's first genuine roots-rock bands.

2006, Bob Cianci, Great Rock Drummers of the Sixties Revised, 2nd edition, Milwaukee, Wis.: Hal Leonard Pub. Corp., →ISBN, page 192:

(music) A genre of popular rock music influenced by Americana and roots music.


isicathamiya

(music) A genre of popular South African vocal music derived from the Zulu genre called mbube.


jùjú

(music) A genre of popular Nigerian music that comes from traditional Yoruba percussion traditions.


folk-blues

(music) A genre of blues influenced by early 20th century folk music.


zouglou

(music) A genre of popular music originally from Abidjan, Ivory Coast.


country-rock

Synonym of country rock (only the musical sense)


roots music

roots music (countable and uncountable, plural roots musics)

(music) Any style of folk music, or any style of modern popular music influenced by traditional styles.


seggae

(music) A genre of sega music that combines it with reggae and other non-native influences.


chimurenga

(Zimbabwe, music) A genre of Zimbabwean popular music, originally focusing on revolutionary themes.


album-oriented soul

(music) A genre of popular soul music characterized by a focus on LPs rather than singles and the presence of socially conscious lyrics; mostly associated with a late 1960s and early 1970s style.


marrabenta

Possibly from Portuguese rebentar (“to break”) (arrabentar in the local vernacular).

(music) A genre of popular Mozambican dance music.


bhangramuffin

(music) A genre of raggamuffin dancehall influenced by bhangra or other music from the Indian subcontinent.


alternative hip hop

(music) A subgenre of hip-hop music encompassing a range of styles not typically regarded as mainstream music, gangsta rap or hardcore hip-hop, and drawing influences from pop, rock, jazz, funk, soul, reggae, folk and alternative.


bluegrass-jazz

(music, jazz) A genre of bluegrass influenced by jazz.


chutney-soca

(music) A genre of chutney music influenced by soca.


cadence rampa

(music) A genre of modern Haitian music, derived from méringue.


reggae fusion

(music) A genre of reggae that mixes reggae and/or dancehall with other genres, such as pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, jazz, funk, soul, disco, electronic and latin.


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.


cadence-lypso

(music) A genre of popular dance music that combines cadence rampa with calypso.


jazz mugham

(jazz, music) A genre that combines mugham with jazz.


ambient house

(music) A genre of house music influenced by ambient.


lover's rock

(music) A genre of reggae influenced by soul music and modern pop.


sawt

From Arabic صَوْتْ (ṣawt, literally “voice”).

(music) A style of urban popular music associated mainly with Kuwait and Bahrain.


luk thung

Borrowed from Thai ลูกทุ่ง (lûuk-tûng, literally “rural”).

bor+

After Pumpuang's death, the top luk thung slot was occupied by ‘Got’ Chakrapand Arbkornburi, whose switch from pop to full-time luk thung brought many younger listeners to the style, while the reigning female singer was Sunaree Ratchasima, but she has been superseded by the perkier Arpaporn Nakornsawan and, more recently, by Ying Lee and Tai Orathai.

2023, Rough Guides, The Rough Guide to Thailand, Apa Publications Limited, →ISBN:

(music) A genre of Thai popular music in a rural style.


huayno

(music) A genre of Andean popular music most closely associated with Peru.


electronic dance music

Some music, such as electronic dance music, is completely produced electronically and new practices have developed such as live coding, circuit bending, and chipmusic.

2014, William Forde Thompson, Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia:

(music) A field of modern popular music, encompassing house, techno and other genres of percussive dance music.


apala

(music) A genre of Yoruba Nigerian popular music based on percussion.


dansband

(music) A genre of Swedish popular music influenced by rock and roll, schlager and other styles.


bajo quinto

acoustic bass guitar
acoustic bass guitar

A stringed instrument of Mexican origin, with ten thick strings in five double-courses, a short neck and a deep soundboard; a type of acoustic bass guitar bajo sexto without the bass strings of a typical bajo sexto.


ethereal wave

(music) A genre of darkwave music influenced by Gothic rock.


bajo sexto

He sings about being spurned, drunk, rebounding and flaunting his blingy Patek Phillipe watch as Bizarrap quantizes regional Mexican acoustic sounds — the syncopated chords and trombone of a brass band, the slapping bass lines of a bajo sexto, solos on high-strung Mexican guitars — into a computerized track.

2023 June 2, Jon Pareles, Giovanni Russonello, Lindsay Zoladz, “A Lost (and Found) John Coltrane Recording, and 9 More New Songs”, in The New York Times:

(music) A stringed instrument of Mexican origin, with twelve thick strings in six double-courses, with a short neck and a deep soundboard; a type of acoustic bass guitar.


semba

Borrowed from Portuguese semba, from Kimbundu semba (“belly-bump”), from Proto-Bantu [Term?]. Doublet of samba.

(music) A genre of traditional music and dance from Angola.


kizomba

Borrowed from Kimbundu kizomba (“party”).

(music) A genre of Angolan popular music derived from the traditional semba dance.


Eminemesque

en-adj

Eminemesque (comparative more Eminemesque, superlative most Eminemesque)

more Eminemesque (comparative)
most Eminemesque (superlative)

I don't see people walking around in the fishnets, heels and make-up, but I do see alot^([sic]) of guys with the short bleached blonde hair, the baggy sweats, and other Eminemesque fashions...

2000 December 14, Namaste Rainbow Roll [username], “Re: eminem Vs. frank n furter”, in alt.cult-movies.rocky-horror (Usenet):

Even Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody focused on murder: "Momma just killed a man, put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he's dead." Sounds a little Eminemesque if you ask me.

2002, Deniel Tozzi, "Does Eminem Abuse Freedom of Speech?", The Sandspur (Robbins College, Winter Park, Florida), Volume 109, Number 8, 16 November 2002, page 9

You're being overly alarmist, but I think etiquette died not long after FRS hit the mainstream at Walmart. Tell my neighbors' kids who insist on conducting their Eminemesque banter on 4-20, for example.

2003 September 13, Tripp Knightly, “Re: Using family radios or walkie talkies in lieu of baby monitors”, in misc.kids.health (Usenet):

Reminiscent or characteristic of the American rapper Eminem (Marshall Bruce Mathers III, born 1972).


quelbe

(music, Virgin Islands) A style of folk and popular music from the Virgin Islands, traditionally performed by bands consisting of ukulele, banjo, guitar and washboard with various percussion instruments on rhythm.


contemporary gospel

It wasn't too many years ago that contemporary gospel music was hard to find. Now, there's evidence of it on all sides— on television, radio, stage, in homes and in automobiles.

1980 September 27, Paul Baker, “A Time-Honored Message Moves to a New Beat”, in Billboard, volume 92, number 39, page G-8+:

(music) A style of popular contemporary R&B with Christian lyrics and influences from gospel music.


slack-key

From a translation of the Hawaiian kī hōʻalu (“loosen the [tuning] key”).

calque

Spanish-style guitars played in the standard position, though probably in altered tunings slack-key fashion.

2007, Tim Brookes, Guitar: An American Life, page 56:

(music) (of a string instrument or a manner of playing one) Performed with loosened strings, such that all of the strings play in the same key (most often G major).


megapop

Word that the Icelandic iconoclast had retwiddled the results of her in-studio tryst with Mr. Mosely dashed any hopes that she'd abandon herself to horny megapop escapism.

2007, SPIN, volume 23, number 6, page 90:

The last remaining bankable megapop titan hanging out with an Internet-fueled hip-hop star — what a world!

2015 July 20, Jon Caramanica, “Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago Welcomes a Polyglot of Styles”, in New York Times:

(music, informal) Highly successful mainstream pop music.


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).


swamp pop

(music) A genre of Louisiana pop music influenced by country and local Cajun and Creole musical elements.


radioactivation

en-noun

radioactivation (countable and uncountable, plural radioactivations)

The conversion of something into a radioactive form.


radiopharmacy

radiopharmacy (countable and uncountable, plural radiopharmacies)

(countable) A pharmacy that dispenses radiopharmaceuticals.


tsampouna

Borrowed from Greek τσαμπούνα (tsampoúna). Doublet of sinfonia, symphonia, symphony, and zampogna.

doublet

(music) A bagpipe of the Greek islands; a folk instrument without a drone but with two chanters.


rain lamp

Mother looked at the ladder, at the twin lofted beds, at the desk, at the closet, at the throw pillows, at the cheap decorations, at the artwork, at the Christmas lighting, at a rain lamp that I'd acquired a few weeks earlier. It was turned on, illuminated, beads of oil dripping down around a reasonable copy of Athena Parthenos.

2017, Jarett Kobek, The Future Won't Be Long:

(lighting) A type of lamp, popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, that moves droplets of water or oil along filaments to create the illusion of falling rain.


maxi single

A music single with more than two tracks, i.e. not just an A-side and a B-side.


Brahmsian

en-adj

Brahmsian (comparative more Brahmsian, superlative most Brahmsian)

more Brahmsian (comparative)
most Brahmsian (superlative)

The great Brahmsian slow movement of the sixth glass was broken rudely by the telephone's percussion.

1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 500:

(music) Of or pertaining to Johannes Brahms (1833–1897), German composer and pianist, or his compositions.


jhala

(music) In Hindustani classical music, the fast-paced conclusion of a raga, often characterized by the overwhelming of the melodic component by the rhythmic component.


lunar lifeboat

At 141 hours and 30 minutes, the Lunar Module, Aquarius, after successfully fulfilling its contingency role as a Lunar Lifeboat, was jettisoned in preparation for the final plunge into the Earth's atmosphere.

1970, Jim Lovell, "The Flight of Apollo 13—A Successful Failure," Society of Experimental Test Pilots Technical Review, vol. 11, no. 1, p. 130 (Google search result) (retrieved 30 July 2015)

As the "lunar lifeboat" neared the Earth, the hard problem loomed of how to separate the vehicles before they entered the atmosphere.

1970 Sept., Steven Morris, "How Blacks View Mankind's “GIANT STEP”," Ebony, p. 35 (Google preview) (retrieved 30 July 2015)

[T]he world held its collective breath as the astronauts of Apollo 13 climbed into their lunar lifeboat Aquarius and safely returned to earth.

2012 September 13, Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, “Sermon”, in Washington National Cathedral, retrieved 2015-07-30:

(space sciences) In the US Apollo moon program, a lunar module repurposed as a makeshift shelter for an astronaut crew returning to earth after a mishap necessitating cancellation of a moon landing; the emergency procedure of using the lunar module in this manner.


bromosulfophthalein

In case of the ex-vivo perfusion, we further assessed liver function (bile production, bromosulfophthalein clearance) and Western blot analysis of phosphorylated adenosine monophosphate activated protein kinase (AMPK), mitogen activated protein kinases family (MAPKs) and endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) parameters (GRP78, PERK, IRE, eIF2α and ATF6).

2015 July 31, “Carbonic Anhydrase Protects Fatty Liver Grafts against Ischemic Reperfusion Damage”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:

A dye used in various medical tests of liver function. Abbreviated to BSP.


guacharaca

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

(music) A percussion instrument in the form of a partly hollowed tube with ridges carved in its outer surface, played with a wire fork.


jwé

(music, Saint Lucia) A type of traditional Saint Lucian music.


cariso

(music, Trinidad and Tobago) A genre of folk music from Trinidad and Tobago, an ancestor to modern calypso, performed by mainly female singers called chantwells.


jing ping

(music, Dominica) A genre of traditional music from Dominica.


gwo ka

(music, Guadeloupe) A type of drum and a genre of music associated with it, from the folk culture of the island of Guadeloupe.


chouval bwa

From Antillean Creole chouval bwa (literally “wood horse”).

bor

(music, Martinique) A genre of rural folk music that originated on the slave plantations of Martinique.


pichakaree

(music, Trinidad and Tobago) A genre of Indo-Trinidadian folk music, sung in a mixture of English, Hindi, and Bhojpuri.


Big Drum

(music, dance, Caribbean) A genre of music and dance, and an associated festival tradition, found in many islands of the Lesser Antilles.


himene tarava

(music) A genre of traditional choral polyphonic music from Tahiti.


bouyon

Skinny also pointed out that because the artistes “are leaning on the strength and production value of a Dominican,” people are calling out the song to be that of bouyon music.

2019 January 11, “Skinny Fabulous dampens controversy over labeling of bouyon as soca”, in Dominica News Online:

(music, Dominica) A genre of popular music from Dominica.


bemba

(music, Trinidad and Tobago) A type of folk drum used in Trinidad and Tobago.


bush ballad

(music) A poem or a piece of folk music that celebrates traditional Australian culture, especially rural culture.


ditti

(music, Antigua and Barbuda) A genre of traditional music from Antigua and Barbuda; benna, a style of calypso-like music.


toombah

(music, Antigua and Barbuda) A small drum used in the traditional music of Antigua and Barbuda.


iron band

(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.


ant'em

A variant of anthem. The spelling and pronunciation may simply reflect th-stopping, but could possibly be a retention of the historical pronunciation of anthem (the modern pronunciation of anthem with /θ/ is a late spelling pronunciation).

(music, Bahamas) A type of traditional Bahamian folk song derived from old slave music and Christian hymns.


rake and scrape

(music, Bahamas) A type of traditional Bahamian folk music, characterized by a reliance on improvised musical instruments, such as a ripsaw.

ripsaw

rake and scrape; more often used for a separate genre of Turks and Caicos music, but occasionally a synonym of


boom pipe

(music, Caribbean) A musical instrument made from a piece of pipe blown in at one end to provide the bass in the folk music traditions of Antigua and Barbuda and Montserrat.


chac-chac

(music, Caribbean) A type of rattle used in the traditional music of Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago; it is made from a gourd and used to provide a rhythm.


shack-shack

(music, Caribbean) A child's rattle, used in various Caribbean folk music traditions.

Albizia lebbeck
Albizia lebbeck#Translingual

Delonix regia
Delonix regia#Translingual

A seed pod of various trees, especially wild tamarind, woman's tongue tree (Albizia lebbeck) and royal poinciana (Delonix regia).


ensansi

(music) A type of rattle worn on the wrist and used in the traditional Kongo-Angola dance and music of Cuba.


chak-chak

(music, Saint Lucia) A musical instrument filled with seeds or grain and used as a rattle in traditional Saint Lucian music.


maruga

(music) A kind of traditional Cuban shaker or rattle made of metal.


shak-shak

(music, Caribbean) Any of several kinds of traditional shakers or rattles found throughout the Caribbean.

maraca

a general synonym for rattles or shakers in general


chantwell

Probably from French chanterelle (“female bird used by hunters as a decoy to attract other birds; treble string of a musical instrument”), from chanter (“to sing, crow”) + -erelle (variant of -elle (suffix forming feminine nouns, often with a diminutive sense)).

der

The weird, off-beat music known as "calypso" is played in all the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean, but the place to hear it at its best is in Trinidad, where it originated. Every year the calypso singers, or "chantwells," as they are called, hold a "war" to decide the championship. The singer whose songs are judged best by popular acclaim becomes "king" for the year.

1952, The American Magazine, volume 154, New York, N.Y.: Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 97, column 1:

Calypso began with the "chantwells." These were slaves who entertained plantation owners in colonial times. The chantwells made up songs about the people they knew and the things that happened to them.

1976, Robert J. Alexander et al., edited by John P. Augelli, Caribbean Lands, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Fideler Co., →ISBN, page 89, column 1:

Calypso has, however, been linked to the kalinda, to which stick-fighters chanted and fought. The chantwell, or lead singers, of the stick-fighting groups functioned as social commentator and haranguer and so may be considered very early calypsonians. The chantwells, however, were thought to possess supernatural powers, and so their pronouncements of the injury the opponent would receive were taken seriously.

2008, “Calypso”, in Richard M. Juang, Noelle Morrissette, Melissa Fullmer, editors, Africa and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: A Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia (Transatlantic Relations Series), volume I, Santa Barbara, Calif., Denver, Colo.: ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 224, column 1:

Subaltern jamette women predominated as the chantuelle, the singers of topical song, who led bands of people in Canboulay rituals, including kalinda (stick-fighters). The chantuelle were the forerunners of the predominantly male calypso artists who emerged as popular singers in the twentieth century.

2013, Rochelle Rowe, “Cleaning Up Carnival: Race, Culture and Power in the Trinidad ‘Carnival Queen’ Beauty Competition, 1946–59”, in Imagining Caribbean Womanhood: Race, Nation and Beauty Contests, 1929–70, Manchester: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 48:

(chiefly Trinidad and Tobago, music) A (generally female) lead singer of traditional cariso music, or of a calypso band.


xaque-xaque

(music) A type of Brazilian rattle, usually played in pairs and mounted on a stick.


octaviate

en-verb

octaviate (third-person singular simple present octaviates, present participle octaviating, simple past and past participle octaviated)

octaviates (present singular third-person)
octaviating (participle present)
octaviated (participle past)
octaviated (past)

Modelled on French octavier; see octavate for more.

He octaviates some fragments of the tune (including the first note) without even the excuse of avoiding difficult stopping.
[…]
The transcriber adapts chords to his instrument, sometimes octaviates or simplifies the bass on technical grounds, but a peculiarity of this setting is the inclusion of some thorough-bass realization at places where the solo part plays in unison […]

As the fundamentals of each fof begin to octaviate, they are desynchronized by individual envelopes, […]

2000, Richard Charles Boulanger, editor, the csound book, page 317:

In Marseille, I also generated some synthetic sounds with the MUSICV program. I chose a defective major-minor pitch scale, which does not exactly octaviate […]

2002, J C Risset, “Examples of the musical use of digital audio effects”, in Journal of New Music Research:


lahara

(music) a repetitive instrumental melody used to accompany a tabla or pakhawaj solo in Hindustani classical music of North India; it is also used to accompany kathak dance performances


acoustic bass guitar

en-noun

acoustic bass guitar (plural acoustic bass guitars)

A bass guitar meant to be played without electric amplification and as an accompaniment to the acoustic guitar.


photoirradiation

Materials that can be deformed by photoirradiation are not unknown, but generally consist of polymer films and gels and are rather slow-acting.

2007 April 17, Henry Fountain, “In Arctic Foxes, Clues to Effects of Shrinking Habitat”, in New York Times:


tzouras

From Greek τζουράς (tzourás), from Turkish cura.

(music) A Greek long-necked fretted lute.


toubeleki

From Greek τουμπελέκι (toumpeléki), from Turkish dümbelek.


hiplife

Up the block at Nananom, a tiny music and sundries store, all the hiplife CDs were sold out.

2015 August 6, Liz Robbins, “Hiplife, a Sound Imported From Ghana, Arrives on a New York Stage”, in New York Times:

A Ghanaian style of music that fuses highlife and hip-hop.


fork F

(music) An alternative fingering for the note F when playing oboe. The index and ring fingers of the right hand are depressed and the middle finger raised, creaking a 'fork' appearance.


Xaenorphica

From the instrument's original German name, Xänorphika.

Xaenorphica. A bow stringed instrument with a Keyboard, invented by Röllig, 1801, the sounds of which were produced by bows set in motion by a pedal.

1895, Otto Ebel, Handbook of Music, Arthur P. Schmidt, page 212

(music) A little-known stringed instrument with a keyboard, invented by Carl Leopold Röllig in 1801.


Appalachian dulcimer

Appalachian dulcimer (plural Appalachian dulcimers)

A diatonically fretted and neckless string instrument, most commonly with three or four strings; a chordophone of the zither family.


dutar

(music) A two-stringed lute with a long neck, found in Central Asia.


nattuvangam

(music) Cymbals played to accompany a Bharatanatyam performance.


marimbaphone

percussion idiophone
percussion idiophone

(obsolete, music) A kind of percussion idiophone, like the marimba, but with either wooden or steel keys designed to be bowed as well as played normally, developed by J.C. Deagan in early 20th century United States.


sertanejo

I hate sertanejo music. This has something to do with when I was a teenager and my dad liked sertanejo while I wanted to be totally different.

2010, Felipe Trotta, Annoying Music in Everyday Life:


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).


tenor drum

(music) A low-pitched drum used in Western orchestral music and for marching, such as in the military and in parades.


baritone hornist

baritone hornist (plural baritone hornists)


afterlength

Some luthiers believe it to be important to tune the afterlengths.

(music, lutherie) The shorter length of string between the bridge and the tailpiece of a stringed instrument, on the other side from that which is usually played.


crowdy-crawn

(music) A type of sheepskin-covered hoop (a crowd) used as a frame drum, originating in the traditional music of Cornwall, England.


percussion idiophone

percussion idiophone (plural percussion idiophones)

(music) An idiophone that produces sound when it vibrates due to being struck by an object that does not vibrate; a xylophone-like instrument played percussively.


acoustic bassist

acoustic bassist (plural acoustic bassists)

Someone who plays the acoustic bass guitar.


slit drum

(music) A type of idiophone, consisting of a material (usually bamboo or wood) hollowed out and possessing one or more slits on the top.


c/w

(music) Abbreviation of comes with, coupled with or combined with. Commonly used with 45 RPM singles, referring to the flip side (B-side) of the record.


monoharmonic

(music) That produces only a single tone


Pavani

(music) Name of a rāgam in Carnatic music. It is the 41stmelakarta rāgam in the 72 melakarta rāgam system of Carnatic music.


Rasikapriya

From Sanskrit रसिक (rasika) + प्रिया (priyā).

(music) A rāgam in Carnatic music. It is the 72nd melakarta rāgam in the 72 melakarta rāgam system of Carnatic music.


Kosalam

(music) Name of a rāgam in Carnatic music. It is the 71st melakarta rāgam in the 72 melakarta rāgam system of Carnatic music.


liuti attiorbati

(music) A type of small archlute; a fretted and double-necked stringed musical instrument with double courses in the bass and two sets of tuning pegs.


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:


nylon-string guitar

nylon-string guitar (plural nylon-string guitars)

(music) A guitar strung with nylon strings and with a neck that joins the body at the twelfth rather than the fourteenth fret, as in a typical guitar.

classical guitar

most commonly synonymous, though there are nylon-string acoustic-electric guitars


speech is silver, silence is golden

(idiomatic) Not saying anything is often better than speaking too much or saying something inappropriate.

إِنْ كَانَ الْكَلَامُ مِنْ فِضَّةٍ فَالسُّكُوتُ مِنْ ذَهَبٍ

puhuminen on hopeaa, vaikeneminen kultaa

la parole est d’argent, le silence est d’or

brʒnulad saubari vercxlia, xolo dumili okro

ბრძნულად საუბარი ვერცხლია, ხოლო დუმილი ოქრო

la parola è d'argento, il silenzio è d'oro

a palavra é de prata, o silêncio é de ouro

сло́во — серебро́, молча́ние — зо́лото (slóvo — serebró, molčánije — zóloto)


balalaikist

(music) Someone who plays the balalaika.


fusion torch

A technique that uses the high-temperature plasma of a fusion reactor to break apart other materials (especially waste materials) and convert them into reusable elements.


bandola

A plucked pear-shaped stringed instrument with a small body, originating in Colombia and Venezuela.


thumb piano

(music) Any type of lamellophone having a small sound box fitted with a row of tuned tabs that are plucked with the thumbs; a mbira.


Named after C86, a compilation cassette released in 1986 by NME magazine on which independent rock featured heavily. The album title itself was a play on the labelling and length of blank compact cassettes—commonly C60, C90 and C120—combined with the year 1986.

Ralske, who studied jazz trumpet at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, moved to London around the time the whole C86 scene (with bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine) was thriving.

From the latest new releases to rare collectables, including indie, punk, grunge, C86 etc.

1999, advertisement for, “www.indiemusic.co.uk”, in CMJ New Music Monthly, page 72:

The same papers that had championed C86 in the middle of the decade then spent years writing off small, pop-oriented bands such as Belle and Sebastian — particularly if they had an air of mimsy or femininity.

2007, Scott Plagenhoef, Belle & Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 57:

(music) A genre of British rock music most prominent in the late eighties and early nineties, with a lo-fi aesthetic, unconventional instrumentation and romantic lyrics.


hand drum

(music) A drum (membranophone) played with the hand, as opposed to being struck with a drumstick, mallet or other object.


keyboard instrument

keyboard instrument (plural keyboard instruments)

(music) Any musical instrument which features a keyboard, such as a piano, synthesizer or celesta.

(music) Any musical instrument that produces sound directly from the manipulation of a keyboard by the performer, including a piano and a celesta.

(music) Any musical instrument (a chordophone) that uses a keyboard to manipulate strings which produce sound, including a piano.


ratatat

A single narrow iron-clamped door formed the only means of entrance. On this our guide knocked with a peculiar postman-like rat-tat.

1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Tragedy of Pondicherry Lodge”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, page 72:


stone xylophone

stone xylophone (plural stone xylophones)

(music) A musical instrument (a lithophone) consisting of pieces of stone as sounding bars that produce tuned sounds when struck, like a xylophone.


banhu

A two-stringed bowed string instrument (chordophone) of northern Chinese origin, held vertically, possessing a soundbox usually made of coconut shell and a front surface covered with a thin layer of wood.


studio monitor

A loudspeaker specifically designed for audio production applications.


hardstep

(music) A subgenre of drum and bass music characterised by a gritty production style and urban feel.


International Klein Blue

Named after French artist Yves Klein, who first mixed it.

(art) An intense deep blue hue achieved by means of ultramarine pigment and a binder.

Internasionale Klein-blou

deep blue hue achieved through ultramarine pigment and a binder


firebomber

One who carries out a firebombing attack.


karyenda

(music) A drum of Burundian origin, revered as a national symbol of spiritual importance.


damphu

(music) A double-sided disk-shaped drum of Nepalese origin.


dhimay

(music) A double-headed cylindrical drum of South Asian origin.


angle harp

A type of harp where the neck runs at an angle over the resonator.


dhantal

(music) A percussion instrument (idiophone) of Indo-Caribbean origin, consisting of a steel rod that is struck by a horseshoe shaped beater, sounding similar to a triangle.


skrabalai

(music) A set of tuned wooden bells of Lithuanian origin, held in trapezoidal racks with several vertical rows, and played by a pair of wooden sticks.


morsing

(music) A type of Jew's harp (a lamellophone), a metal ring with two parallel forks and a tongue in the middle, used mainly in India and Pakistan.


gandingan

(music) A musical instrument, consisting of an array of four hanging gongs, of Filipino origin.


ugal

(music) A bronze metallophone used in the classical gamelan music of Indonesia.


glasschord

(music) A crystallophone similar to a celesta that uses glass bars in place of metal ones.


nail violin

(music) A musical instrument consisting of a wooden soundboard with metal nails attached, tuned to produce notes when played with a bow.


washint

(music) An endblown flute of Ethiopian origin.


vest frottoir

(music) A frottoir designed to be worn like a vest.


splash cymbal

(music) Either of a pair of small cymbals used to provide a special effect or accent, part of a modern drum kit.


sudrophone

Invented by François Sudre (1844–1912), + -phone.

(music) A brass instrument with a cylindrical bore and four valves.


babendil

(music) A narrow-rimmed gong of Filipino origin, used singly to provide a rhythm in a kulintang ensemble.


devil chase

(music) A musical instrument (idiophone) made from a split stalk of bamboo struck against a performer's hand, originating in South Asia.


bonang

(music) A set of small gongs placed on a rack and usually struck with a padded stick, a type of gong chime, used in the gamelan music of Java.


kolenang

(music) A type of bonang (a gong chime) with gongs laid out in a V or U-shape, used in the gamelan degung music of Sunda.


hokyo

(music) A metallophone of Japanese origin.


banghyang

(music) A metallophone of Korean origin.


kisanji

(music) A small plucked lamellophone, originating among the Ngala people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


array mbira

(music) A type of plucked lamellophone, a Western adaptation of the African mbira.


chillador

A fretted guitar-like stringed instrument of Peruvian origin, part of the charango family, usually with ten to fourteen strings in five courses.


gragger

(music) A type of ratchet (an idiophone musical instrument) used mainly in Purim celebrations in Jewish tradition; it consists of a board and a gearwheel attached to a handle, and is played by swinging the mechanism to make the gearwheel scrape against the board, producing a percussive sound.


huiringua

(music) A slit drum made from a hollow log, of Mexican origin, struck with a pair of wood mallets.


reyong

(music) A type of gong chime, a set of gongs laid out on a rack and sometimes played by up to four people simultaneously, used in the gamelan music of Bali.


agidigbo

(music) A lamellophone worn around the neck, originating among the Yoruba of Nigeria, played by striking the box frame of the instrument with a ring worn around a thumb.


ghanta

The abhisheka of the ghanta, or bell, is the fourth abhisheka of the vase. Presenting the student with the ghanta signifies that he is not only concerned with personal realization but is also willing to proclaim the teachings for the benefit of others.

1991, Chögyam Trungpa, The Heart of the Buddha, Shambhala Publications, page 123:

The ghantas are hand bells and represent the wisdom the practitioner is attempting to cultivate.

2002, Bradley K. Hawkins, The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Buddhism, page 111:

The ritual hand-bell or ghanta represents the feminine principle of the 'Perfection of Wisdom' (Skt. prajna-paramita), which directly realizes emptiness.

2003, The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols, Serindia Publications, Inc, page 92:

(music) A type of bell, usually constructed of brass, used in Hindu rituals.


saron

(music) A percussion idiophone with bronze bars, of Indonesian origin, used in gamelan music.


ring of bells

(music) A set of large bells of English origin, played by means of a wheel that moves each bell in a nearly 360-degree arc.


kubing

(music) A type of Jew's harp, of Filipino origin, most often made of bamboo.


bonsho

(Buddhism, music) A very large bell used in Buddhist temples in Japan to mark time and call monks in for prayer.


pibgorn

(music) A Welsh single-reed wind instrument or pipe with a horn at each end.


octavin

(music) A single-reed instrument with a conical bore, originating in Germany.


kouxian

Borrowed from the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 口弦 (kǒuxián).

(music) A type of mouth harp, of Chinese origin, usually made of bamboo or sometimes brass, and often consisting of more than one lamellae.


saxonette

(music) A soprano clarinet with a curved barrel and an upturned bell.


bianzhong

/ˈbi.ænˈd͡ʒɔŋ/

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 編鐘／编钟 (biānzhōng).

The bianzhong (編鐘) is an ancient Chinese musical instrument consisting of 65 chime bells. Because it was only used for performances at the imperial court, it came to be known as the “instrument of kings” (王者之器).

2014 February 20, Hsiang-yi Tang, “The sound of kings”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-09-28, Features, page 12:

(music) A set of bronze bells played to provide melody, of ancient Chinese origin.


dulcijo

(music) A type of three-stringed clawhammer banjo that is tuned diatonically, like a dulcimer, with a shortened third string and a drum resonator.


baritone guitar

baritone guitar (plural baritone guitars)

A type of large-bodied and long-necked guitar that plays in a baritone range.


banjo dulcimer

Appalachian dulcimer
Appalachian dulcimer

(music) An Appalachian dulcimer that has been modified with the addition of a vibrating membrane like the body of a banjo.


Baroque guitar

An archaic form of guitar with five strings, originating in the Baroque era, played by either strumming or plucking, and characterized by the use of reentrant tuning.

guitarra barroca

archaic form of guitar from the Baroque era


tetrachordo

(music) A tetrachord (four-stringed) bouzouki; a type of chordophone.


trichordo

(music) A trichord (three-stringed) old-fashioned bouzouki; a type of chordophone.


jinghu

A two-stringed bamboo musical instrument played with a bow, the smallest and highest-pitched in the huqin family of traditional Chinese instruments, associated mainly with the tradition of Beijing opera.


trap music

After rapper T.I.'s 2003 album Trap Muzik, dealing with themes of street life and drug dealing. See trap (“a place where drugs are sold”).

A subgenre of hip-hop that originated in the early 1990s in the southern United States, typified by bleak themes, aggressive lyrics, and distinctive synthesizers and drums.


bordonua

A large stringed instrument of Puerto Rican origin, a low-pitched version of the guitar-like cuatro.


bowed psaltery

bowed psaltery (plural bowed psalteries)

A psaltery adapted to be played with a bow instead of with plucking, with a triangular shape and a hole (rose) in the center of the soundboard.


elektro-baglama

(music) A baglama modified with magnetic pickups so as to be a modern electric instrument.


moshable

en-adj

moshable (comparative more moshable, superlative most moshable)

more moshable (comparative)
most moshable (superlative)

The fired-up foursome takes itself very seriously, singing politically charged lyrics, which, in the tradition of Strife and Damnation AD, are strategically placed in the middle of slamming, moshable breakdowns.

1999, CMJ New Music Report, volume 59, number 631, page 28:

(music, colloquial) Befitting the moshing style of dance.


bowed dulcimer

A type of Appalachian dulcimer played with a bow and held upright like a cello.


bugarija

A stringed instrument of Bosnian origin, a type of lute with circular soundholes, a long neck, and usually four strings.


bull fiddler

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


buzuq

(music) A mandolin-shaped lute of Arab origin, with a long neck, movable frets and two or three strings played with a plectrum.


bass violinist

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


Irish bouzouki

(music) A bouzouki adapted for use in Irish traditional music with a short neck, and a flat back and sides.


chitarronist

(music) Someone who plays the chitarrone.


bass violist

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


acoustic-electric

(music, of an acoustic instrument) Modified with the addition of pickups or a microphone, in order to make the sound louder and more noticeable.


semi-acoustic

(music, of an electric instrument) Modified with a wholly or partially hollow soundbox, producing a sound similar to but different than a normal acoustic version of the same instrument.


washtub bassist

en-noun

washtub bassist (plural washtub bassists)


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).


upright bassist

upright bassist (plural upright bassists)

A double bassist; someone who plays the upright 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).


tea chest bass

tea chest bass (plural tea chest basses)

(music) A washtub bass that uses a tea chest as the resonator for an upright stringed bass guitar.


chanzy

A three-stringed plucked lute of Tuvan origin, like a long-necked banjo with a skin head over a heart or kidney-shaped body.


ceterone

A large cittern distinguished by the use of wire strings, and the presence of extra bass strings.


doshpuluur

Borrowed from Tuvan дошпулуур (doşpuluur).

A long-necked plucked lute with two or three strings, of Tuvan origin, characterized by a skin head on both sides of the square wooden body.


jazzical

From the smoothest symphonic dance pieces to the most highly seasoned jazzical eccentricities runs the range; there is a spiced variety of good things for every taste.

1995, Mark Tucker, The Duke Ellington Reader, page 34:

(music, informal) Combining elements of jazz and classical music.


jabisen

From Japanese 蛇皮線 (jabisen, literally “snakeskin strings”).

bor

Introduced into China from Central Asia and thence to Ryūkyū in the very late 14th century, the jabisen gives a special flavor to the folk culture of Okinawa.

1973 June, “OKINAWA, The Islands That Fortune Overlooked”, in The East, volume 9, number 5, Tokyo: East Publications, →ISSN, page 48, columns 1–2:


charangon

A type of large stringed instrument of the charango family, with a characteristically low pitch, originating in the traditional music of the Andean area.


drummist

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


English hornist

en-noun

English hornist (plural English hornists)

Someone who plays the English horn (cor anglais).


idakka

(music) An hourglass-shaped drum originating in Kerala in India; it is struck with a stick, and its pitch can be altered by means of the lacing between the two heads.


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.


chuniri

A bowed viol-like string instrument (a spike fiddle) with three strings, originating in the folk traditions of Georgia.


cigar box guitarist

cigar box guitarist (plural cigar box guitarists)


cigar box guitar

cigar box guitar (plural cigar box guitars)

(music) A simple guitar-like string instrument that uses a cigar box as a resonator, and traditionally has a broomstick for a neck.


c-hole

(music) A sound hole, shaped like a lower-case c, through the top surface of a string instrument.


s-hole

(music) A sound hole, shaped like the letter s, through the top surface of a string instrument.


contraguitar

(music, historical) An old form of guitar originating in Vienna, with a standard six-string neck and a second bass neck with up to nine strings.


banjitarist

Someone who plays the banjitar (guitjo).


ff-hole

(music) A sound hole, shaped like the letters ff, through the top surface of a string instrument.


yazh

(music) A fretless harp of ancient Tamil origin, with a variable number of gut strings, characterized by a boat-shaped resonator.