mute h

The French word homme ("man") begins by a mute h. Consequently we can say l'homme /l‿ɔm/ and les hommes /le‿zɔm/, but never /lə ɔm/ and /le ɔm/, like we do with the aspirated h.

Whether the h be a mute h or an aspirate h, it may be regarded in either case as absolutely silent.

1913, James Geddes, French Pronunciation, page 83:

In French initial h’s are called either mute h’s (the greatest number) or aspirate h’s (fewer in number, but frequent nonetheless).

1994, Thomas M. Donnan, French Lyric Diction, page 83:

The only difference between the two is that a mute h allows contractions and liaisons in front of it, and an aspirated h does not.

2006, Laura K. Lawless, The Everything French Grammar Book, page 29:

(phonology) In the French language usage of the letter h at the start of a word which allows liaison with a preceding consonant.


para red

en-noun

para red (countable and uncountable, plural para reds)


paranitraniline red

paranitraniline red (countable and uncountable, plural paranitraniline reds)

The first azo dye discovered (in 1880), which dyes cellulose fabrics a brilliant red but is not very fast.


organotechnetium

(organic chemistry) Describing any organic compound containing a carbon-to-technetium bond.


ramscoop

(science fiction) A proposed space travel technology using enormous electromagnetic fields as a scoop to collect and compress hydrogen and trigger thermonuclear fusion, thus powering the vessel.


organouranium

(organic chemistry) Describing any organic compound containing a carbon-to-uranium bond.


uranocene

uranocene (countable and uncountable, plural uranocenes)

(organic chemistry) The actinocene cyclooctatetraenide with chemical formula U(C₈H₈)₂, one of the first organouranium compounds to be synthesized.


reedist

In what's becoming an annual tradition, Chicago-via-Boston reedist Ken Vandermark is joined by his former Beantown cohort, drummer Curt Newton […].

1993 December 24, Peter Margasak, “Ken Vandermark & Curt Newton”, in Chicago Reader:

(music) A musician who plays reed instruments (usually more than one).


musique concrète

Pierre Henry's musique concrète, the Dixie Cups

1980, “I Confess”, performed by Dorothy:

Largely self-taught, he claimed to have been influenced by Schoenberg, Messiaen, and the musique concrete movement.

1996 June 28, Ted Shen, “Cube”, in Chicago Reader:

TO LIVE AND SHAVE IN L.A., ROCK/USADOWN (Monday) The line between metal-on-metal harshness and abstract musique concrète is deliberately blurred in the music of To Live and Shave in L.A., a long-running collective led by Tom Smith.

2007 May 11, The New York Times, “Pop and Rock Listings”, in New York Times:

A genre of music created by the electronic manipulation of sounds that occur naturally.


Christian rock

(music) A genre of rock music with a Christian theme.


thoron

From Thor + -on. From thorium, itself from Thor.

(physics) Radon-220 (²²⁰₈₆Rn; symbol Tn), an isotope of radon


kosmische

Kosmische’s fertility is only matched by its desire to create something totally new, and it is that which has proved inspirational to successive generations of musicians from right across the spectrum.

2010 March 30, Jon Savage, “Elektronische musik: a guide to krautrock”, in The Guardian:

Van Hoen produced music throughout the '80s, taking inspiration chiefly from Cabaret Voltaire and kosmische acts like Tangerine Dream. At the time, though, this was an entirely isolated pursuit.

2013 April 22, Angus Finlayson, “Mark van Hoen: Playing with time”, in Resident Advisor:

Kosmische the genre was generally beatless, unmoored and astral in character, whereas at Kosmische the club the music was nailed… When the mood was right, you could play almost anything.

2015, David Stubbs, Future Days: Krautrock and the Birth of a Revolutionary New Music, Melville House, →ISBN:

(music, also attributive) Ellipsis of kosmische musik.


nontonal

(music) Concerning atonal music with patterns and repetitions; Mildly atonal.


whistle note

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

(music, voice) A note extremely high in the register, but not falsetto.


bleu celeste

Borrowed from French bleu céleste (“sky blue”).

(heraldry) A rarely-occurring sky-blue tincture, lighter than azure.


circumlunar

Surrounding, or traveling around the Moon

circumlunaire

surrounding, or traveling around the Moon


circumsolar

According to the reigning hypothesis, about 4.5 billion years ago, shortly after Earth had accreted down into a sphere from its little slub of circumsolar material, another newborn planet [Theia], still shaky on its feet, slammed obliquely into Earth with terrifying force.

2014 September 7, Natalie Angier, “The Moon comes around again [print version: Revisiting a moon that still has secrets to reveal: Supermoon revives interest in its violent origins and hidden face, International New York Times, 10 September 2014, p. 8]”, in The New York Times:


by ear

(music) To learn to play (an instrument) or sing by listening to recorded music without reading or memorizing sheet music or without any formal instruction.


soulstress

Chicago-bred new-jack soulstress Chantay Savage performs material from her just-released debut Here We Go (RCA).

1994 August 5, Peter Margasak, “Spot Check”, in Chicago Reader:


soulster

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


toppy

en-adj

toppy (comparative more toppy, superlative most toppy)

more toppy (comparative)
most toppy (superlative)

(music) Characterised by lots of treble.


baritonist

Featured most notably with Dizzy Gillespie's big band, Payne showed the influence of Harry Carney (the best-known baritonist of the swing era) in his meaty and authoritative sound[…].

1994 June 3, Neil Tesser, “Eric Alexander, Cecil Payne & John Ore”, in Chicago Reader:

(jazz) A player of the baritone saxophone


beatscape

She pits the lush 70s-style arrangements of Eumir Deodato against the oblique beatscapes of Mark Bell, who as a member of LFO led the UK charge to transform techno from euphoric hedonism into ominous paranoia.

1998 May 29, Peter Margasak, “An Adventurer Plays it Safe”, in Chicago Reader:

(music) A musical piece or passage consisting of richly textured beats


beauty and the beast

From the traditional fairy tale. See Beauty and the Beast at Wikipedia.

(music) An aesthetic in heavy metal, etc. that contrasts "angelic" female vocals with male growls or aggressive singing.


biomusic

(music) A form of music based on the sounds of nature.


strummy

strummy (comparative more strummy, superlative most strummy)

more strummy (comparative)
most strummy (superlative)

In “The Delivery Man,” halfway through, he played electric guitar sparely, which made a huge difference in a very strummy show.

2009 June 12, Ben Ratliff, “Acoustic Set of Country, Rock and Old-Time Tales”, in New York Times:


AOR

en-noun

AOR (countable and uncountable, plural AORs)

MTV is a singles medium, as is the hottest (warmest?) new radio strategy God help us, “adult contemporary”; even AOR devotes the contemporary portion of its programming to putative singles.

1990 January 2, Robert Christgau, “1980–1989: Rockism Faces the World”, in The Village Voice:

album-oriented radio
album-oriented radio#English

(music, radio format, US, uncountable) Initialism of album-oriented radio.

album-oriented rock
album-oriented rock#English

(music, uncountable) Initialism of album-oriented rock.

(music, uncountable) Initialism of adult-oriented rock.


nonkeyboard

(computing, music) Not a keyboard, or lacking a keyboard.


synthy

en-adj

synthy (comparative more synthy, superlative most synthy)

more synthy (comparative)
most synthy (superlative)

(informal, music) Based upon, or resembling, the sound of a synthesizer.


sensorchip

Any of several semiconductor devices used to detect or image forms of radiation


petro-dictator

Probably back-formed from petro-dictatorship.

[…] ignore the warnings while America's career politicians coddled and sun-bathed with their corrupt corporate campaign donors and the petro-dictators and monarchs[…]

2005, Peter De Krassel, Custom Maid Spin for New World Disorder:

By any reasonable standard it is a far better deal to send money to America's farmers than to various petro-dictators.

2008, Gal Luft, Breaking Oil's Monopoly in the Transportation Sector:

The U.S., the U.K. and others could point usefully to their own sometimes ruinous experiences with various African petro-dictators and diamond despots, in that not-so-distant past before we discovered our new-found attention to African democracy.

2009, Ernest J. Wilson, China's Influence In Africa:

The dictator of a country whose economy is primarily dependent upon the export of petroleum.


agitpop

His keenest outrage is reserved for the Bush administration, which he tears into like a good punker should, but Gabel's lyrics and delivery have a subtlety and wit that more didactic agitpop singers lack. "

2006 April 28, Miles Raymer, “Against Me!”, in Chicago Reader:

(music) Pop music of an agitational character


petro-dictatorship

The development of energy resources in an otherwise underdeveloped economy […] is often accompanied by the rise of corrupt, authoritarian regimes (Witness the petro-dictatorships of Nigeria, Libya[…])

1997, Peter Rutland, Lost Opportunities: Energy and Politics in Russia:

Internationally, what is already the world's most indebted nation is overextended on the military front, highly dependent on OPEC oil and increasingly beholden to sovereign wealth funds run by petro-dictatorships or authoritarian regimes

2009, Thomas J. Courchene, The Obama Opportunity: Agent of Change in a Time of Crisis:

A dictatorship funded by petroleum exports.


antirock

In their darkest hour, the antirock interests received a gift from the gods: the quiz-show scandal of 1958.

2002 October 11, Cliff Doerksen, “Same Old Song and Dance”, in Chicago Reader:


antirock

Ut's slippery, semi-improvised antirock was shrill and swampy, an unpredictable amalgam of loose strumming and phantom sputtering.

2006 November 10, Jessica Hopper, “Ten Under the Radar”, in Chicago Reader:

(music) Rock music that deliberately goes against the usual conventions of the genre

anti-rock

rock that deliberately goes against conventions


organopolonium

(organic chemistry) Describing any organic compound containing a carbon to polonium bond.


organothorium

(organic chemistry) Describing any organic compound containing a carbon to thorium bond.


organoplutonium

(organic chemistry) Describing any organic compound containing a carbon to plutonium bond.


soundclash

en-noun

soundclash (countable and uncountable, plural soundclashes)

(music) Any of several forms of popular music based on strongly contrasting elements.

(music, countable) A Jamaican musical contest at which the audience reaction is used to choose the best DJ.


black coal

black coal (countable and uncountable, plural black coals)


overscored

en-adj

overscored (comparative more overscored, superlative most overscored)

more overscored (comparative)
most overscored (superlative)

(music) scored for too many instruments (or types of instrument)


conservatoire

Borrowed from French conservatoire. Doublet of conservatory.

կոնսերվատորիա

school or educational institution that teaches music


amelodic

amelodic (comparative more amelodic, superlative most amelodic)

more amelodic (comparative)
most amelodic (superlative)

Though her savagely amelodic vocals were mixed unfortunately low, Gordon gave the noise-hungry the most to work with, and seemed to ignite the potential for chaos that Moore and Ranaldo were keeping tastefully in check, saving themselves for the long haul.

1998 May 29, Monica Kendrick, “Sweet Self-Indulgence”, in Chicago Reader:

Unfortunately Harrison decided to sing on the bulk of the record, and he's got a quavery, amelodic whine like Dave Matthews.

2005 February 25, Liz Armstrong, Keith Harris, Monica Kendrick, Peter Margasak, J. Niimi, “The Treatment”, in Chicago Reader:


afoxe

"Afros E Afoxes de Bahia" offers a sampling of afros and afoxe groups and features singers such as Gilberto Gil and Margareth Menezes.

1990 December 28, Fernando Gonzalez, “Two Daring Journeys into Brazilian Music”, in Boston Globe:

It now brings together son, guajira, guaracha with New Orleans funk, Nigerian Afrobeat, South American cumbia, James Brown rhythms, Haitian compas, Brazilian afoxe, New York City boogaloo and even jam-band stuff predicated on electric guitars as much as hand drums.

2007 May 17, Ben Ratliff, “Cuban Music, Good for Dancing, and for Thinking About as Well”, in New York Times:


bassless

(The band is bassless, consisting of guitarist Brace Paine, drummer Hannah Blilie, and Ditto.)

2006 March 3, Jessica Hopper, “Is This It?”, in Chicago Reader:


beatless

Labradford's debut album, Prazision, was ambient music for indie rockers, blissfully devoid of both high-gloss digitalia and New Age goo--a series of drifting, beatless soundscapes created with analog synthesizers and heavily treated guitar.

1998 April 3, Peter Margasak, “Kranky and Proud of It/”, in Chicago Reader:


basswork

His basswork is both sure-fingered and mercifully sparse[…].

1994 April 22, David Whiteis, “Ernie Williams”, in Chicago Reader:


barwalking

He sang in an urgent, desperate sort of chant, and on saxophone he exaggerated the squealing sharpness of the R & B barwalking tradition.

2003 October 31, Peter Margasak, “Punk Primer/Postscripts”, in Chicago Reader:

(music) A form of showmanship in which a musician stands on the bar


bashy

bashy (comparative bashier, superlative bashiest)

bashier (comparative)
bashiest (superlative)

The record doesn't refuse to rock: the trebly attack of songs like "Drown" and "Route" is reminiscent of the bashy splendor of the earliest Tupelo releases.

1995 August 4, Bill Wyman, “Son Volt”, in Chicago Reader:


banjouke

/ˈbænd͡ʒəʊˌjuːk/

[…] Morris's banjo and banjouke improvisations pulse along with William Parker's basslike zintir and Hamid Drake's drumming for an avant-garde Moroccan hoedown.

2003 October 10, Peter Margasak, “Joe Morris”, in Chicago Reader:


balladic

balladic (comparative more balladic, superlative most balladic)

more balladic (comparative)
most balladic (superlative)

Still, my favorite moments are the quiet ones, like when Henry, the tell-me-about-the-rabbits-George deviate, croons his balladic confession, "I did a thing."

1989 July 21, Anthony Adler, “Game of Love”, in Chicago Reader:

Vedder and the rest of the band are at their best when they're feeling balladic.

1994 December 2, Bill Wyman, “Posture After Posture”, in Chicago Reader:


basslike

basslike (comparative more basslike, superlative most basslike)

more basslike (comparative)
most basslike (superlative)

On tracks like "Mama's Gonna Make Us a Cake" one guitarist plays basslike parts while the other goes nuts in a scrappy way; for "Evil Operations Classified" Billotte and Wilcox drop into lockstep to exhilarating effect.

2004 April 16, Peter Margasak, “Causal Dots”, in Chicago Reader:


Fukushima

Borrowed from Japanese 福島(ふくしま) (Fukushima).

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster following a tsunami in 2011.


raplike

raplike (comparative more raplike, superlative most raplike)

more raplike (comparative)
most raplike (superlative)

(music) Resembling hip-hop or the act of rapping.


polyphloisbic

polyphloisbic (comparative more polyphloisbic, superlative most polyphloisbic)

more polyphloisbic (comparative)
most polyphloisbic (superlative)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πολύφλοισβος (polúphloisbos, “loud‐roaring”).

bor

πολύφλοισβος

1915, Rupert Brooke, letter to Violet Bonham Carter, quoted in William Manchester, The Last Lion, page 518.
Will Hero’s Tower crumble under 15-inch guns? Will the sea be polyphloisbic and wine dark and unvintageable?

(poetic, of the sea) noisy, roaring, thundering


ballade

Borrowed from French ballade. Doublet of ballad.

Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language […] his clerks […] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.

1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

"Dead and gone!" as Andrew Lang re-echoes in a sweetly mournful ballade[…

1915, Richard Le Gallienne, Vanishing Roads and Other Essays:

Even a 10-minute Chopin ballade for piano, let alone Messiaen’s 75-minute “Turangalila Symphony,” tries to grapple with, activate and organize a relatively substantial span of time.

2007 December 30, Anthony Tommasini, “A Patience to Listen, Alive and Well”, in New York Times:

(music) Any of various genres of single-movement musical pieces having lyrical and narrative elements.


jellyfish baby

en-noun

jellyfish baby (plural jellyfish babies)

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

A stillborn infant with transparent skin and without bones, resulting from radiation poisoning.


firelit

We took a few puffs, he watching the fire, and I his firelit face.

1897, E. W. Hornung, Dead Men Tell No Tales:

Shall I make a gentle song Here in my firelit study, When outside the winds blow strong And the lanes are muddy?

1918, Robert Graves, Fairies and Fusiliers:

The locomotive was the now inevitable American 2-8-0, No. 2623. There she stood, effectively blocking the level crossing, simmering gently, massively inert. It was almost dark, and one's final sight was of her high, firelit cab, the enginemen nonchalantly leaning out, waiting for the right-away, while impatient road convoys piled up on both sides of the crossing.

1945 January and February, “Notes and News: American Locomotives in France”, in Railway Magazine, page 46:


authentic cadence

authentic cadence (plural authentic cadences)

(music, chiefly US) A cadence involving the resolution of the dominant chord (V) to the root chord (I).

authentischer Schluss

cadence where dominant chord resolves to the root chord


allegro non troppo

From Italian allegro (“fast”) + non (“not”) + troppo (“too much”).


afrobeat

→ German: Afrobeat

→ Portuguese: afrobeat

→ Spanish: afrobeat

(music) Music that combines West African musical styles (such as traditional Yoruba music and highlife) with American funk, jazz, and soul influences, with a focus on chanted vocals, complex intersecting rhythms, and percussion.


music theory

The field of study dealing with how music works, typically examining the language and notation of music, the patterns and structures in composers' techniques, and so on.


salicet

From German, from Latin salix (“willow”) + French -et.

A pipe organ stop of 4-foot or 2-foot pitch.


salicional

/səˈlɪʃənəl/

From German Salizional, from Latin salix (“willow”) + -al.

(music) A labial pipe organ stop of eight-foot pitch.


beatmatching

(music) The synchronization of beats in two pieces of music, as performed by a disc jockey in order to mix tracks seamlessly.


filin

Borrowed from Spanish filin, itself from English feeling.

(music) A genre that emerged in late 1940s in La Habana, influenced by the melodic and expressive style of vocal jazz.


interlunation

interlunation (countable and uncountable, plural interlunations)

The interlunar period; the dark time between the old moon and new moon phases.


mirliton

/ˈmɜːlɪˌtɒn/

/ˈmɪɹləˌtɑn/

From French. Coined as a nonce to advertise a new women's bonnet, mirliton came to be applied to any trifle or trinket before acquiring several specific meanings. Compare the English word folderol.

In form the mirlitons resembled flutes, shawms, or other instruments, and were generally furnished with a parchment membrane.

1975, Sibyl Marcuse, A survey of musical instruments, page 172:

Whistles, mirlitons, flutes, trumpets or horns, clarinets, and oboes are all played in one or more parts of the continent.

1990, Francis Bebey, African music: a people's art, page 64:

The bars have air resonators below, and mirliton membranes are set over holes in the resonators (see Figure 10-3C).

1996, Bart Hopkin, Musical Instrument Design, page 145:

(music) The eunuch flute, a kind of kazoo or membranophone.


suspended cymbal

suspended cymbal (plural suspended cymbals)

(music) a cymbal that is suspended horizontally and usually played with one or two sticks


bectumomab

non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

A monoclonal antibody used to detect non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.


besilesomab

A mouse monoclonal antibody used to detect inflammatory lesions and metastases.


enflame

en-verb

enflame (third-person singular simple present enflames, present participle enflaming, simple past and past participle enflamed)

enflames (present singular third-person)
enflaming (participle present)
enflamed (participle past)
enflamed (past)

To VVrangle the Devil, out of the Country, vvill be truly a Nevv Experiment! Alas, vve are not Avvare of the Devil, if vve do not think, that he aims at Enflaming us one againſt another; & ſhall vve ſuffer our ſelves to be Devil-Ridden? or, by any Vnadviſableneſs, contribute unto the VVidening of our Breaches?

1692 (indicated as 1693), Cotton Mather, “Enchantments Encountred”, in The Wonders of the Invisible World. Observations as well Historical as Theological, upon the Nature, the Number, and the Operations of the Devils. […], Boston, Mass.: […] Benjamin Harris, →OCLC:


m.d.

From French main droite and Italian mano destra.

(music) Indicating the right (as opposed to 'left') hand. Initialism of main droite or mano destra.


mano sinistra

From the Italian mano (“hand”) and sinistra (“left”).

musical notation
musical notation#English

(music) In musical notation, an instruction for the pianist to use the left hand.


mano destra

From Italian mano (“hand”) and destra (“right”).

(music) In musical notation, an instruction for the pianist to use the right hand.


main droite

From the French main (“hand”) + droit (“right”).


burn to a crisp

burn to a crisp (third-person singular simple present burns to a crisp, present participle burning to a crisp, simple past and past participle burnt to a crisp or burned to a crisp)

burns to a crisp (present singular third-person)
burning to a crisp (participle present)
burnt to a crisp (participle past)
burnt to a crisp (past)
burned to a crisp (participle past)
burned to a crisp (past)

(transitive, intransitive) To burn (usually food) very severely.


auto-tuner

(music) A device that corrects the intonation of an audio signal without affecting other aspects of the sound, sometimes used to fix off-key singing.


halo nucleus

(nuclear physics) An atomic nucleus whose radius is appreciably larger than that predicted by the liquid drop model (wherein the nucleus is assumed to be a sphere of constant density).


big band

en-noun

big band (countable and uncountable, plural big bands)

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

(uncountable, music) The music produced by a jazz big band.


voix céleste

Borrowed from French voix céleste (“heavenly voice”).

bor+

An organ stop consisting of either one or two ranks of pipes slightly out of tune, so as to produce a beating effect when combined with a normally tuned rank.


mesothorium

From meso- + thorium. Probably so-called because these two isotopes (²²⁸Ra and ²²⁸Ac) are, in the decay chain, intermediate between normal thorium (²³²Th) and radiothorium (²²⁸Th).

(physics) Certain members of the decay chain of thorium, mainly isotopes of radium and actinium


vibist

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


pyrogeography

(rare) The geographical study of the spread of fire


laptronica

Blend of laptop + electronica. The term gained a certain degree of currency in the 1990s.

More recently, the notion of using a portable computer on stage became a reality and new forms of music including laptronica, the synthesis of laptop and electronica, were born.

2012, Leigh Landy, Making Music with Sounds, Routledge, →ISBN, page 16:

(music, computing) Musical output made with a laptop computer combined with electronic devices, portable enough for live performances.


solar sail

(astronautics) A sail-like structure on a spacecraft consisting of very large ultrathin mirrors, with propulsion being achieved by the radiation pressure of light from a star or laser.


motorik

en-adj

motorik (comparative more motorik, superlative most motorik)

more motorik (comparative)
most motorik (superlative)

...explores the anti-auto tirades of Peggy Suicide while (ironically) paying tribute to the motorik beat and highway sounds of Neu! and krautrock.

1996, Jim DeRogatis, Kaleidoscope eyes: psychedelic rock from the '60s to the '90s:

Kraftwerk and Can both used the motorik style as did later electronic oriented bands like Ultravox...

2006, Steve Taylor, A to X of Alternative Music:

...with occasional C-sharp and B chords thrown in there to relieve the tension, and a motorik beat.

2007, Phil Freeman, Marooned: the next generation of desert island discs:

(music, informal) Having a rigid, repetitive, driving 4/4 beat, as in krautrock.


kyoodle

There was a yip and kyoodle for John Brown and "the great deeds of the past."

1956, Eric F. Goldman, Rendezvous With Destiny: A History of Modern American Reform:

Liberals everywhere echoed the "yip and kyoodle" of the Osawatomie crowd; conservatives were aghast at Roosevelt's radicalism.

1962, Ernest J. Wrage, Barnet Baskerville, Contemporary forum: American speeches on twentieth-century issues:

A loud, meaningless noise; howl or holler.


kyoodle

en-verb

kyoodle (third-person singular simple present kyoodles, present participle kyoodling, simple past and past participle kyoodled)

kyoodles (present singular third-person)
kyoodling (participle present)
kyoodled (participle past)
kyoodled (past)

Be known as a booster and crow like a rooster; don't yelp like a bow-wow that's tied to a can; laugh, sing and kyoodle, and blow in some boodle, and help things along like a nice little man.

1884, The Shield: Official Publication of the Theta Delta Chi Fraternity:

And now the drought is broken, let's be joyful in our gains. Let's kyoodle, whoop, and holler for these miliion-dollar rains!

1915, Edward Jewitt Wheeler, Isaac Kaufman Funk, William Seaver Woods, The Literary Digest - Volume 51, page 33:

No living thing moved upon it, not even a medicine wolf to kyoodle to the invisible moon.

1977, Richard Sale, The White Buffalo, →ISBN, page 13:

There were many, he said, "who unfold their ample jaws and yip and kyoodle about old John and the Cause of freedom," who, when faced with the modern struggle for reform, "pull down their blinds [and] fasten the doors."

2002, H. Craig Miner, Kansas: The History of the Sunflower State, 1854-2000, page 8:


ray of light

(physics) A path a photon or a group of photons takes through space, visible as a column of light.


hosaphone

(music) A home-made musical instrument consisting of a length of garden hose with a funnel inserted at one end. It is played by blowing it in the manner of a trumpet.


agrément

en-noun

agrément (countable and uncountable, plural agréments)

From French agrément. Doublet of agreement.


radio galaxy

(astronomy) Type of galaxy that is very luminous at radio wavelengths.


wippen

(music) A component of the action of a mechanical keyboard instrument such as a piano or organ


shoegazey

en-adj

shoegazey (comparative more shoegazey, superlative most shoegazey)

more shoegazey (comparative)
most shoegazey (superlative)

...unaffected harmonies over fairly conventional shoegazey rock, though usually to exceptionally beautiful effect.

1997, Ira A Robbins, The Trouser Press guide to '90s rock:

(rare, informal, music) Having elements of the shoegaze style.


nonpiano

Is it that you're trying to create a nonpiano sound?

1991, Edward Strickland, American composers: dialogues on contemporary music:

Piano music may profitably be viewed as a musical world distinct from the world of nonpiano music.

2003, J K Randall, Benjamin Boretz, Being about music: textworks 1960-2003:

(music) Not of or pertaining to the piano.


neuro

en-noun

neuro (countable and uncountable, plural neuros)

(uncountable, music, informal) Clipping of neurofunk.


sibilantly

en-adv

sibilantly (comparative more sibilantly, superlative most sibilantly)

more sibilantly (comparative)
most sibilantly (superlative)


New Romanticism

Neither punk nor new romanticism were strictly urban affairs. The woodwork squeaked and out came the freaks from all corners of the country.

2011 October 2, Boy George, “When we were heroes”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

A youth fashion movement that peaked in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s, associated with synthpop music and flamboyant and sometimes androgynous attire.


New Romantic

As a band influenced by the European electronic underground, and not the popular New Romantics like Duran Duran, Moev was out of step with both the corporate rock that dominated the Canadian music industry and Vancouver's thriving punk scene.

2011, Michael Barclay, Ian A. D. Jack, Jason Schneider, Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995:

But by the early 1980s the energy had largely drained from the punk movement, giving way to the synthesizers, eyeliner and bouffants of so-called New Romantic bands like Duran Duran and Adam and the Ants.

2023 November 30, Matt Phillips, “Shane MacGowan, Songwriter Who Fused Punk and Irish Rebellion, Is Dead at 65”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A person involved in the New Romanticism movement.


hydraulophone

Straying from classical music, there is Steve Mann's hydraulophone (which, even if not quite a match for a Silbermann organ, is great fun on a summer day): […]

2007 May 17, "aleksios" (username), "Re: music with unconventional instruments", in rec.music.classical and alt.music, Usenet

The creation of a novel instrument called the hydraulophone, whose sound production is created using water as a medium

2008, Richard Kronland-Martinet, Solvi Ystad, Kristoffer Jensen, Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval: Sense of Sounds:

At the core of the Hydraulophone is the idea to create a new tool that encourages children to discover their sense

2009, David Gildiner, “The Hydaulophone: Music from water”, in Imagine: Early Childhood Music Therapy:

On professional hydraulophones for concert performance, the water jets are often arranged like the keys on a piano, and the instrument is played by pressing down on one or more of the water jets, one for each tone of a diatonic or chromatic scale.

2009, Steve Mann, ACOUSTIC, HYPERACOUSTIC, OR ELECTRICALLY AMPLIFIED HYDRAULOPHONES OR MULTIMEDIA INTERFACES, US Patent http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2009/0241753.html:

(music) Any of several musical instruments that employ the movement of water rather than air.


incinerable

incinerable waste

That can be incinerated (destroyed by burning).


fujara

a flute-like woodwind musical instrument from Slovakia.


power ballad

(music) An emotional rock song, generally focused on love, delivered with powerful vocals.


studtite

From Studt + -ite.
From Franz Edward Studt, English prospector and geologist.

(mineralogy) A secondary uranium mineral containing peroxide formed by the alpha-radiolysis of water during formation; it occurs as white yellow needlelike crystals often in acicular sprays.


karaoke machine

en-noun

karaoke machine (plural karaoke machines)

The karaoke machine is much more than an instrument which allows us to be a star for three minutes.

1998 March 11, Tōru Mitsui, Shūhei Hosokawa, editors, Karaoke Around the World: Global technology, local singing, Routledge, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page i:

A machine which plays recorded (typically instrumental) tracks that can be sung along to with a microphone and with reference to lyrics displayed on a screen.


bassooner

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


miskin

Now would I tune my Miskins on this Greene,

1593, Michael Drayton, Pastorals II: The Second Eclogue, published 1619:


wheek

The squeaking sound made by a guinea pig or other cavy.

kuikutus

onomatopoeia to symbolize a guinea pig's squeak


acoustic guitarist

acoustic guitarist (plural acoustic guitarists)

someone who plays, or performs on, the acoustic guitar


bass guitarist

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


electric guitarist

electric guitarist (plural electric guitarists)

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

電吉他手

someone who plays or performs on the electric guitar


ECMA

East Coast Music Association
w:East Coast Music Association

(music) Acronym of East Coast Music Association.

East Coast Music Awards
w:East Coast Music Awards

(music) Acronym of East Coast Music Awards.


terrorcore

A European music genre that is a faster variant of hardcore techno, often incorporating samples from horror films.


orchestrion

(music) A mechanical multiple musical instrument designed to sound like an orchestra or band.


ambitus

From Latin ambitus (“circuit, ostentation”). Doublet of ambit.

(music) The range of a melody, especially those of ecclesiastical chants.


set fire

en-verb

set fire (third-person singular simple present sets fire, present participle setting fire, simple past and past participle set fire)

sets fire (present singular third-person)
setting fire (participle present)
set fire (participle past)
set fire (past)

From Middle English setten fyre, equivalent to set + fire.

They set fire to the house.

A freight train became completely derailed, blocking the tunnel entrance, and six of the wagons rolled down the mountainside, demolishing and setting fire on their way to a guard house, in which three soldiers were killed.

1941 October, “Notes and News: A Serious Swiss Derailment”, in Railway Magazine, page 469:

(intransitive) Followed by to: to cause to be on fire; to light using fire; to set alight.


chark

chark (third-person singular simple present charks, present participle charking, simple past and past participle charked)

charks (present singular third-person)
charking (participle present)
charked (participle past)
charked (past)

Cognate with Scots chork, from Middle English charken, cherkin, from Old English ċearcian, variant of cracian (“to resound, make an abrasive sound, crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn, from Proto-Germanic *krakōną (“to crack, crackle; to shriek”). Doublet of chirk, crack, and crake.

der

The hoarse charking conversation which they carried on was calculated to support the delusion.

1820, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 7:


spheromak

(physics) A particular form of stabilized magnetic field in which a plasma may be confined for use in nuclear fusion.


pitchless

The first of the four continuous sections into which the work is divided begins with high pitchless percussion.


unpitched

In particular, the vast majority of research to date has focused on the unpitched percussion instruments found in Western popular music[…]

2006, Anssi Klapuri, Manuel Davy, Signal processing methods for music transcription:


superheavy

(nuclear physics) Describing a transuranic element with an extremely high atomic number; typically taken to mean beyond lawrencium (element 103, the last actinide)


Jelena

/d͡ʒəˈliːnə/

“Jelena” ended their almost two year relationship just a week ago when, as reports state, Justin wouldn't “be her boyfriend” any more.

2012 November 29, Brittany Lander, “Bieber BreakUp (Boo-Hoo)”, in Red & Black, volume 104, number 11, Washington & Jefferson College, page 17:

By fall 2011, “Jelena”—the cosmically cute combo of Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez—was official.

2013, Nadia Higgins, Justin Bieber: Pop and R & B Idol, Lerner Publications Company, →ISBN, page 26:

On Jan. 4, Justin Bieber posted a picture — an usie — on Instagram of him and Selena Gomez, captioned “Love the way you look at me.” Only time and paparazzi will tell if Jelena will once again go strong.

2014 January 8, “Trending”, in The Michigan Daily, University of Michigan, page 3B:

(slang) The couple consisting of celebrities Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez.


calutron

Coined by Ernest Lawrence from Cal U. (“UC Berkeley”) + -tron.

(physics) A form of mass spectrometer used to separate the isotopes of uranium.


countertheme

(chiefly music) A theme that complements or opposes another theme.


stylophone

(music) A small synthesizer operated using a stylus.


bipa

From Korean 비파 (bipa), from Mandarin 琵琶 (bípá). Doublet of biwa and pipa.

A pear-shaped lute with five strings, of Korean origin.


cantaro

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

(music) A clayen pot used as a percussion instrument in South America.


loudness war

The music industry's practice of producing ever louder versions of recorded music by mastering albums to such an extent that it distorts their sound quality.

音量競賽

practice of producing ever louder versions of music recordings


chirr

en-verb

chirr (third-person singular simple present chirrs, present participle chirring, simple past and past participle chirred)

chirrs (present singular third-person)
chirring (participle present)
chirred (participle past)
chirred (past)

(intransitive) To make the prolonged trilling sound of an insect (e.g. a grasshopper, a cicada).


headstock

The part of a lute-type string instrument, such as a guitar, that holds the tuning pegs or tensioning screws of the strings.


mediant

From Italian mediante, from Latin mediānt- (“being in the middle”), present active participle of mediō (“I am in the middle”), from medius (“middle”), from Proto-Italic *meðios, from Proto-Indo-European *medʰyo- (“between”).

(music) The third degree of the diatonic scale.


auto-tune

From auto- + tune, a trademark registered to Antares Audio Technologies.

(music) An audio processor that corrects the pitch of a recorded track, also used to distort vocals in electronic music.


auto-tune

auto-tune (third-person singular simple present auto-tunes, present participle auto-tuning, simple past and past participle auto-tuned)

auto-tunes (present singular third-person)
auto-tuning (participle present)
auto-tuned (participle past)
auto-tuned (past)

The singing is sometimes pure and sometimes processed into exaggeratedly AutoTuned “Alvin and the Chipmunks” automation.

2023 July 10, Zachary Woolfe, “Review: Ted Hearne’s Sweet, Sad American Elegy”, in The New York Times:

(music, transitive) To correct the pitch of a vocal or instrumental performance.


progger

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

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


mode-locked

(physics) Describing a laser in which several modes of oscillation are synchronized so as to generate a strong, short pulse of light.


fadista

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

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


chordless

But a profound melancholy had taken possession of Franz, the two hardly exchanged a word, the violin hung mute, chordless, full of dust, in its habitual place .

2008, Reginald Menville, Douglas Menville, Ancient Hauntings, page 119:

It is a chordless affair, because it is out of commission .

2013, Henry T. Sampson, Blacks in Blackface: A Sourcebook on Early Black Musical Shows, page 285:

(music) Not playing chords; silent or playing one note at a time.

A boat slowly drifts under the bridge and out to sea, and someone inside it plays an untuned piano with a slow chordless melody.

2007, Jason Murk, Tokharian Tales, page 96:

Earlier work like the atonal music of pianist Sun Ra and bassist Charles Mingus as well as the chordless music of Coleman and Taylor foreshadowed free jazz.

2009, Waldo E. Martin, No Coward Soldiers: Black Cultural Politics in Postwar America, page 62:

Nick's current projects include his sextet feature music from "Exposition", a chordless trio that performs regularly at Bar Next Door, a two-trombone duo with fellow Juilliard alumnus Joe McDonough, and freelancing with various ensembles and shows around the city.

(music) Without chords; involving one note at a time or dissonant combinations.


timepoint

(music) An instant, having no duration, and which cannot be heard.


actinon

(physics, dated) Radon-219 (²¹⁹₈₆Rn; symbol An), an isotope of radon


staffless

(music) Without the use of staves in its notation.


burnup

en-noun

burnup (countable and uncountable, plural burnups)

(physics) A measure of the consumption of fuel in a nuclear reactor.


emo metal

a musical genre, a mixture between emo and metal music


air-guitar

en-verb

air-guitar (third-person singular simple present air-guitars, present participle air-guitaring, simple past and past participle air-guitared)

air-guitars (present singular third-person)
air-guitaring (participle present)
air-guitared (participle past)
air-guitared (past)


deliquium

Borrowed from Latin deliquium, from Latin delinquere (“to lack, to fail”).

(rare) An abrupt absence of sunlight, e.g. caused by an eclipse.


rufescent

en-adj

rufescent (comparative more rufescent, superlative most rufescent)

more rufescent (comparative)
most rufescent (superlative)

Circa 1820, from Latin rufescens, present participle of rufescere (“to become reddish”), from rufus (“red”).

The more inland, lighter race is distinguished from A. u. uropygialis in being much paler on the back, by the edgings of the forehead scallopings and auriculars being paler, and by having the brown of the forehead less deep and less rufescent.

1937, The Emu: Official Organ of the Australasian Ornithologists' Union:

Flesh unchanging or slowly rufescent.

1972, Edred John Henry Corner, Boletus in Malaysia, page 42:

Flesh white, but quickly rufescent where cut, at first full, becoming more spongy stuffed, and frequently hollow in old specimens, [...]

1975, Michael Jordan, A Guide to Mushrooms, page 72:


pycnonuclear

(nuclear physics) Describing nuclear reactions caused by the density of the reactants


cimbasso

(music) A cylindrical valved instrument in the low brass family, closely related to the trombone and normally pitched a fifth or an octave below the tenor and bass trombones.


chacha

Display rhythm instruments from other cultures, such as Tibetan singing bowls; carved frog and cricket wood rasps from Indonesia; rain sticks and goat hoof chachas rattles from Bolivia; the telavi from Ghana; and woven shakers from Africa, Brazil, and India.

2012, Joan Bouza Koster, Growing Artists: Teaching the Arts to Young Children, Cengage Learning, →ISBN, page 299:

(music) A type of cylindrical metal rattle, derived from an instrument in the Haitian musical tradition, and used to play rhythm in certain Cuban genres (and in other nearby countries).


chop up

en-verb

chop up (third-person singular simple present chops up, present participle chopping up, simple past and past participle chopped up)

chops up (present singular third-person)
chopping up (participle present)
chopped up (participle past)
chopped up (past)

(transitive) To separate or divide something that was whole.

(transitive, music) To convert a sampled audio file into short segments.


veena

From Hindi वीणा (vīṇā), and its source, Sanskrit वीणा (vīṇā), which is related to Middle Persian wn' (win, “veena, lute”).

When he wanted to test any of the principles he was enunciating or elucidating, he went over to the veena which sits in a glass case now and played for hours and substantially extended the vocabulary and scope of the instrument.

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 339:

Shanmugavadivu continued to earn her income through her veena performances, and by introducing her daughters to the stage as soon as they were able.

2017, Sunil Khilnani, Incarnations, Penguin, page 375:

(music) A plucked stringed instrument with five or seven steel strings stretched on a long fretted finger-board over two gourds, used mostly in Carnatic Indian classical music.


belt out

belt out (third-person singular simple present belts out, present participle belting out, simple past and past participle belted out)

belts out (present singular third-person)
belting out (participle present)
belted out (participle past)
belted out (past)

He belted out Sweet Child of Mine at the karaoke.

Lively show tunes being belted out by the pianist on the grand piano.

The jukebox belted out tunes from the fifties, and waiters shouted food orders to the cooks behind the enormous steel counter.

Each and every chant from the Red Wall's burgeoning repertoire was belted out as England's fans - who vastly outnumbered the Welsh - gave it back with some gusto.

2022 November 29, Ian Mitchelmore, “Wales put out of World Cup misery by England as sobering tournament must signal changing of the guard”, in WalesOnline:

(informal, transitive) To sing (a song) loudly; to emit (music) loudly.


superradiant

en-adj

superradiant (comparative more superradiant, superlative most superradiant)

more superradiant (comparative)
most superradiant (superlative)

Of, pertaining to, or producing superradiance


post horn

(music) A valveless musical instrument based on such a horn, used in orchestral music.


heliographic

Of or pertaining to heliography; transmitted by heliograph


clairon

(music) the second register of a clarinet.


Paris green

en-noun

Paris green (countable and uncountable, plural Paris greens)

copper(II) acetoarsenite, a highly toxic blue-green compound used as a pigment, colorant, insecticide and rodenticide.


night vision

The ability, either naturally, by technology or by superpowers, to see in a low light or even dark environment.


buisine

Borrowed from Old French buisine, busine (an earlier, Middle English-era borrowing bosyne did not survive into modern English), from Latin būcina. Doublet of buccina and posaune.

Coordinate term: buccina

It was marvellously great, and shewed such joy and satisfaction that the sound and bruit of their instruments, horns, buisines, and trumpets, were heard even as far as the castle.

1823, Archaeologia; Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, page 155:

The clarion named in the above passages appears to have been a smaller kind of trumpet. The buisine (from buccina) was also a sort of trumpet: it was of a bent form, and made of brass.

1860, John Hewitt, The fourteenth century, page 310:

(music, historical) A medieval wind instrument with a very long, straight and slender body, usually made of metal.


actiniferous

en-adj

actiniferous (comparative more actiniferous, superlative most actiniferous)

more actiniferous (comparative)
most actiniferous (superlative)


uraniferous

uraniferous (comparative more uraniferous, superlative most uraniferous)

more uraniferous (comparative)
most uraniferous (superlative)


poloniferous

poloniferous (comparative more poloniferous, superlative most poloniferous)

more poloniferous (comparative)
most poloniferous (superlative)

(rare) Containing or producing polonium.


plutoniferous

plutoniferous (comparative more plutoniferous, superlative most plutoniferous)

more plutoniferous (comparative)
most plutoniferous (superlative)

(rare) Containing or producing plutonium.


coronium

From corona + -ium, coined by a certain A. Gruenwald.

(historical) A supposed chemical element, hypothesized in the 19th century in order to explain a green emission line seen during the total solar eclipse of 7 August 1869 (actually highly ionized iron).


Frippertronics

From Fripp + -tronics, named after its inventor Robert Fripp (1946–); coined by Joanna Walton, Fripp's poet girlfriend in the late 1970s.

named-after

It was, its maker mused, intended to be the first installment of a trilogy of records, each one dedicated to a different aspect of Frippertronics.

2021, Dave Thompson, I Feel Love: Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, and How They Reinvented Music, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 141:

A system consisting of two reel-to-reel tape recorders linked to each other so that sounds can be mixed with a delay.


jor

Borrowed from Hindustani जोर (jor) / جور (jor).

(music) In Indian music, a formal section of composition in the long elaboration (alap) of a raga that forms the beginning of a performance.


A radioactive isotope of caesium, ¹³⁷₅₅Cr, having 55 protons and 82 neutrons and which is formed mainly as a fission product by nuclear fission.


angelot

Borrowed from French angelot, Late Latin angelotus.

Much as you study arras how to twirl / His Angelot, plaything of page and girl, / Once; […]

1840 March, Robert Browning, “Book the Second”, in Sordello, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 66:

(music) An old musical instrument of the lute kind.


quasifission

(nuclear physics) Partial fusion followed by fission of very large atomic nuclei, a possible means of generating neutron-rich isotopes


blue-eyed soul

1960s, initially applied to The Righteous Brothers.

One industry spokesman said the reason so many r&b stations are playing blue-eyed soul is that there are few legit r&b artists today.

1965 October 9, “R&B Stations Open Air Gates to ‘White Soulists’”, in Billboard, page 49:

The Righteous Brothers and another blue-eyed soul act called The Young Rascals were also popular in black communities.

2013, Les Back, New Ethnicities and Urban Culture, Routledge, →ISBN, page 266:

Rhythm and blues or soul music performed by white artists; white soul.


white soul

One of the dangers of “white soul” that revives black music traditions outside of their original cultural context is that the cultural past may be resurrected not to be celebrated or reworked, but to be replaced by new narratives that enshrine white experience and benefit white musicians.

1998, “Soul's Revival”, in Monique Guillory, Richard C. Green, editors, Soul: Black Power, Politics, and Pleasure, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 156:

(music) Rhythm and blues or soul music performed by white artists.

白人靈魂樂

rhythm and blues or soul music performed by white artists


banker's lamp

en-noun

banker's lamp (plural banker's lamps or bankers' lamps)

banker's lamps (plural)
bankers' lamps (plural)

A distinctive type of desk lamp, usually with a solid ornate base and a single stem leading to a horizontal (usually green) cover.


eurythmic

en-adj

eurythmic (comparative more eurythmic, superlative most eurythmic)

more eurythmic (comparative)
most eurythmic (superlative)


stay the night

en-verb

stay the night (third-person singular simple present stays the night, present participle staying the night, simple past and past participle stayed the night)

stays the night (present singular third-person)
staying the night (participle present)
stayed the night (participle past)
stayed the night (past)

If you can't find another place to crash, you can stay the night at mine if you like.

To spend a night at someone else's home.


colascione

An early form of lute with a long neck; the mandora.


simple quadruple time

(music) A meter or rhythm with four beats to a measure and four beats to a whole note; specifically common time.


screak

She did not run against chairs nor move a stool so that the legs emitted a "screak" of agony, and she could sit still for an hour at a time if she had a book.

1898, Amanda Millie Douglas, A Little Girl in Old Boston:


screak

screak (third-person singular simple present screaks, present participle screaking, simple past and past participle screaked)

screaks (present singular third-person)
screaking (participle present)
screaked (participle past)
screaked (past)

The awfulest thing was the silence; there wasn't a sound but the screaking of the saddles, the measured tramplings, and the sneezing of the horses, afflicted by the smothering dust-clouds which they kicked up.

1895 October, Louis de Conte, translated by [Jean François Alden] [pseudonyms; Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)], “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. […]”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume XCI, number DXLV, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →ISSN, [book I], part II, chapter XVI, page 746, column 1:

They walk together in silence while behind them a freight train chuffs and screaks through the crossing.

1960, John Updike, 'Rabbit, Run', page 64:

Which'll jar your bones, Jim!...sap your breath...distort your hearing for your own concrete thoughts 'til they screak like the muddled static of distant homily.

1999 July 2, Richard Meltzer, “Vinyl Reckoning”, in Chicago Reader:

He finally does the hit next to the factory, causing the birds to screak and batter their cages.

2003 November 14, Jeff Huebner, “Coming Home”, in Chicago Reader:


fuji

en-noun

fuji (countable and uncountable, plural fujis)

Named after Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan.


crotchet rest

(music) A rest having the same duration as a crotchet; a quarter rest.


cowpunk

cowpunk (countable and uncountable, plural cowpunks)

On that record, Bad Pumpkin, they romped around the fringes of hard rock, toying with cowpunk on one side and zanier stuff (a Television-at-the-beach instrumental) on the other.

1989 November 10, Bill Wyman, “Fetchin Bones”, in Chicago Reader:

At times the group's new album, Drag It Up, fights to find a middle ground between the surging cowpunk of 1997's Too Far to Care and the melodic pop of 2001's Satellite Rides.

2004 September 3, Bob Mehr, “Chuck Prophet, Old 97's”, in Chicago Reader:

Also known as country punk, cowpunk combines punk rock with folk, country, blues, and rockabilly influences. A wide range of punk bands have evidenced cowpunk tendencies, such as the Blasters, Meat Puppets, Violent Femmes, Social Distortion, the Beat Farmers […] and others.

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

(uncountable) A musical subgenre that combines punk rock with country music, folk music, and blues.


race music

In use from 1920, replaced by rhythm and blues in the 1940s.

LA's most popular “race music” radio shows featured a white disc jockey, Hunter Hancock, from Texas. He featured black artists on his “Harlem Matinee,” which aired every afternoon starting at four.

2015, Deena Weinstein, Rock'n America: A Social and Cultural History, University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 29:

(dated, music) Commercially recorded African-American popular music from the early 20th century, including blues and jazz.


palm wine

palm wine (countable and uncountable, plural palm wines)

A genre of popular music most closely associated with mid-20th-century Sierra Leone.


nebel

Two nebels were always to be played in the daily services of the Temple, and the number might not exceed six.

1879, Francis Roubiliac Conder, Claude Reignier Conder, “Part I”, “Chapter VIII. Art and Science among the Israelites”, in A Handbook to the Bible: Being a Guide to the Study of the Holy Scriptures; Derived from Ancient Monuments and Modern Exploration, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 167:

(obsolete, music) A Hebrew stringed instrument, possibly the same as the nabla.


hocket

hocket (countable and uncountable, plural hockets)

Hocket is a contrapuntal technique described by the early fourteenth-century Walter Odington as "A truncation … made over the tenor … in such a way that one voice is always silent while the other sings."

1977, Lloyd Ultan, Music theory: problems and practices in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, U of Minnesota Press, page 91:

(music) In medieval music, a rhythmic linear technique using the alternation of notes, pitches, or chords. A single melody is shared between two (or occasionally more) voices such that alternately one voice sounds while the other rests.


requinto

(music) A smaller, higher-pitched version of another instrument, usually a guitar.


biordinal

(mathematics, music) Of the second order


conservatorium

conservatorium (plural conservatoriums or conservatoria)

conservatoriums (plural)
conservatoria (plural)

The band’s bass guitarist graduated from the conservatorium and has since played with Donavon Frankenreiter, John Butler, Angus Stone and Ash Grunwald.

2015 August 26, “Band of Frequencies”, in The Guardian:


tarogato

Saturday night, with percussionist Gregg Bendian and bassist William Parker, he played a nearly model free-jazz gig: starting at absolute Mount Kilimanjaro intensity, two sets dipped and rose with the jagged topography of peaks and valleys, Brotzmann switching between tenor (his main ax), E-flat clarinet, alto sax, and tarogato (a wooden instrument about the size and shape of a soprano sax with a nasal, double-reedish sound).

1994 May 6, John Corbett, “Head Music”, in Chicago Reader:

With his huge, coarse tone and urgent phrasing Brotzmann sounds like he could dominate any group using anything he plays, which includes saxophones, clarinets, and the tarogato, an eastern European reed instrument.

2003 December 19, Bill Meyer, “Brotzmann/Drake Duo”, in Chicago Reader:

(music) a reed instrument originating from Hungary


backmasking

(sound engineering) A recording technique in which a sound or message is deliberately recorded backwards in a track that is meant to be played forwards.


psytrance

A genre of trance music characterized by hypnotic arrangements of synthetic rhythms and complex layered melodies created by high-tempo riffs.


vihuela

(music) A guitar-like string instrument of 15th- and 16th-century Spain, usually with six courses or sets of strings (twelve strings in total).

(music) A guitar-like string instrument of 19th-century Mexico with five strings, typically played in mariachi bands.


adret

Borrowed from French adret or Occitan adret, adré, adrech, adreit (“sun-facing side of a mountain”), from Old Occitan adreg, adreit, from a (“to, towards”) (from Latin ad (“to, towards”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd (“at; to”)) + dreg, dreit (“just; right”) (from Latin dīrectus (“direct, straight”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten, right oneself; just, right”)); compare French adroit.

refn

From Images de l’Himalaya [Images of the Himalayas] (Encyclopédie Alpina Illustrée [Encyclopedia Alpina Illustrated]; 2), [Paris]: [Encyclopédie Alpina Illustrée], [1935], →OCLC.

der

The distribution of barley is generally on the adret slope, the ubac seeming to be disregarded. A sunny slope is the most important natural factor in the cultivation of barley and wheat. Very rarely they are cultivated in ubac fields, but close investigation showed them to be of secondary adret nature. In this case seeds are sown a month earlier and mown ten days later than on the adret slope.

1942, Japanese Journal of Geology and Geography: Transactions, Titles and Abstracts, Tokyo: Nihon Gakujutsu Kaigi [Science Council of Japan], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 34:

Viticulure in an alpine (Savoie) or sub-alpine environment (like the Jura) is a precarious activity […] Exposure, by contrast, exaggerates or modifies the quantity of the altitudinal elements in terms of ubac (shady) versus adret (sunny) positions, wet and dry positions, or windy and protected positions, respectively. The advantages of adret slopes, which are usually drier and more protected, are evident and of paramount importance. Adret aspects receive much higher levels of direct sunlight, which produces higher soil and plant temperatures.

1987, John J. Baxevanis, “The Wines of Savoie”, in The Wines of Champagne, Burgundy, Eastern and Southern France, Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, pages 70–71:

The vegetation of the Bachelard Valley mainly consists of forests and alpine pastures. Above the tree limit, alpine pastures and bare rock outcrops dominate the landscape. The location of the tree limit depends on factors like slope aspect and lithology. On south-facing slopes (adrets) the tree limit can reach as high as 2400 m, but on the shadowy north-facing slopes it is usually near 2200 m.

1998, Harry Blijenberg, Rolling Stones?: Triggering and Frequency of Hillslope Debris Flows in the Bachelard Valley, Southern French Alps (Nederlandse Geografische Studies; 246), Utrecht: Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap/Faculteit Ruimtelijke Wetenschappen Universiteit Utrecht, →ISBN, page 72:

(geography) The sun-facing side of a mountain; in the northern hemisphere, especially south-facing slope.


gittern

From Old French guiterne, ultimately from Latin cithara. Doublet of cittern.

Now they can no more hear thy ghittern’s tune, / For venturing syllables that ill beseem / The quiet glooms of such a piteous theme.

1820, John Keats, “Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil. A Story from Boccaccio.”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, stanza XIX, page 58:

A small, quill-plucked, gut-strung musical instrument, most commonly with three to four strings in doubles courses; it is a flat-backed predecessor of the guitar, and it originated around the 13th century, coming to Europe via Moorish Spain.


(countable, music) The TB-303 synthesizer.


bichromatic

Its title is "Musik mit Vierteltönen," and it contains the sum of the author's experiences with the "bichromatic harmonium" of his own construction.

1922, Oscar George Sonneck, The Musical Quarterly, volume 8, page 620:

Bichromatic music on the electronic orchestra is the next step in the musical art of the 20th century.

1969, The Journal for the Study of Consciousness, page 83:

In 1926 Straube built a Bichromatic Quartertone Harmonium for Mordecai Sandberg with white keys for the whole tones, black keys for the half tones and brown keys for the quarter tones.

1998, Robert F. Gellerman, Gellerman's International Reed Organ Atlas (page 233)

(music) Employing or relating to a quarter tone scale.


chipmusic

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:

At the time, tracking chiptunes (i.e. using trackers) was the fundamental method of chipmusic-making.

2018, Dafni Tragaki, Made in Greece: Studies in Popular Music:

(music) The musical genre made up of chiptunes.


churr

en-verb

churr (third-person singular simple present churrs, present participle churring, simple past and past participle churred)

churrs (present singular third-person)
churring (participle present)
churred (participle past)
churred (past)

Uncertain. Possibly from Middle English *churren, *chirren, *cherren, from Old English ċeorian (“to murmur, grumble, complain”), from Proto-West Germanic *karēn (“to complain”).

inh

Alternative spelling of chirr (“to make an insect sound”)

To make the low vocal sound of some birds.


churr

Alternative spelling of chirr (“insect sound”)


candleshine

LOVELOCKS I watched the Lady Caroline Bind up her dark and beauteous hair; Her face was rosy in the glass, And 'twixt the coils her hands would pass, White in the candleshine.

1920, Walter de la Mare, Collected Poems 1901-1918 in Two Volumes:


soundcheck

en-noun

soundcheck (countable and uncountable, plural soundchecks)

Soundcheck for the band, today, takes place at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. It is late afternoon and while the arena's 17,000 outdoor seats are still empty the four members of Mumford & Sons – prospering British folk band, in the middle of a long tour of Australia, the US and the UK, their newly released album Babel a smash on all fronts – wander to centre stage.

2012 November 15, Tom Lamont, The Daily Telegraph:

(chiefly music) An activity that takes place before a concert, etc., when the performer and sound crew run through a small portion of the upcoming show on the venue's sound system to verify the volume and tonal frequencies.

hangpróba

activity when the performer and sound crew run through a small portion of the upcoming show on the venue's sound system


troat

en-verb

troat (third-person singular simple present troats, present participle troating, simple past and past participle troated)

troats (present singular third-person)
troating (participle present)
troated (participle past)
troated (past)

Either onomatopoetic, or akin to throat.


clivis

From Latin clivis (“by means of slopes”), ablative plural of clivus.

(music) A neume representing two notes descending.


clausula

(music) The conclusion of a passage; cadence.


æquison

Borrowed from Latin aequisonus, from aequus (“equal”) in combination with sonus (“sounding”).

Æquisons are those notes, which being stroke together, make one sound of 2.

1609, John Dowlan, Andreas Ornithoparcus: His Micrologus, or Introduction: Containing the Art of Singing, page 79:

(rare, music) Archaic spelling of equison.


white label

US, 20th century. Originally used for musical vinyl records whose labels had been torn off or covered with a white label by competing DJs to conceal which records they were using.

2014, Chris Cunningham, quoted in Piers Martin, Aphex Twin: ‘His music is a perfect mix of mystery and adrenaline’ (in The Guardian) https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/19/aphex-twin-richard-james-bjork-ian-rankin
I started going to the record exchange in Camden two or three times a week to look for the Rephlex white labels or test pressings that would end up there. I actually got one of the original Caustic Window vinyl LPs from there.

(music) A vinyl record with a white label or white background (rather than artwork), typically used for test records or promotion.


Beethovenian

en-adj

Beethovenian (comparative more Beethovenian, superlative most Beethovenian)

more Beethovenian (comparative)
most Beethovenian (superlative)

Of or pertaining to Ludwig van Beethoven, in particular his style of music.

beethovenský

of or pertaining to Ludwig van Beethoven


Mozartian

Mozartian (comparative more Mozartian, superlative most Mozartian)

more Mozartian (comparative)
most Mozartian (superlative)

Of or pertaining to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), prolific and influential composer of classical music.

mozartià

of or pertaining to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart


folk singer

Alternative spelling of folksinger, someone who sings folk music.


folk rock

(music) A subgenre of rock music combining elements of folk music.


space rock

Apart from individual songs, there were certain bands that became associated with these sorts of extended sonic journeys, showing many traits of space rock without much or any overt interest in space topicality as such.

2017, William Echard, Psychedelic Popular Music: A History through Musical Topic Theory, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 201:

(music) A subgenre of rock music, characterised by long psychedelic instrumental passages and lyrics dealing with science fiction or outer space.


live album

(music) An album consisting of tracks recorded live during one or more concerts.


gallopade

At the same instant the sounding gallopade of hoofs came from the tranquil roadway leading to the stables.

1898, Henry Francis Keenan, The Iron Game:


intra-octaval

2005: Kenley Dove, “Aristotelian vs. Socratic Mimesis in Hegelian Perspective”; Dieter Wandschneider [ed.], Das Geistige und das Sinnliche in der Kunst: Ästhetische Reflexion in der Perspektive des Deutschen Idealismus [The Spiritual and the Sensual in Art: Æsthetic Reflexion in the Perspective of German Idealism], page 40 (Königshausen & Neumann; →ISBN
To resolve it the solution found and accepted has been to reduce all the intra-octaval ‘consonances’, fifths, fourths, major and minor thirds, etc., to what fits within the limits of an equally divided octave, which, of course, distorts the purity of the intra-octaval consonances. This solution has been called ‘twelve-tone equal temperament’. Without it, modern classical music, which requires modulation over a plurality of octaves, would not be possible. With it, the duration of modern classical music was limited by the persistent ability to hear pure (pythagorean) intra-octaval consonances.


octaval

(music) Of, pertaining to, or relating to an octave.


studio album

Madonna’s 14th studio album is an engrossing mix of Latinate beats, political allusion – and Joan of Arc

2019 June 8, Kitty Empire, “Madonna: Madame X review – a splendidly bizarre return to form”, in The Guardian:


equisonant

From equi- + sonant; compare French équisonnant.

(ancient music) Intra-octavally consonant.


allegro ma non troppo

From the Italian allegro (“fast”) ma (“but”) non (“not”) troppo (“too much”).

(music) A tempo mark lively but not too much

allegro ma non troppo

passage played allegro, but not too much so


allegro ma non troppo

(music) Describing a passage having this mark.


countrylike

countrylike (comparative more countrylike, superlative most countrylike)

more countrylike (comparative)
most countrylike (superlative)


concent

en-noun

concent (countable and uncountable, plural concents)

From Latin concentus, from concinō (“to sing together”).


concentus

Coordinate term: accentus

(music) A style of church music that emphasizes harmony.


fourth-degree

At the fourth level of some system, particularly:

(of burns) The most severe level of damage, typically involving major damage to muscles, tendons, and ligaments as well as the skin.


first-degree

The jury found her guilty of 6 counts of first-degree murder, one for each of the victims of her rampage.

At the first level of some system, particularly:

(law) The most severe level of felony, typically involving planning or other aggravating factors.

(of burns) The least severe damage from a burn, typically involving only damage to the outer layer of skin.


Mandopop

Last year, Mandopop streams went up 45 per cent on Spotify, which is unavailable in China.

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:


second-degree

The jury found her guilty of second-degree murder for accidentally killing her victim as she mugged him.

At the second level of some system, particularly:

(law) A level of felony somewhat mitigated by various factors.


C-pop

From C- (“Chinese”) + pop, by analogy with J-pop.

Mandopop and its Cantonese equivalent, Cantopop, are subsets of Chinese pop, or C-pop, whose roots stretch back almost 100 years.

(music) Chinese pop music influenced by western genres.


K-pop

From K- (“Korean”) + pop, by analogy with J-pop.

Somehow, even I got sucked into this strange K-pop universe. Sure, the quality of the music is sometimes debatable.

2018 December 11, Kevin Liao, “At First I Was a K-Pop Skeptic. Not Anymore.”, in New York Times:

(music) South Korean pop music influenced by Western styles.


chinrest

(music, lutherie) A shaped piece of wood, plastic, etc. attached to the body of a violin or viola to aid in the positioning of the player's chin against on the instrument.


biphoton

(quantum mechanics) A quantum-entangled state comprising two photons.


diple

From Ancient Greek διπλῆ (diplê), from διπλοῦς (diploûs).

That is why players prefer to play the diple with bellows, because the bellows makes it possible for them to play continuously.

2014, Jasmina Talam, Folk Musical Instruments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, page 190:

(music) A traditional woodwind instrument used in Serbian, Croatian and Montenegrin music.


Hanford

en-proper noun

Hanford (countable and uncountable, plural Hanfords)

From Welsh hen ("old") and ford ("a way"): the old way (Source: William Arthur 1857).

A suburb in south-west Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England (OS grid ref SJ8742).


Sturm und Drang

/ˈʃtəɹm ʊnt ˈdɹaŋ/

Borrowed from German Sturm und Drang with the same figurative meaning, from Sturm (“storm”) + und (“and”) + Drang (“pressure, stress; urge, impulse, longing”). The phrase is the title of the play Sturm und Drang (1776) by German dramatist Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger (1752–1831).
The fact that the phrase is often italicized suggests it has not been fully assimilated into English.

The best of the Stürmer und Dränger grew out of their Sturm und Drang, and it was necessary to indicate in what ways [Johann Gottfried] Herder and [Johann Wolfgang von] Goethe changed as they grew older. It should be stressed, however, that the very principles which forced them to burst the husk of the Sturm und Drang are in themselves a vital element within the Sturm und Drang.

1953, Roy Pascal, “Introduction”, in The German Sturm und Drang, Manchester: Manchester University Press, →OCLC, page xvi:

[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich] Hegel's further observation shows the route taken by those who survived their Sturm und Drang and went on to produce more: "Because the sickness is in the essence itself, its isolated manifestations can be repressed [zurückdrängen] and the superficial symptoms suppressed [dämpfen]."

1985, Larry Vaughan, The Historical Constellation of the Sturm und Drang (American University Studies, Series I (Germanic Languages and Literatures); 38), New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 61:

[page 1100, column 1] The Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) was a literary movement that flourished in Germany in the 1770s and 1780s and represented the protest of a group of young university-educated men against the norms of polite society. […] [page 1101, columns 1 and 2] [T]he Sturm und Drang reflected the growth of modern individualism and the challenge that middle-class ideas of selfhood presented to so-called enlightened absolutism, that is to say, to political and cultural structures that sought legitimacy by assimilating elements of bureaucratic rationalism. […] The Sturm und Drang was nevertheless an important forerunner of Romanticism in its formal experimentalism, its enthusiasm for popular culture and the primitive, its acceptance of the power of unconscious, irrational forces, and above all its concern with individual experience.

2004, David Hill, “Sturm und Drang”, in Christopher John Murray, editor, Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760–1850, volumes 2 (L–Z, Index), New York, N.Y., London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, →ISBN, pages 1100–1101:

It was precisely this reason, science and the eighteenth-century Enlightenment to account for genius in rational terms that allowed the non-rational thinkers who fueled the fires of the Sturm und Drang movement to vivify, and elaborate upon, the ancient Greek notion of genius as a numinous power associated with the Muses and the gods.

2006, Angus [James] Nicholls, Goethe's Concept of the Daemonic: After the Ancients, Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House Publishing, →ISBN, page 81:

The complex figure of Clavigo is therefore a variant on the Sturm and Drang theme of the enemy brothers, which forms the framework for a far older theme: that of Shakespeare's Hamlet who kills Ophelia's brother Valentin. Goethe's play is in fact modeled after Shakespeare's tragedy, and the last act is riddled with references to the cemetery scene from Hamlet. A theme dear to Sturm and Drang is also revisited: fratricide. The period during which Goethe wrote Clavigo was that in which the young Sturm and Drang poets all flocked around the figure of Goethe.

2014, Katalin Nun, Jon Stewart, editors, Kierkegaard's Literary Figures and Motifs: Tome I: Agamemnon to Guadalquivir (Kirkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources; 16), Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, page 105:

(literature, music, theater) A proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music which occurred from the late 1760s to the early 1780s, emphasizing individual subjectivity and the free expression of emotions.

狂飆突進運動

a proto-Romantic movement from the late 1760s to the early 1780s in German literature and music


drum set

A collection of drums and other percussion instruments designed to be played together.


tamburitza

Haque will guest on one of the 18 pieces on Ivanovic's HotHouse program, as will Branko Pavlovic, who plays a Balkan mandolin called a tamburitza.

2001 January 5, Ted Shen, “Goran Ivanovic”, in Chicago Reader:

(music) Any of a number of different types of long-necked lutes found in the Balkans.


Sydney Opera House

A multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.


alto clef

(music) A type of C-clef when placed on the third line of the staff in musical notation.


thumri

en-noun

thumri (countable and uncountable, plural thumris)

A genre of light classical north Indian music.


superparticular

(mathematics, music) Pertaining to a ratio of any whole number to the next below it (e.g. tfrac 3 2, tfrac 8 7, etc.).


virgula

From Latin virgula (“twig; wand; scratch comma”), from virga (“branch; rod”) + -ulus (“-ule: forming diminutives”). As a dowsing rod, via virgula divina or divinatoria. Doublet of virgule.

der

(music, obsolete) Synonym of stem: the tail of a note.

(music, historical, obsolete) Synonym of virga: one of the neumes of medieval musical notation.


Satchmo

Contraction of satchel mouth, referring to his large mouth and open singing style. Also called Satch.

(informal) Louis Armstrong, 1901-1971, an American jazz musician.


arsis

en-noun

arsis (countable and uncountable, plural arses)

From Ancient Greek ἄρσις (ársis, “lifting”), from αἴρω (aírō, “I lift”).

(music) The stronger part of a musical measure: the part containing the beat.

(music) The elevation of the hand, or that part of the bar at which it is raised, in beating time; the weak or unaccented part of the bar, opposed to the thesis.


dhaki

A traditional drummer who plays the dhak.


thorian

en-adj

thorian (comparative more thorian, superlative most thorian)

more thorian (comparative)
most thorian (superlative)


dhak

An Indian percussion instrument, a large membranophone.


jazzperson

en-noun

jazzperson (plural jazzpersons or jazzpeople)

jazzpersons (plural)
jazzpeople (plural)


noodly

en-adj

noodly (comparative noodlier or more noodly, superlative noodliest or most noodly)

noodlier (comparative)
more noodly (comparative)
noodliest (superlative)
most noodly (superlative)

Mitchell likes to play off O’Malley’s singing, doubling her voice with noodlier versions of her melodies or playing call-and-response with little shrieks and tweets of feedback.

1997 August, Douglas Wolk, “CHUG / Metalon / Alias”, in CMJ New Music Monthly, number 48, page 12:

He felt the pangs intensifying, as if the noodly, repetitive sounds were some lost language he'd known but forgotten, a dialect discarded or repressed.

1998 January 16, John Corbett, “Cradle of Electronica”, in Chicago Reader:

Both of those albums contained lots of what's charitably called filler--in the form of noodly hip-hop-inspired loops that never went anywhere--and it took the band five years to release the new Handcream for a Generation (Wiija/Beggars Banquet).

2002 May 17, Peter Margasak, “Cornershop”, in Chicago Reader:

For a moment I thought he might ask me if I would sing, and I was excited, and afraid of that possibility. But he said, “A little more noodly, you know?[…]”

2005, Paul Ford, Gary Benchley, Rock Star, Plume, →ISBN, page 290:

Mark P’s distaste was perhaps understandable on at least one level: this was two different bands, the original band that had demoed ‘Friction’, ‘Prove It’, ‘Venus De Milo’ and ‘Marquee Moon’ two years earlier with Island’s Richard Williams; and the altogether noodlier outfit, whose ‘Torn Curtain’, ‘Guiding Light’ and ‘Elevation’ seemed set in deliberate opposition to their original, earthier, aesthetic.

2007, Clinton Heylin, Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge, Canongate, →ISBN, page 231:

If the music becomes more “noodly,” why not try and trace the notes out in front of you with your fingers?

2008, Matt Pagett, The Best Dance Moves in the World…Ever!: 100 New and Classic Moves and How to Bust Them, San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books, →ISBN, page 80:

That’s one of our goals in improvisation, to come up with something that seems previously composed as opposed to a loose improvisation that’s more noodly.

2009, T. Virgil Parker, Jessica Hopsicker, Carri Anne Yager, Sausage Factory: The College Crier’s Infamous Interviews of the Freaks and the Famous, Inkwater Press, →ISBN, page 233:

They have the preeniest frontman, with his piano safely off towards the wings of the stage, the prettiest drummer, the noodliest guitarist and the quietest bass player.

2019, Mark Radcliffe, Crossroads: In Search of the Moments That Changed Music, Canongate Books, →ISBN:

(music, informal) Involving improvisation.


slipmat

A circular piece of slippery material used by turntable disk jockeys instead of the traditional rubber mat, allowing a record to be manipulated while the platter continues to rotate underneath.


through-composed

strophic

antonym(s) of “with stanzas set to differing music”

(music) Of a song, composed so that each stanza may have different music, rather than the same being repeated for all of them.


coalfired

a coalfired electric power station


blowout preventer

en-noun

blowout preventer (plural blowout preventers)

(oil industry) A device that sits at the surface interface of an oil well and prevents a blowout from occurring by closing the orifice, allowing material to flow from the oil reservoir out through the shaft.


BOP

blowout preventer
blowout preventer#English

(oil industry) Initialism of blowout preventer.


mastersinger

A German lyric poet of the late Middle Ages.


pilot light

A small, persistent flame used to ignite gas.

A small telltale lamp on a dynamo or battery circuit whose brightness indicates the voltage of the current.


chrome yellow

chrome yellow (countable and uncountable, plural chrome yellows)

A natural yellow pigment derived from lead(II) chromate.


junk shot

(oil industry) A method to shut off a faulty blowout preventer (BOP) by injecting the BOP with material that will clog up the innards and result in a choking off of the hole.


top kill

(oil industry) a method of closing an oil well, by pumping in drilling fluid (synthetic mud) to shut off the flow of oil, and following with concrete (cement) to plug the hole


LPG

LPG (countable and uncountable, plural LPGs)

liquefied petroleum gas
liquefied petroleum gas#English

autogas

European & Commonwealth sense; not in Canada


sweal

en-verb

sweal (third-person singular simple present sweals, present participle swealing, simple past and past participle swealed)

sweals (present singular third-person)
swealing (participle present)
swealed (participle past)
swealed (past)

From Middle English swelen, from Old English swelan (“to burn, be burnt up, inflame”) (compare Old English swǣlan (“to burn”)), from Proto-West Germanic *swelan, from Proto-Germanic *swelaną (“to smoulder, burn slowly, create a burningly cold sensation”), from Proto-Indo-European *swel- (“to shine, warm, smoulder, burn”). Cognate with Dutch zwelen (“to smoulder”), Low German swelen (“to smoulder”), German schwelen (“to smoulder”), Icelandic svala (“to cool”). Related to swelter.

der

"He thinks it's only a tumour!" cried Annie to her mother. "And he can sweal it away."

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Baxter Dawes”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part II, page 377:

(transitive, dialectal) To make disappear; cause to waste away; diminish; reduce.


desklamp

A lamp which sits on and is used to illuminate a desk.


press roll

A type of heavy roller, especially as used in papermaking.

I really went for Ray's press roll on the drums; he was the first fay boy I ever heard who mastered this vital foundation of jazz music.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “They Found the Body in a Ditch”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 62:

(jazz) A type of drum roll whereby the drumsticks are pressed against the skin of the drum.


pantonal

en-adj

pantonal (comparative more pantonal, superlative most pantonal)

more pantonal (comparative)
most pantonal (superlative)

(music) Pertaining to, or exhibiting, pantonality.


firebreather

Our new boss is a real firebreather!

(colloquial) A verbally aggressive person.


pandiatonic

pandiatonic (comparative more pandiatonic, superlative most pandiatonic)

more pandiatonic (comparative)
most pandiatonic (superlative)

From pan- + diatonic, coined by Nicolas Slonimsky.

(music) Formed freely from all degrees of a diatonic scale without regard for their diatonic function, sometimes to the extent of no single pitch being felt as a tonic.


Italo disco

A broad genre of Western European electronic dance music of the 1970s and early 1980s, with a futuristic sound created by synthesizers and vocoders.


hyperbass flute

en-noun

hyperbass flute (plural hyperbass flutes)

(music) The largest and lowest-pitched instrument in the flute family.

flauto iperbasso

lowest pitched instrument in the flute family


Western concert flute

Western concert flute (plural Western concert flutes)

A transverse (side-blown) woodwind instrument made of metal or wood.

flauta travessera

transverse woodwind instrument made of metal or wood


bayan

From Russian бая́н (baján); named after the 11th-century bard Boyan.

A type of chromatic button accordion developed in Russia in the early 20th century.


LMRP

lower marine riser package
lower marine riser package#English

(oil industry) Initialism of lower marine riser package.


bottom kill

(oil industry) A method of closing an oil well, by drilling a relief well to the bottom of the borehole of the blown-out well and pumping in heavy drilling fluid (synthetic mud) to counteract oil pressure and staunch the flow, then filling in the orifice to the oil reservoir with concrete (cement) to seal the blow-out and the relief wells.


demisharp

(music) In microtonal music, a note played a quarter tone higher than a natural.


demiflat

(music) In microtonal music, a note played a quarter tone lower than a natural.


Tristan chord

A reference to the chord used in the opening phrase of Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde as part of the leitmotif attributed to the character Tristan.

Tristan chord (D♯ G♯ F B):
1

(music) A chord in musical composition consisting originally of the notes F, B, D♯ and G♯ which can be translated more generally in intervalic terms as: augmented fourth, augmented sixth and augmented ninth above a root. Enharmonically it sounds like a half-diminished seventh chord (e.g. F-A♭-C♭-E♭), though in terms of musical analysis it can be interpreted in several ways.


piano accordion

piano accordion (plural piano accordions)

(music) an accordion with a keyboard similar to that of a piano.


augmented fourth

augmented fourth (plural augmented fourths)

e.g. C - F is a perfect fourth, C - F# is an augmented fourth, and C - F♭ is a diminished fourth.

An augmented fourth on C:
1

(music) A type of tritone in musical composition. It spans four diatonic scale degrees like a perfect fourth but with an extension of a chromatic semitone. The number of diatonic degrees it spans is what distinguishes it from a diminished fifth.


diminished fourth

diminished fourth (plural diminished fourths)

(music) A musical interval made by narrowing a perfect fourth by one chromatic semitone. In twelve-tone equal temperament, it consists of four semitones, spans four degrees of the diatonic scale, and is enharmonically equivalent to a major third.


diminished fifth

diminished fifth (plural diminished fifths)

C - G is a perfect fifth, C - G♭ is a diminished fifth, and C - G# is an augmented fifth.

(music) A type of tritone in musical composition formed by narrowing a perfect fifth by one chromatic semitones. In twelve-tone equal temperament, it spans five diatonic scale degrees like a perfect fifth but narrower by a semitone. The number of diatonic degrees it spans is what distinguishes it from an augmented fourth.


augmented fifth

augmented fifth (plural augmented fifths)

An augmented fifth on C
1

(music) A musical interval made by widening a perfect fifth by one chromatic semitone. In twelve-tone equal temperament, it consists of eight semitones, spans five degrees of the diatonic scale, and is enharmonically equivalent to a minor sixth.


heterophonic

(music) Exhibiting, or pertaining to, heterophony.


irrelative

en-adj

irrelative (comparative more irrelative, superlative most irrelative)

more irrelative (comparative)
most irrelative (superlative)

Irrelative chords in music are those having no common tone.

(music) Describing two or more chords which do not share any notes in common.


riddim

An instrumental version of a song in Jamaican or Caribbean music, usually with a drum pattern and a prominent bassline.


crossfade

(music) A fade in which the volume of one audio track is lowered as that of another is raised.

(film, television) A fade in which the picture of one video track is diminished as that of another is brightened.


crossfade

en-verb

crossfade (third-person singular simple present crossfades, present participle crossfading, simple past and past participle crossfaded)

crossfades (present singular third-person)
crossfading (participle present)
crossfaded (participle past)
crossfaded (past)

(music, transitive, intransitive) To lower the volume of one audio track while raising that of another, so that they blend together.

(slang, transitive, intransitive) To be under the influence of multiple psychoactive substances at the same time; most typically marijuana and alcohol.


diminished seventh

en-noun

diminished seventh (plural diminished sevenths)

(music) A musical interval equivalent to narrowing a minor seventh by one chromatic semitone. In twelve-tone equal temperament, it consists of nine semitones and spans seven degrees of the diatonic scale, is one semitone narrower than a minor seventh, and is enharmonically equivalent to a major sixth.


minor sixth

(music) A musical interval in Western music that approximates a frequency ratio of 8:5. It is one chromatic semitone narrower than a major sixth. In twelve-tone equal temperament, it consists of eight semitones and spanning six degrees of the diatonic scale, and is enharmonically equivalent to an augmented fifth.


major sixth

(music) A musical interval in Western music that approximates a frequency ratio of 5/3. It is one chromatic semitone wider than a minor sixth. In twelve-tone equal temperament, it consists of nine semitones, spans six degrees of the diatonic scale, and is enharmonically equivalent to a diminished seventh.


perfect octave

(music) A musical interval of the Western twelve-semitone system consisting of twelve semitones and spanning eight degrees of the diatonic scale. It is enharmonically equivalent to an augmented seventh and is commonly referred to as an octave.


diminished octave

diminished octave (plural diminished octaves)

(music) A musical interval in Western music formed by narrowing an octave by a chromatic semitone. It is one chromatic semitone narrower than a perfect octave. In twelve-tone equal temperament, it consists of eleven semitones, spanning eight degrees of the diatonic scale, and is enharmonically equivalent to a major seventh.


major seventh

(music) A musical interval in Western music that approximates a frequency ratio of 15/8. It is one semitone wider than a minor seventh. In twelve-tone equal temperament, it consists of eleven semitones, spans seven degrees of the diatonic scale, and is enharmonically equivalent to a diminished octave.


augmented octave

augmented octave (plural augmented octaves)

An augmented octave on C:
1

compound minor second
compound minor second

(music) A musical interval of the Western twelve-semitone system consisting of thirteen semitones and spanning eight degrees of the diatonic scale. It is one semitone wider than a perfect octave and enharmonically equivalent to a minor ninth/compound minor second.


minor ninth

(music) A musical interval in Western music consisting of an octave widened by a diatonic semitone.


minor seventh

The minor seventh has a pitch ratio close to 57:32.

(music) A musical interval in Western music that is equal to or approximates a ratio of 9/5 or 16/9, depending on the context. In twelve-tone equal temperament, it spans ten semitones and seven degrees of the diatonic scale.


Christian metal

(music) a genre of heavy metal with a Christian theme


zithern

The zitherns and mandolins have forms to match their pretty names, but the soul of the musical instrument abides elsewhere than in its body, and informs it only to the ear.

1876 August, “Characteristics of the International Fair”, in The Atlantic Monthly, page 237:


farruca

farruca (countable and uncountable, plural farrucas)

A form of Flamenco music and dance, probably originating in Galicia, traditionally danced only by men.


shurangiz

bor

Persian شورانگیز

(music) A modern Iranian musical instrument, a member of the lute family, with a skin face and six strings.

شورانگیز

a member of the lute musical instrument family


riq

(music) A kind of frame drum (tambourine) with jingles attached, originating in traditional Arab music.


deathrock

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

A subgenre of punk rock, incorporating horror themes, that emerged in the United States in the late 1970s.


diastaltic

(music) Of Ancient Greek music: having an elevating influence.


slowcore

Near-synonym: sadcore

“Slowcore” was just a silly label that never caught on, but Galaxie 500 represented one of about a dozen varieties of indie rock that existed at the time.

1996, Pat Blashill, Noise from the Underground: A Secret History of Alternative Rock, Touchstone:

Slowcore is a sound best left to the sexless and anal. (No disrespect intended.) Someone worked out that music sounds great stripped right back and left to linger softly in the air.

2001, Everett True, Live Through this: American Rock in the Nineties, Virgin Books Limited, page 114:

(music) A subgenre of indie and alternative rock music, characterized by downbeat melodies, slower tempos and minimalist arrangements.


nagara

Ultimately from Arabic نَقَّارَة (naqqāra). Doublet of nacre

(music) A drum used in folk music in the Caucasus region.


drip line

Hydrogen-7 has so many excess neutrons that it lies beyond the neutron drip line, and will spit out neutrons until it becomes a particle-bound isotope.

(nuclear physics) On the table of nuclides, the limit beyond which an atomic nucleus will immediately decay by emitting a proton or neutron.


flesh-colored

en-adj

flesh-colored (comparative more flesh-colored, superlative most flesh-colored)

more flesh-colored (comparative)
most flesh-colored (superlative)

a flesh-colored crayon

Of the color of flesh, especially a white person's skin.


symphoniette

From the French symphoniette: first used in translation ante 1888, and for the name of an original composition in 1943.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:symphoniette.


sinfonietta

en-noun

sinfonietta (plural sinfoniettas or sinfoniette)

sinfoniettas (plural)
sinfoniette (plural)

Either:
* from the Italian sinfonietta;
* formed on the Italian roots sinfonia (“symphony”) + -etta (feminine diminutive suffix), either in English or in German (as Sinfonietta) and adopted thence; or,
* an alteration of the French symphoniette to resemble an Italian construction of the form sinfonia + -etta.
Compare the French–Italian hybrid symphonietta.

(music) A small-scale symphony (either in length or size of orchestra needed).


taqwacore

From taqwa + -core, coined in Michael Muhammad Knight's 2003 novel The Taqwacores, and later applied to real music inspired by it.

(music) A form of punk music or hip-hop that deals with Islamic culture or issues.


flanger

(music) An electronic device or software that alters the sound of an instrument by combining out-of-phase copies of its original sound.


counterline

(music) A secondary melody that contrasts with the main melody and is played at the same time.


purpurin

purpurin (countable and uncountable, plural purpurins)

A red anthraquinone dye, extracted from madder, that is used as a biological stain


thock

Despite the construction of muffling sheds and sound barriers, the report has continued largely without interruption — thock, thock, thock-thock, thock.

2007 April 7, Andy Newman, “City Islanders Ponder Future Without Gunfire Across Bay”, in New York Times:

A clear, echoing thud, as of an axe chopping wood.


thock

A clear, echoing thud, as of an axe chopping wood or the keys of a mechanical keyboard.


thock

en-verb

thock (third-person singular simple present thocks, present participle thocking, simple past and past participle thocked)

thocks (present singular third-person)
thocking (participle present)
thocked (participle past)
thocked (past)

The tennis player thocked her racquet on the ground in annoyance.

To make, or cause to make, a thock sound.


brevium

(obsolete) ²³⁴₉₁Pa, a short-lived isotope of protactinium.


noisecore

(music) A genre of hardcore punk music characterized by distorted feedback


bandoneonist

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

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