vuvuzelist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


phin

(music) A type of lute with a pear-shaped body, originating in Thailand and played mostly by ethnic Laotians in Thailand and Laos.


hyperinstrument

(music) Any musical instrument whose output is transformed by computer control


Tejano

en-noun

Tejano (countable and uncountable, plural Tejanos)

From Spanish tejano, originally a translation of Texan from English.

Coordinate term: norteño

Calderon points out as evidence an increase in Tejano record sales worldwide, and the meteoric rise of the young late Tejano recording artist, Selena Quintanilla-Perez.

2000, David Maciel, Isidro D. Ortiz, María Herrera-Sobek, Chicano Renaissance: Contemporary Cultural Trends, University of Arizona Press, →ISBN:

(music, uncountable) Various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-American populations of Central and Southern Texas.


tailpiece

(music, lutherie) An element, often triangular, to which the strings of a violin, guitar, etc. are attached at the lower end of an instrument.


aulos

(music) Any of a class of ancient Greek musical instruments resembling pipes or flutes.


invitatory

(music) A psalm sung, as an invitation to prayer, at the beginning of some services


Phan

Phish "phans" compile set lists, take notes on performances and tape-record everything from a section designated for them at each show.

2000 September 23, “Eclectic crowd catches Phish”, in The Washington Times:

But none were as crazy as this one -- when Phish's tie-dyed "Phans" danced in the aisles, sang along to the music and generally created a scene that recalled the Grateful Dead's glory daze.

2006 July 9, “Wanna try the meaning of life?”, in Oakland Tribune:

It was the type of evening -- an entirely mesmerizing and moving two-set concert filled with superb musicianship and incredible improvisation -- that made the undying devotion of the "phans" seem quite logical.

2012 August 20, Jim Harrington, “Review: Phish closes SF stand on legendary note”, in Contra Costa Times:

(slang) A fan of the American rock band Phish.


clapper talk

A form of Chinese narrative singing accompanied by a pair of clappers.

快板

Chinese narrative accompanied by clappers


saw sam sai

A traditional bowed string instrument of Thailand. Its body is made from a special type of coconut covered on one end with animal skin, and it has three silk strings.


zygon

From Ancient Greek ζυγόν (zugón, “yoke”).

Chopin's Prelude op. 28 no. 6 comprises 403 notes which give rise—in just one sub-domain (pitch class)—to around 13,000 potential primary zygons, 500 million potential secondary zygons, and 10¹⁸ potential tertiary zygons.

2005, Adam Ockelford, Repetition in music: theoretical and metatheoretical perspectives, page 121:

Zygonic relationships, or zygons, are depicted using the letter Z.

2006, Neil Lerner, Joseph Straus, Sounding Off: Theorizing Disability in Music, page 142:

Observe that the second melodic interval is deemed to exist in imitation of the first through the repetition of magnitude but not polarity through an "inverse" secondary zygon of pitch.

2012, Adam Ockelford, Applied Musicology: Using Zygonic Theory to Inform Music Education, Therapy, and Psychology Research, page 106:

(music, plural "zygons") An affinity or connection in a piece of music between tones, chords, or phrases, such that one part appears to repeat, to imitate, or to derive from the other, especially when perceived as an organising principle in the music; a zygonic relationship.


death growl

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

Some black metal vocalists opt for incessant full-voiced or high-pitched screams over the death growl, and doom performers often combine growls […]

2004, Ian Buchanan, Marcel Swiboda, Deleuze and music:

Caninus Twin vocalists for this Brooklyn-based grindcore band really have the death growl down — because they're pit bulls […]

2009, Eric Danville, Cliff Mott, The Official Heavy Metal Book of Lists:

A harsh, guttural, sometimes unintelligible vocal style associated with death metal music.

voz gutural

harsh, guttural vocal style associated with death metal music


downwinder

A person (or community) that lives downwind from a potential hazard (such as a nuclear power station)


mandore

(music) An early form of lute that gave rise to the mandolin.


harmolodics

(music) A form of improvised jazz associated with Ornette Coleman


Solar

We have not yet the instruments that we want for that work, but I have asked for a Solar spectrograph, and I am already in the preliminary talkings to order a spectroheliograph […]

1906, Filipe Valle, in Arthur Schuster (editor), Transactions of the International Union for Co-operation in Solar Research, Volume I, [Victoria] University [of Manchester] Press, page 115

Values at the Solar location (Merrifield, 1992) are denoted by the subscript ○, and the present epoch is t ≡ 0, […]

2001, John J. Matese et al., "Oort cloud flux due to the Galactic tide", in Mikhail Ya. Marov and Hans Rickman (editors), Collisional Processes in the Solar System, Kluwer Academic Publishers, page 93

Here our knowledge is somewhat more certain, especially in the local Solar neighbourhood.

2004, M. A. C. Perryman, “Our Galaxy in three-dimensions: the Jeremiah Horrocks Memorial Lecture”, in D.W. Kurtz, editor, Transits of Venus: New Views of the Solar System and Galaxy, Cambridge University Press, published 2005, →ISBN, page 318:

Data on absolute values of Solar flux in the wave-range λ < 130nm and in the hydrogen line L_α (λ = 121.6nm) were obtained on-board both CORONAS satellites.

2004, T. V. Kazachevskaya et al., “Measurments^([sic]) of Solar EUV fluxes on board the ‘CORONAS’ satellites: equipment and main results”, in Alexander V. Stepanov et al., editors, Multi-Wavelength Investigations of Solar Activity: Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 223, 2004, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 633:


tiple

(music) Any of several kinds of small, plucked stringed-instrument of the guitar family, used in the traditional musics of Spain and various Latin American nations.


tumtum

A toombah, a type of small drum used in the traditional music of Antigua and Barbuda.


cornett

Old French cornet, a diminutive of corne (“horn”), from Latin cornū.

(music) An early horn wind instrument used in European music of the medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. Not to be confused with later brass instrument.


cassingle

Blend of cassette + single; originally a trademark.

(music) A small cassette containing a single track of popular music on each side


iceblink

iceblink (countable and uncountable, plural iceblinks)

A glare in the sky caused by reflection of light from an ice field.


showband

(music) A band that plays cover versions of popular songs.


shantyman

(nautical, music) The sailor who sings the main line of a sea shanty (the other sailors singing the responses or choruses)


semidemisemiquaver

(music) hemidemisemiquaver (a 64th note)


sesquialtera

sesquialtera (countable and uncountable, plural sesquialteras)

From Latin sesquialtera, form of sesquialtera, from sesqui- (“a half and a”) + alter (“another, a second”).

(music) An organ stop that uses two ranks of different pipes.


atomic energy

The energy released by an atom in a nuclear reaction.


carbeam

(rare, poetic) A beam of light from the front of an automobile.


yoik

yoik (countable and uncountable, plural yoiks)

(music, uncountable) A traditional style of Sami singing or chanting.

(music, countable) A song in this tradition.


conductus

(music) A medieval song, normally with a sacred text, often sung in Latin.


cittern

This discourse took us much time, till it was time to go to bed; but we being merry, we bade my Lady goodnight, and intended to have gone to the Post-house to drink, and hear a pretty girl play of the cittern (and indeed we should have lain there, but by a mistake we did not), but it was late, and we could not hear her, and the guard came to examine what we were; so we returned to our Inn and to bed, the page and I in one bed, and the two captains in another, all in one chamber, where we had very good mirth with our most abominable lodging.

1661 January 17, Samuel Pepys, Diary of Samuel Pepys: January 1661:

1911, Cittern, article in Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition,
The cittern consisted of a pear-shaped body similar to that of the lute but with a flat back and sound-board joined by ribs. The neck was provided with a fretted fingerboard; the head was curved and surmounted by a grotesque head of a woman or of an animal.

The advent of the Spanish guitar in England led to the wane in the popularity of the cittern, also known at that time in contradistinction as the English or wire-strung guitar, although the two instruments differed in many particulars.

1911, “Guitar”, in Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition:

Antwerp was world-famous for its harpsichords, but it was also a centre, in the 16th century, where citterns, lutes, viols and later violins were constructed with skill.

2000, Musical Instruments Museum, Visitor's Guide, page 93:

A stringed instrument (chordophone), played with a plectrum (a pick), and most commonly possessing four wire strings and chromatic frets, which is a precursor to the modern day guitar.


static kill

(oil industry) a method of closing an oil well, in which the blowout preventer has been tripped and has closed off oil flow; by pumping in drilling fluid (synthetic mud) through the blowout preventer down the borehole, to push down the artesian oil to contain the oil in its reservoir, and following with concrete (cement) to plug the hole


uranophane

uranophane (usually uncountable, plural uranophanes)

(mineralogy) A rare yellow radioactive calcium uranium silicate hydrate mineral that forms from the oxidation of uranium-bearing minerals.


pentachord

(music) Five notes (pitch classes) in a scale.


gospeler

From gospel + -er (occupational suffix). Compare Middle English gospeler (“one of the Gospel writers or Evangelists; statue of one of the Evangelists; (of Old Testament persons) bringer of good news; Isaiah; book containing the Gospels; content of one of the Gospels”), from Old English godspellere.


flocculus

Borrowed from Latin flocculus, from floccus.

(astronomy) A marking on the surface of the sun associated with a solar prominence.


sunray

A beam of artificial light, especially one rich in ultraviolet.


radioracemization

(physics, chemistry) racemization under the influence of ionizing radiation.


pedal stool

A pedal-stool having an opening in its rear side to clear the piano-pedals.

1904, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, CXII:ii, page 1,878:

The sound-post of this instrument “extended above the ridge of heaven, while the pedal-stool was beneath hell.”

1998, David Nicholls, The Whole World of Music, page 22:

(music) A stool with vertical foot levers that attach to the pedals of a piano, organ, or similar instrument, thereby assisting children and other players who cannot reach the pedals normally.


abruptio

(music) An abrupt pause or stop; an abruption.


pickguard

(music) A piece of durable flat material placed on the body of a guitar (or similar instrument) beneath the strings to protect the surface from being scratched by a plectrum (or similar device).


luminousness

en-noun

luminousness (countable and uncountable, plural luminousnesses)

The full moon, hidden by veils of cloud, threw a pale phosphorescent luminousness over the heavens, and the towers of the church stood up black against this silvery fleece.

1927, Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Book VII, section 2, page 212:


preclassical

(music) Of or relating to the period following the baroque.


proxigean spring tide

proxigean spring tide (plural proxigean spring tides)

An unusually high high tide that occurs when the Moon is at its closest point in its orbit to the Earth and in its new or full moon phase


SEAT

(US, aviation, firefighting, acronym) Single engine air tanker.


pulsatory

(music, archaic) Played by beating, like a gong or a drum.


aftertime

(music) The process in which a harmony singer or background singer repeats a line or a series of words in a song separately after the lead singer rather than singing it in unison with the lead singer; prominent in country music and Southern gospel.


stompbox

(music) A guitar effect unit which can be controlled with the foot


dubtronica

A genre of music combining electronica and dub.


trance music

(music) A style of dance music with fast beats, short melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track, often played in nightclubs.


power pop

Power pop was given the “pop” part of its name because the songs were based on well-crafted, memorable melodies with clever lyrics, as were some of the early songs by the Beatles. Power pop songs also often included catchy-sounding group harmonies like those sung by the Beach Boys in the early sixties.

1998, Katherine Charlton, Rock Music Styles: A History, McGraw-Hill, page 116:

Then it’s early R.E.M. in excelsis: seething momentum, cascading guitar arpeggios, power-pop punch in the arrangements, […].

2018 October 25, James Parker, “R.E.M., in Retrospect”, in The Atlantic:

(music) A genre of popular music inspired by 1960s British and American pop and rock music, with strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements, and prominent guitar riffs.


firedrake

From Middle English firdrake, from Old English fȳrdraca (“fire-spewing dragon”), equivalent to fire + drake.

inh

A fiery meteor, an ignis fatuus, a rocket


rebetiko

en-noun

rebetiko (countable and uncountable, plural rebetika)

Borrowed from Greek ρεμπέτικο (rempétiko, “rebetiko”).

I need another player to put a Greek melody over the top, perhaps a rebetiko of some sort.

1994, Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli's Mandolin:

(music) A Greek urban folk song, characterised by lyrics about underworld activity, and played generally on stringed instruments including the bouzouki.

At the time, these earliest songs of the rebetika tradition were a symptom and a particular manifestation of a wider climate of violence, criminality and despair, whether real or imagined, that permeated the Greek capital around the turn of the century.

2019, Roderick Beaton, Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation, Penguin, published 2020, page 172:

(music, in the plural) This style of music; such music as a genre.


glass harp

Possibly a calque of German Glasharfe, from Glas (“glass”) + Harfe (“harp”) (see the 1969 quotation).

A newer glass instrument is the glass harp [G[erman] Glasharfe] constructed by B[runo] Hoffmann in 1929. Similar to the musical glasses of England, it consists of 46 individually tuned glasses fixed on a resonant table.

1969, “Glass harmonica”, in Willi Apel, editor, Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd rev. and enl. edition, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 347:

Glass harmonicas are basically of two types. One type employs vertical wine glasses arranged so that the performer can rub more than one glass at a time. A collection of glasses played in this manner is sometimes called a glass harp. The other type, called the armonica by its inventor Benjamin Franklin, employs glass bowls or cups turned by a horizontal axle, so the performer need only touch the rims of the bowls as they rotate to set them into vibration[…].

2000, Thomas D. Rossing, “Glass Musical Instruments”, in Science of Percussion Instruments (Series in Popular Science; 3), Singapore: World Scientific, →ISBN, page 182:

The glass harp produces the "sound of the universe" according to [Johann Wolfgang von] Goethe. The musician [Christoph Willibald] Gluck gave an entire concert using the glass harp in London in 1746. Sound is made when a wine glass "sings": run your finger around the rim. The sound is thus produced by making the glass vibrate rather than by making the air in the container vibrate (like blowing over a bottle).

2007, C. Barry Carter, M. Grant Norton, “Processing Glass and Glass-ceramics”, in Ceramic Materials: Science and Engineering, Springer, →ISBN, pages 476–477:

Joni [Mitchell] and Neil [Young] have both used alien and spaceman imagery to articulate their feelings, in interviews as well as in their lyrics. Listen to the words for Young's "After the Gold Rush" (1970) and you will hear a whole story of humanity's next exodus into space, a tale that prompted Linda Ronstadt, who covered the tune with glass harps, to say: "I would think, 'This is the future. Neil's humans leave the planet and go off to start a new space colony.' I've always felt Neil had a great deal of really uncanny prescience in his writing."

2012, Katherine Monk, “Facing Down the Grim Reaper: Illness and Survival”, in Joni: The Creative Odyssey of Joni Mitchell, Vancouver, B.C.: Greystone Books, D&M Publishers, →ISBN, page 42:

A musical instrument consisting of glasses (typically wine glasses) tuned by putting different amounts of liquid into them. Sound is produced by rubbing one's fingers around the rims of the glasses, causing them to vibrate.


flumpet

A musical instrument that blends qualities of the trumpet and flugelhorn.


jug band

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


mellotron

(music) An early electronic keyboard instrument that played back prerecorded sounds.


noisemonger

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

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

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


outsing

en-verb

outsing (third-person singular simple present outsings, present participle outsinging, simple past outsang, past participle outsung)

outsings (present singular third-person)
outsinging (participle present)
outsang (past)
outsung (participle past)

(transitive) To sing better, longer or louder than.


antimusical

en-adj

antimusical (comparative more antimusical, superlative most antimusical)

more antimusical (comparative)
most antimusical (superlative)

This does become monstrously antimusical in one scene: when Tchaikovsky’s music, softly depicting the sleeping palace (my favorite passage of this composer’s entire oeuvre, with its beautifully muffled oboe melody suggesting how beauty ripens in sleep like a chrysalis), is turned into an epic battle for the poor passive Prince, conducted between the wicked Carabosse, with her ghoulish minions, and the Lilac Fairy, with her elves.

2007 June 4, Alastair Macaulay, “Wake Up, Princess, the Movies Are Calling”, in New York Times:


qanun

From Turkish kanun, from Ottoman Turkish قانون (kanun), from Arabic قَانُون (qānūn), from Ancient Greek κανών (kanṓn). Doublet of canon.

WISPS of mournful tunes from a cane flute mingled with the plucking, jangling arabesques of the zitherlike qanun, the oud and gentle drums.

2009 June 21, Daniel J. Wakin, “Ensemble Ambitions in a World Divided”, in New York Times:

(music) A Near Eastern and Caucasian musical instrument related to the zither, dulcimer, or harp having either 26 strings and a single bridge, or 42 strings and two bridges.


firepit

A pit dug in the ground, or constructed from stones, in which a fire is made, principally for cooking.


flexi

en-noun

flexi (countable and uncountable, plural flexis)

(countable, music) Ellipsis of flexi disc.


minorish

en-adj

minorish (comparative more minorish, superlative most minorish)

more minorish (comparative)
most minorish (superlative)

[…] especially in the mighty first movement that is Beethoven at his most C Minorish.

(chiefly music) Somewhat minor; minor to an extent.


partitur

From German Partitur, from Italian partitura (“partition, musical score”) , from Latin partito, from partīre (“divide, partition, share”) (Classical Latin partīrī) and -ura.

uder

The partiturs for the popular shows, though, were apparently sent out one time too many.

2011, Steven Suskin, The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations:

(music, rare) A full score, conductor's score (with a separate line for every part).


liquefied petroleum gas

en-noun

liquefied petroleum gas (countable and uncountable, plural liquefied petroleum gases)

(petrochemistry) A mixture of propane and butane with traces of some other gases, which is kept in a liquid state at high pressure in metal bottles, and used as a source of gas for cooking, heating and as a fuel in internal combustion engines in vehicles.


cantoris

/kænˈtɔːɹɪs/

Borrowed from Latin cantōris (“of the cantor”).

All the extant voices participate fully in the decani-cantoris split at that point, so one is tempted to assume that the tenors split into decani and cantoris parts as well.

1988, Gordon Paine, Howard Swan, Five Centuries of Choral Music: Essays in Honor of Howard Swan, page 105:

(music) The lower of two choral voice parts sung when a part splits into two; traditionally sung by members of the choir on the cantoris side.

(music) That half of the choir singing cantoris parts, collectively.


tintinnabuli

From Latin tintinnābulum (“a small monastic bell”).

uder

(music) A compositional style characterized by two types of voice, the first of which (the "tintinnabular voice") arpeggiates the tonic triad, and the second of which moves diatonically in stepwise motion.


RIA

(nuclear industry) Initialism of radioimmunoassay.


CSM

Cantiga de Santa Maria
w:Cantigas de Santa Maria

(music) Initialism of Cantiga de Santa Maria.


Gehenna

heaven

antonym(s) of “Christianity, uncountable”

Hawaiian: kehena

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin gehenna, from Ancient Greek γέεννα (géenna), from Hebrew גֵּיהִנּוֹם (ge'henom, “hell”, literally “valley of Hinnom”), named after the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, which was constantly filled with the waste of the city, which was then burnt. Heinous deeds are also associated with this valley, as during the time when Jerusalem was ruled by non-Jews (referred to in scriptures simply as 'pagans') child sacrifice was practiced there.

der

Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of Gehenna?

In rabbinical literature and Christian and Islamic scripture, the place where the souls of the wicked go after death, where they suffer eternal damnation or annihilation.


nuclear data

Compilation of experimental and evaluated data describing nuclear properties.

données nucléaires

compilation of experimental and evaluated data describing nuclear properties


biniou

Borrowed from Breton binioù, plural of béni.

(music) A set of traditional Breton bagpipes.


happy hardcore

(music) A genre of rave music typified by a very fast tempo and a bright, cheerful sound, often coupled with solo vocals and sentimental lyrics.


deathcore

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

Former Hidden Camera Steven Kado and artist Brian Joseph Davis channel a little John Cage filtered through deathcore music with their performance Alvin Lucifer.

2009 May 21, “Critics' choice”, in Toronto Star:

(music) An extreme fusion genre of death metal and metalcore.


coronal mass ejection

en-noun

coronal mass ejection (plural coronal mass ejections)

(astronomy) A massive burst of solar wind, other light isotope plasma, and magnetic fields rising above the solar corona or being released into space.


coal drop

The ladies remained at the house, while the men walked to the staith on the [River] Wear, and were shown the process of unloading the wagons into the keels by means of the coal-drop.

1948 January and February, “Notes and News: Duke of Wellington's Early Railway Journey”, in Railway Magazine, page 56:

An elevated railway track designed to allow material to fall freely between the rails onto the ground beneath. It is used to rapidly unload hoppers containing coal and other bulk materials.


margaritasite

From Margaritas (“uranium deposit in Mexico”) + -ite.

affix

(mineralogy) A yellow monoclinic caesium-bearing mineral in the carnotite group.


light second

(astronomy, physics) A unit of length equal to the distance light travels in one second: about 300 megameters


retrig

en-verb

retrig (third-person singular simple present retrigs, present participle retrigging, simple past and past participle retrigged)

retrigs (present singular third-person)
retrigging (participle present)
retrigged (participle past)
retrigged (past)

This command will retrig the same note before playing the next. Where to retrig depends on the speed of the song. If you retrig with 1 in speed 6 that note will be trigged 6 times in one note slot.

1992, Ian Tweedie, “OK here it is!! Mod-File-Format!”, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard (Usenet):

The clicking during the piano part is specially horrid... It sounds a bit like this: Click! Click-click-click! Whrrrrrr... Click! Click-click-click! Whrrrrrr... etc. (The Whrrrrrr bit sounds a bit like a sample being retrigged at a very high rate (a dozen times per second)).

1993, Justin William Brown, “Nausicaa MID... the clicking :(”, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard (Usenet):

However, if you need to use different notes, just use 2 channels and delay the 2nd note instead of retrigging it.

1996, Andrew Carlson, “MOD composition question”, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos (Usenet):

(transitive, computing, tracker music) To retrigger (a note, or a sample within it).


retrig

(computing, tracker music) The retriggering of a note or sample.


inversus

(music) The inverted part of a composition.


come stà

From Italian come sta (literally “as it stands”). The accent mark is not present in standard Italian orthography.

bor

(music) An instruction to play without improvised ornamentation or rhythmic alteration.


descrescendo

en-noun

descrescendo (plural descrescendos or decrescendi)

descrescendos (plural)
decrescendi (plural)

“It’s probably the most difficult piece I’ve ever done,” he said before trying out several movements at a Wednesday evening concert, his fingers slinking from keyboard to keyboard and darting restlessly over the 729 stop-control tablets as phrase seamlessly followed phrase and crescendo climaxed and faded into descrescendo.

2007 June 9, Craig R. Whitney, “Amid the Shirts and Socks, a Concert Can Break Out”, in New York Times:

(music) An instruction to play gradually more softly, the opposite of a crescendo.


indietronica

Coordinate term: indie rock

Delphic's debut album, Acolyte, was one of the hits of 2010 for its fizzing indietronica, a more youthful take on the collision of electronics and rock perfected by Manchester predecessors New Order.

2013 January 24, Dave Simpson, “Delphic: Collections – review”, in The Guardian:

(music) A musical genre combining elements of indie, electronica, rock, and pop music.


Liszt

en-proper noun

Liszt (countable and uncountable, plural Liszts)

(music) Franz Liszt, a Hungarian composer, pianist and teacher.


gumbe

A style of music from Guinea-Bissau which is primarily vocal and percussive.


protopunk

Garage bands popularize protopunk rebellion.

2006, Katherine Charlton, Rock music styles: a history, page 69:

Susan wasn't in the mood to talk about glass, or bees, or even protopunk feminist singer-songwriter poets of the 1970s, and she was almost always in the mood to talk about them.

2009, Chelsea Cain, Sweetheart, page 216:

Sky Saxon, the mop-haired bass player and front man for the psychedelic protopunk band the Seeds, whose 1965 song “Pushin’ Too Hard” put a Los Angeles garage-band spin on the bad-boy rocker image personified by the Rolling Stones, died Thursday in Austin, Tex.

2009 June 27, Bruce Weber, “Sky Saxon, Lead Singer for the Seeds, Dies at 71”, in New York Times:

Collectively, the music (of various genres and backgrounds) that influenced the later punk movement in the 1970s.


modulin

(music) A variety of theremin in the form of a violin


kissar

(music) A five-stringed lyre used in Nubia, Abyssinia, and northern Africa.


uranopilite

From uranium + Ancient Greek πῖλος (pîlos, “felt”) + -ite, alluding to its composition and habit (containing uranium) and felt-like appearance.

(mineralogy) A fluorescent radioactive mineral, hydrated uranyl sulfate hydroxide.


JBiebs

Blend of J(ustin) + Biebs (from Bieber), modelled on other abbreviations such as J-Lo.

blend

from <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">Bieber</i>

(slang) The Canadian singer Justin Bieber.


heliotomography

(astronomy, physics) The three-dimensional analysis of the structure of the sun, especially of convection currents


Mickey Mousing

From Mickey Mouse + -ing, in reference to early Walt Disney films, where the music served to mimic the animated motions of the characters.

(animation) Synchronization of actions on screen with the accompanying music.


porrectus

From Latin porrectus, from porrigō (“I stretch”).

(music) A neume denoting a set of three tones which first fall from the original tone, then rise.


off vocal

From Japanese オフボーカル (ofubōkaru), from English off + vocal.


RMI

Rocky Mount Instruments
w:Rocky Mount Instruments

(music) Abbreviation of Rocky Mount Instruments.


toolie

He and the geologist went to explore in the sandy Garcia pastures. The rig builder, toolie, and driller retired to the Colonel's porch to drink.

2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 287:

(colloquial, oil industry) A tool dresser.


superius

(music) The highest voice or part in early polyphony.


soft pedal

(music, also attributively) The leftmost foot-pedal on most pianos which, when pushed, dampens the strings and so softens the note played.

hiljennyspedaali

leftmost foot-pedal on most pianos which softens the note played


lounge music

A style of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s, intended to evoke in the listener the feeling of being in some other place (an island paradise, outer space, etc.).


industrial music

The style was introduced by the record label Industrial Records (formed in 1976).

One of the difficulties that plague conversations about industrial music is that the genre has come to include (to the chagrin and outright denial of some purists) anything from gentle synthesized droning to metal-inspired riffage.

2013, S. Alexander Reed, Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music, page 38:

A noisy, experimental genre of music with transgressive themes.


silent as the grave

Perhaps connected to the idea of taking a secret to the grave, or the idea that dead men tell no tales.

“Livesey,” returned the squire, “you are always in the right of it. I’ll be as silent as the grave.”

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

“Well, then, if you’re bound to go, I’ll tell you the way to do when you get to the village. Shut the door and blindfold the doctor tight and fast, and make him swear to be silent as the grave, and put a purse full of gold in his hand, […]

1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XL, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:

(idiomatic, simile) Saying absolutely nothing (especially about a particular subject).

нем, как ры́ба (nem, kak rýba, literally “silent like a fish”)

молчать, как пле́нный партиза́н (molčatʹ, kak plénnyj partizán, literally “be silent like a captured partisan”)


paperman

(jazz slang) A musician who cannot improvise.


rebana

A type of tambourine used in Southeast Asia.


scabellum

(music, historical) A kind of percussion instrument played by the foot, used in dramatic performances.


dubby

en-adj

dubby (comparative more dubby, superlative most dubby)

more dubby (comparative)
most dubby (superlative)

What's striking about the record is how PiL assimilated both the dread feel of roots reggae and the dub aesthetic of subtraction (stripping out instruments, using empty space), without ever resorting to obviously dubby production effects like reverb and echo.

2005, Simon Reynolds, Rip it up and start again: postpunk 1978-1984:

As this "song with no words" rose from its dubby beginning to a roaring Crescendo, MacKayre sang, […]

2009, Mark Andersen, Mark Jenkins, Dance of Days: Updated Edition: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital:

(music) In the style of dub music; having been heavily remixed, particularly with reduced vocals or emphasised bass.


thoriate

en-verb

thoriate (third-person singular simple present thoriates, present participle thoriating, simple past and past participle thoriated)

thoriates (present singular third-person)
thoriating (participle present)
thoriated (participle past)
thoriated (past)

One must thoriate the filament in order for it to be effective.

(transitive) To add thorium or thorium oxide to (a substance) in order to increase its thermionic flow.


thoriated

en-adj

thoriated (comparative more thoriated, superlative most thoriated)

more thoriated (comparative)
most thoriated (superlative)


Biebermania

The last time she cozied up for a photograph alongside teen-dream Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian learned just how serious Biebermania could get when she received a rash of death threats.

Biebermania doesn't always result in injury, though. The outpouring of devotion from his fans comes in other ways, too.

2010, Sarah Parvis, Justin Bieber, page 65:

(slang) Enthusiasm for the Canadian singer Justin Bieber.


Stroh violin

Named after its German designer, Johannes Matthias Augustus Stroh.

(music) A violin that amplifies its sound through an attached metal resonator.


9-1-1
Federal Communication Commission
National Emergency Number Association
United States

The official form of the service's name in regulations and materials from the United States National Emergency Number Association and Federal Communication Commission.


en-noun

9-1-1 (countable and uncountable, plural 9-1-1s)


super-heavy water

(inorganic chemistry) Water containing tritium instead of normal hydrogen (protium).


Classical period

(music) the musical period of time following the Baroque period and preceding the Romantic period, spanning c.1750-c.1820.


Romantic period

(music) the musical period of time following the Classical period falling between about 1820 and the start of the twentieth century.


Galant

Borrowed from French galant (“gallant”).

(music) Principally during the transition from the Baroque to the Classical period, a few decades either side of 1750, the use of more classically simplistic traits in comparison to the highly embellished and texturally complex precedent in the Baroque period.


bhajan

"No, there was never a school," said the child; "but the patwaris bibi lets us come to her of a morning, and teaches us bhajans and our letters, and when we learn well she sometimes gives us fruit."

Did I detenct Father's deep and rumbling baritone in the chorus which accompanied my wife's first bhajan of the evening?

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 396:

(music) A type of Indian devotional song.


melodeum

They had borrowed a melodeum—a sick one; and when everything was ready, a young woman set^([sic]) down and worked it, and it was pretty skreeky and colicky, and everybody joined in and sung, and Peter was the only one that had a good thing, according to my notion.

1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXVII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 272:


morin khuur

Borrowed from Mongolian морин хуур (morin xuur).

A traditional Mongolian bowed stringed instrument.


red-haired

It is observed, that the red haired of both sexes are more libidinous and mischievous than the rest, whom yet they much exceed in strength and activity.

1726, Jonathan Swift, chapter VIII, in Gulliver's Travels, Part IV:

Talk to that noble sage at Pylos, Nestor, / then go to Meneláos, the red-haired king / at Sparta, last man home of all the Akhaians.

1961, Homer, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, The Odyssey, Book One, Prentice Hall, published 2001, lines 320–22:


flautino

(music) Any of several high-pitched woodwind instruments, including the zufolo, sopranino recorder, and piccolo.


Daedalus

From Latin Daedalus, from Ancient Greek Δαίδαλος (Daídalos).

Daedalus
Daedalus (disambiguation)
Project Daedalus

Project Daedalus: a scheme for an interstellar probe that would use fusion rockets.


polycrase

polycrase (usually uncountable, plural polycrases)

(mineralogy) A black or brown amorphous metallic complex uranium yttrium oxide mineral, found in granitic pegmatites.


metamictization

A natural process in which the radiation emitted by a mineral gradually destroys the mineral's crystal structure, leaving it amorphous.


synthesist

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

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


ekanite

ekanite (usually uncountable, plural ekanites)

From the name of F. L. D. Ekanayake, who first described it, + -ite.

(mineralogy) An uncommon mineral, one of very few gemstones that are naturally radioactive. (It contains thorium.)


mazut

mazut (usually uncountable, plural mazuts)

(petrochemistry) A heavy, low-quality fuel oil, used in generating plants and similar applications, or broken down to produce diesel.


diaphony

diaphony (countable and uncountable, plural diaphonies)

From dia- + -phony or from Ancient Greek διαψωνία (diapsōnía, “discordance”).

der

(music) A form of harmony in which the parts proceeded by parallel motion in fourths, fifths, and octaves.


autogas

en-noun

autogas (countable and uncountable, plural autogases or autogasses)

Blend of automotive + gas (originally a trade name "Autogas", but now a common noun)

Petrol ... 20.3% more than autogas ... The results conclusively demonstrate the carbon benefits of autogas vehicles

2005, Cars of the Future: Seventeenth Report of Session 2003-04 (British House of Commons):

Autogas powers more than 10 million vehicles in over 54 countries worldwide .... In terms of air-borne emissions of the principal regulated noxious gases, autogas is among the lowest emitters of all ...

2006, Class of 2006: industry report cards on environment and social responsibility (United Nations Environment Programme. Division of Technology, Industry, and Economics ):

Autogas is the common name for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) when it is used as a fuel in internal combustion engines in vehicles.

2009, Frederic P Miller with Agnes F Vandome and John McBrewster, Autogas:

Liquefied Petroleum Gas
liquefied petroleum gas

(UK, Australia) Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)


nondiegetic

(film music) That does not occur as part of the action, and cannot be heard by the film's characters; background.


free neutron

A neutron not bound in an atomic nucleus.


neutron radiation

non-ionizing radiation
non-ionizing radiation

A form of non-ionizing radiation consisting of free neutrons.


frack

en-verb

frack (third-person singular simple present fracks, present participle fracking, simple past and past participle fracked)

fracks (present singular third-person)
fracking (participle present)
fracked (participle past)
fracked (past)

From an abbreviated form of fracture. Also found in English hydrofracking.

Mrs. Crawley recalled driving past the Riverdale Mobile Home Park, whose residents were being forced out to make way for a facility that would withdraw water from the river to frack gas wells, in the summer of 2012 and seeing a bunch of “picketers” from “out of the area that just came in and camped up there” as part of what supporters called Occupy Riverdale.

2021 September 17, Colin Jerolmack, Tristan Spinski, “They Couldn’t Drink Their Water. And Still, They Stayed Quiet.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

hydraulic fracturing
hydraulic fracturing

(oil industry, transitive, intransitive) To employ hydraulic fracturing (fracking).


didgeridooer

(music) Someone who plays the didgeridoo


semihemidemisemiquaver

(music, principally UK) quasihemidemisemiquaver.


sharp-and-a-half

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


neutral clef

(music) A symbol used for pitchless instruments, such as some of those used for percussion instruments, for which each line can represent a specific percussion instrument within a set, such as in a drum set.


C clef

(music) A clef indicating the position of one-lined C on a staff.


liquefied natural gas

(petrochemistry) Natural gas that has been cooled and compressed to liquid form for transport and storage.


lead single

(music) The first single released from an album


grow light

electromagnetic spectrum
electromagnetic spectrum

An electric lamp designed to promote plant growth by emitting an electromagnetic spectrum appropriate for photosynthesis.


sing up

sing up (third-person singular simple present sings up, present participle singing up, simple past sang up, past participle sung up)

sings up (present singular third-person)
singing up (participle present)
sang up (past)
sung up (participle past)

(music) to sing higher, to sing an ascending scale


compunctis

(music) A compound neume consisting of one or more notes appended both before and after a neume.


dim.

head

dim. (comparative dim. molto, no superlative)

(musical notation) Abbreviation of diminuendo.


underhold

en-verb

underhold (third-person singular simple present underholds, present participle underholding, simple past underheld, past participle underheld or underholden)

underholds (present singular third-person)
underholding (participle present)
underheld (past)
underheld (participle past)
underholden (participle past)

(music) To hold a note for a shorter duration than required.


underburn

underburn (third-person singular simple present underburns, present participle underburning, simple past and past participle underburned or underburnt)

underburns (present singular third-person)
underburning (participle present)
underburned (participle past)
underburned (past)
underburnt (participle past)
underburnt (past)

From Middle English underbrennen (“to set on fire, burn up”), equivalent to under- + burn.


Aeolian

(music) Designating the Aeolian mode or scale; the name of the minor key in modal theory.


Belieber

Blend of Bieber (“Justin Bieber”) + believer.

blend

A Belieber is sustained by the hope of someday being followed by, and receiving a direct message from Justin on Twitter.

2010 August 13th (3:21pm), “Twitchell” (user name), alt.gossip.celebrities (Usenet newsgroup), “Inside the Weird World of Justin Bieber Micro-Gossip”, Message ID

There is simply nothing you can say that could make me feel remorse. If Justin sings Christmas, then for the duration of the track I am a Belieber.

2011 December 12, Marina Hyde, “Whether it's Justin or Cliff, I'm a Belieber in Christmas songs”, in The Guardian:

(informal) A fan or supporter of Canadian singer Justin Bieber (born 1994); a Justin Bieber fanatic.


stride piano

(music) A style of piano playing in which the left hand plays a four-beat harmony involving large intervals


Biebs

Clipping of Bieber + -s (hypocoristic suffix).


ATWS

(nuclear power) Initialism of anticipated transient without SCRAM.


LOCA

(nuclear industry) loss-of-coolant accident


jazz band

(music, jazz) A musical band that plays jazz music.


stop, drop and roll

A safety technique to be used by a person who is on fire: halting one's movements, dropping to the ground, then rolling.


techniphone

A device used to train the hand muscles used in playing the piano, in order to acquire advanced techniques such as legato


BED

banana equivalent dose
banana equivalent dose#English


banana equivalent dose

en-noun

banana equivalent dose (plural banana equivalent doses)

(biology) The radiation dose equivalent of consuming an average banana, equal to 0.01 mrem or 0.1 μSv.


supermoon

From super- + moon. Coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979.

coin

And should the moon happen to hit its ever-shifting orbital perigee at the same time that it lies athwart from the sun, we are treated to a so-called supermoon, a full moon that can seem close enough to embrace – as much as 12 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than the average full moon. […] Some astronomers dislike the whole supermoon hoopla. They point out that the term originated with astrology, not astronomy; that perigee full moons are not all that rare, coming an average of every 13 months; and that their apparently swollen dimensions are often as much a matter of optical illusion and wishful blinking as of relative lunar nearness.

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:

(astrology, astronomy) A full moon or new moon, when the Earth–Moon distance is in the lowest tenth of its range.

superlluna

a full moon or new moon, when the Earth–Moon distance is in the lowest tenth of its range


NTR

Coordinate term: NTP

nuclear-thermal rocket
nuclear-thermal rocket#English

(astronautics) Initialism of nuclear-thermal rocket.


MOX

mixed oxide fuel
mixed oxide fuel#English


recriticality

en-noun

recriticality (countable and uncountable, plural recriticalities)

(physics) A return to a point at which a nuclear reaction becomes self-sustaining.


rape whistle

A whistle intended to be blown by a person who believes he/she is in danger of being raped.


dal segno

Borrowed from Italian dal segno (literally “from the sign”).


yidaki

To increase the understanding of what the mouth of a yidaki player is actually doing, Hollenberg organised to have magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans done of him playing the instrument.

2010, Stephen Luntz, Forensics, Fossils and Fruitbats: A Field Guide to Australian Scientists, →ISBN, page 153:


bromocresol purple

(organic chemistry) A sulfonephthalein derived from a brominated derivative of cresol; it is used as an acid-base indicator


neutral third

(music) A third that is between a major and a minor third in size; an interval of approximately three and a half semitones.


cut time

(music) A meter of two minims (half notes) per measure.


quarter rest

(music) A rest of the same duration as a quarter note.


CWP

coal worker's pneumoconiosis
coal worker's pneumoconiosis#English

(uncountable) Initialism of coal worker's pneumoconiosis.


reedman

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

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


raggamuffin

International reggae takes another spin with Kulcha Connection's Plus Haut (Subsonik, Canada), a rollicking raggamuffin release with clean, crisp backing tracks and alternating singer and dj segments delivered almost entirely in French.

2004, The Beat, volume 23, number 2, page 13:

Reggae music is as old as the history of Africans suffering in the Carribean. But, as a result of the Americanization of this music to form raggamuffin, drugs are openly idolized. The singer called Bob Marley promoted the use of marijuana and among the African fans of raggamuffin, the use of marijuana is now standard.

2005, Ndirangu Mwaura, Kenya Today: Breaking the Yoke of Colonialism in Africa, Algora Publishing, →ISBN, page 191:


rushlight

The rushlight was her friend, and aided her to pass the long, long hours before midnight, for it was enclosed within its accustomed tin cage; […]

1842, [Katherine] Thomson, chapter XI, in Widows and Widowers. A Romance of Real Life., volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 198–199:

After supper Sir Pitt Crawley began to smoke his pipe; and when it became quite dark, he lighted the rushlight in the tin candlestick, and producing from an interminable pocket a huge mass of papers, began reading them, and putting them in order.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Crawley of Queen’s Crawley”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 61:

As I had asked for a night-light, the chamberlain had brought me in, before he left me, the good old constitutional rushlight of those virtuous days.

1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations:

The nights were almost at their longest now, and the cold was very great; but the watchers piled fresh logs upon the fire, and talked quietly to each other as they sat in the dancing glow--for the rushlight had long since gone out.

1901, Evelyn Everett-Green, In the Wars of the Roses:

(historical) A type of inexpensive candle formed by soaking the dried pith of the rush plant in fat or grease, which emits light for a relatively short period of time.


organ grinder

/ˈɔːɡən ˌɡɹaɪndə/

/ˈɔɹɡən ˌɡɹaɪndəɹ/

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

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

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


arpeggiator

(music) A feature of some synthesizers that automatically steps through a sequence of notes based on an input chord, thus creating an arpeggio.

arpejador

effect that plays an arpeggio from an input chord


echoplex

en-verb

echoplex (third-person singular simple present echoplexes, present participle echoplexing, simple past and past participle echoplexed)

echoplexes (present singular third-person)
echoplexing (participle present)
echoplexed (participle past)
echoplexed (past)

[…](making much use of Macero's splicing, tape loops and echoplexing of Miles' trumpet).

1979, Black Music & Jazz Review, volume 1, numbers 10–12, page 17:

William "Wee Gee" Howard takes the lead vocal and Dennis Coffey plays the heavily echoplexed guitar, […]

2003, Rob Bowman, Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, page 257:

(music, transitive) To apply a tape delay effect on (an instrument).


echoplex

On Electric Bath Ellis provided an exquisite example of how to use the loop delay echo chamber on his trumpet, as he played “Open Beauty”. By using an echoplex Ellis was able to play highly effective solos, duets, and trios in a surrealistic manner by himself.

2001, Bob Yurochko, A Short History of Jazz, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 175:

(music, also capitalized) A tape delay effect first used in the 1960s.


high note

After weeks of practice Alyssa was finally able to hit the high note of her song perfectly.

(music) The highest and usually climactic note of a song or composition, especially one that is difficult to reach.


endpin

Among the ensemble’s strange, outmoded, “original” instruments — the feral horns, sour violins, wooden flutes, cellos without endpins — she seemed right at home, despite her Broadway provenance.

2007 July 8, Jesse Green, “Let Her Entertain You. Please!”, in New York Times:

(music, lutherie) The spike of a cello or double bass that makes contact with the floor and supports the weight of the instrument.


spatialize

spatialize (third-person singular simple present spatializes, present participle spatializing, simple past and past participle spatialized)

spatializes (present singular third-person)
spatializing (participle present)
spatialized (participle past)
spatialized (past)

On things that change as they move, Mr. Lelong writes, “when the composer spatializes a sound object — whether it is a chord, a motif or a rhythm — the sound object that is set in motion evolves, or to put it another way, the motion stimulated by the compositional process transforms the object, whereas previously works of spatial music merely give an impression of the same object moving unchanged through space.”

2007 July 8, Bernard Holland, “Don’t Let Words Get in the Way”, in New York Times:

(transitive, music, art) To localize sounds in physical space.


sarod

More surprising are segments showing Mr. Bream and friends starting an evening at a pub and then repairing to his home to play jazz, and a 1962 improvisation with the sarod player Ali Akbar Khan in which Mr. Bream picks up Mr. Khan’s themes with an effortlessness and a fluency that say a lot about his musicianship.

2007 July 10, Allan Kozinn, “Capturing a Master of the Guitar in the Act of Playing and Musing”, in New York Times:

(music) A fretless string instrument used mainly in Indian classical music.


novelty song

A comical or nonsensical song, usually performed for comedic or humorous effect.


lightstick

When he woke, he became frightened, fired tracer bullets into the air and waved a fluorescent lightstick to identify himself.

2007 July 30, Steven Erlanger, “Israeli Soldier Is Briefly Left Behind in Gaza”, in New York Times:


armónico

Borrowed from Spanish armónico (“harmonic”).

(music) A stringed instrument with seven strings in six courses and one string (the middle one) doubled; it is structurally a combination of a guitar and a tres.


nabal

a long, straight, valveless brass trumpet used in the traditional music of Korea


ryo

Coordinate term: ritsu

(music) An anhemitonic pentatonic scale used in a Japanese Buddhist chant, and built up by intervals of major second, major second, minor third, major second, minor third.


ragtimey

en-adj

ragtimey (comparative more ragtimey, superlative most ragtimey)

more ragtimey (comparative)
most ragtimey (superlative)

It’s a tribute to the ragtimey gospel of the Rev. Gary Davis.

2007 August 12, Jon Pareles, “Cheerful New Zealand Pop and Spooky Louisiana Rock”, in New York Times:

(informal, music) Resembling ragtime music.


boula

Instead of trap drums, his band features two drummers playing the island’s traditional boula and marké hand drums.

2007 August 31, Jon Pareles, “Somber and Soulful World Fusion Meets Dance Club”, in New York Times:


gamma particle

A photon with a wavelength short enough to be considered a gamma ray, usually emitted from radioactivity.


yaravi

A traditional nostalgic love song of Peru.


mastertone

In a written statement, Universal said it was disappointed that “the Marley estate has chosen to take such an extreme and meritless position that a customary promotional campaign highlighting the availability of Marley mastertones somehow constitutes an ‘endorsement’ of Verizon over all.”

2007 September 14, Andrew Adam Newman, “Marley Family’s Vitriol Leads Verizon to Bite Back”, in New York Times:

A ringtone consisting of an extract from an original recorded work (and not a synthesised imitation).


ukuleleist

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

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


charanga

Going to hear charanga, the Afro-Cuban music that uses strings, flute and a standard rhythm section, is a bit like going to see a rare ibex in a zoo: it's a wonder that it exists at all, and its existence can color one's perception of its value.

1995 February 22, Peter Watrous, “In Performance”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The album includes plenty of songs about love and dancing that draw on vintage and recent Cuban music, from the lilting son to the elegant flute and violins of charanga to percussive rumba and mambo.

2007 September 17, The New York Times, “New CDs”, in New York Times:

(countable, uncountable, music) A traditional ensemble of Cuban dance music, and the genre of music they create.


cantiga

From Portuguese cantiga, from Old Galician-Portuguese cantiga.

The most immediately engaging work here was Roberto Sierra’s “Güell Concert” (2006). Mr. Sierra uses a medieval Spanish cantiga as the work’s motto, but leaps quickly into modern rhythmic and harmonic complexities.

2007 October 1, Allan Kozinn, “Juilliard’s New Semester Starts With New Music”, in New York Times:

A medieval monophonic song, sometimes religious, characteristic of the Galician-Portuguese lyric.


ritsu

Coordinate term: ryo

(music) An anhemitonic pentatonic scale used in a Japanese Buddhist chant, and built up by intervals of major second, minor third, major second, major second, minor third.


trimba

Coined by its inventor, the American composer and poet Moondog (born Louis Thomas Hardin, 1916–1999).

Working in Braille, often composing under his cloak on the sidewalk, he wrote in an impressively wide range of styles: percussion-driven exotica (he made his own triangular drum-and-cymbal instrument, the trimba), avant-garde jazz, folkish madrigals, Bach-like neo-Baroque rounds and canons for chamber orchestra, symphonies for full orchestra, and a layered minimalism that influenced his young collaborators Steve Reich and Philip Glass .

2007 October 28, John Strausbaugh, “Sidewalk Hero, on the Horns of a Revival”, in New York Times:


ukelin

Originally a trademark. Blend of ukelele + violin.

Thats a ukelin on his lap and another next to it.

2007 November 4, Zo Wolff, “But Can He Hum?”, in New York Times:

(music) A musical instrument resembling a ukelele and violin.


superband

10:15 P.M. (Sundance) THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE TRAVELING WILBURYS This 25-minute documentary from Willy Smax tells the story of the 1980s superband Nelson Wilbury (George Harrison), Lefty Wilbury (Roy Orbison), Charlie T. Wilbury Jr. (Tom Petty), Lucky Wilbury (Bob Dylan) and Otis Wilbury (Jeff Lynne) — which made two albums and then journeyed into oblivion.

2007 November 5, Kathryn Shattuck, “Whats on Tonight”, in New York Times:


ionium

(physics) The isotope of thorium ²³⁰₉₀Th


betine

en-verb

betine (third-person singular simple present betines, present participle betining, simple past and past participle betined)

betines (present singular third-person)
betining (participle present)
betined (participle past)
betined (past)

From Middle English betinen, betynen, bitunen, bituinen, from Old English betȳnan (“to hedge in, enclose, shut, bury; shut out; conclude, end”), from Proto-West Germanic *bitūnijan (“to inclose, hedge about”), equivalent to be- + tine. Cognate with Middle Dutch betuinen, Middle High German beziunen.

inh

(transitive, obsolete) To hedge about; enclose; shut up.


prasine

From Middle English [Term?], from a combination of Middle French prame (inherited from Late Latin prasinus) and Middle French prasine (borrowed from Late Latin prasinum), both ultimately from Latin prasinus (“leek-green”), from Ancient Greek πράσινος (prásinos), from πράσον (práson, “leek”).


thwap

en-verb

thwap (third-person singular simple present thwaps, present participle thwapping, simple past and past participle thwapped)

thwaps (present singular third-person)
thwapping (participle present)
thwapped (participle past)
thwapped (past)

Reflectors in the road thwapped beneath the tires, setting a regular, almost reassuring pace.

2004, Anthony Doerr, About Grace, page 241:

To make, or cause to make, a heavy smacking sound.


gigabecquerel

A unit of radioactivity equal to one billion becquerels.


terabecquerel

A unit of radioactivity equal to one trillion becquerels.


kilobecquerel

A unit of radioactivity equal to one thousand becquerels


megabecquerel

A unit of radioactivity equal to one million becquerels.


kilocandela

luminous intensity
luminous intensity#English

(metrology) An SI unit of luminous intensity equal to 10³ candelas. Symbol: kcd


Strauss

Translingual: Straussia


giant radio galaxy

en-noun

giant radio galaxy (plural giant radio galaxies)

(astronomy) a very large radio galaxy; a double radio source having an overall projected linear length exceeding 2 megaparsecs (or more specifically, 2×h₅₀⁻¹ Mpc)


sludge metal

An abrasive, distorted subgenre of heavy metal music influenced by hardcore punk and doom metal.


stoner rocker

Some excellent bands played at the festival too, including Sonic Youth themselves, stoner rockers the Melvins, classic punks Flipper (featuring Nirvana's Krist Noveselic on bass)...

2010, Brett Callwood, MC5: Sonically Speaking: A Tale of Revolution and Rock 'n' Roll, page 210:

Someone who plays, or is a fan of, stoner rock.


röck döts

/ˈɹøːk ˌdøːts/

The words rock dots with the unnecessary umlaut placed above them.

In the world of heavy metal, the umlaut - otherwise known as röck döts - is the ultimate illustration of Spinal Tap's dictum that there's a fine line between clever and stupid.

2005 December 2, Micheal Dwyer, “The full Mötley”, in The Age:

I imagine I'd be seeing a lot of metal tonight, so why not go for an obscure eighties punk song? Plus, Hüsker Dü = dual röck döts!

2006, Björn Türoque, To Air Is Human: One Man's Quest to Become the World's Greatest Air Guitarist, Riverhead Books:

Heavy metal umlaut(s)
heavy metal umlaut

(informal, humorous) Heavy metal umlaut(s).


stoner rock

As with psychedelia, the literary links of stoner rock are not its dominant features, especially insofar as many bands distance themselves from the broadly understood mainstream, which connotes forms of elitism and canonization.

2022, Ryan Hibbett, editor, Lit-Rock: Literary Capital in Popular Music, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 130:

(music) A subgenre of heavy metal which combines it with elements of psychedelic rock and acid rock.


ABG

ABG (countable and uncountable, plural ABGs)

acoustic bass guitar
acoustic bass guitar#English

(music) Initialism of acoustic bass guitar.


hocketed

en-adj

hocketed (comparative more hocketed, superlative most hocketed)

more hocketed (comparative)
most hocketed (superlative)

His “Frontline” had a ping-ponging, hocketed section for the band’s four horns at the beginning and end.

2008 March 7, Ben Ratliff, “Giving an Unpredictable Force His Due”, in New York Times:


dream pop

(music) A subgenre of alternative rock with ethereal textures and breathy vocals rather than hard riffs.


petroholic

We're a nation of petroholics, lurching around the globe like a drunk with a hand grenade staggering through a nursery, yet the cure the President offers is more smart bombs and an energy program that's nothing more than drill, burn...

1991, David Ross Brower, Work in progress:

“We’re a nice little selfish country of petroholics, and that has made us lazy,” said Frederic Hauge, president of Bellona, Norway’s largest nongovernmental environmental organization.

2008 March 22, Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Lofty Pledge to Cut Emissions Comes With Caveat in Norway”, in New York Times:

(derogatory, informal) One who uses more petrol than necessary.


labelmate

She & Him’s album has sold about 26,000 copies so far, according to Nielsen SoundScan, outpacing the debut of the duo’s labelmate Arcade Fire, said Mac McCaughan, a founder of Merge and the singer for the band Superchunk.

2008 April 16, Melena Ryzik, “On a New Album, Not Merely Acting Like a Singer”, in New York Times:

To be fair, he has worked with most of the acts connected with it—his Dirty Hit labelmates Pale Waves and No Rome—and to be even fairer, it should probably be called Hutchencewave for its clear debt to INXS.

2018 June 6, Ben Beaumont-Thomas, Laura Snapes, “50 great tracks for June from Christine and the Queens, Playboi Carti, the 1975 and more”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

A musician or musical act signed to the same record label.


petrodiesel

en-noun

petrodiesel (countable and uncountable, plural petrodiesels)

Biodiesel is a technologically feasible alternative to petrodiesel, but nowadays biodiesel costs 1.5 to 3 times more than fossil diesel in developed countries.

2007, Ayhan Demirbas, Biodiesel: A Realistic Fuel Alternative for Diesel Engines, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 197:

Biodiesel these days is selling at about the same prices as petrodiesel, or even a little more in many places.

2008 May 18, Jim Norman, “Fuel From Plants, Not Oil Wells”, in New York Times:

(retronym) Diesel derived from petroleum (contrasted with biodiesel).


steel guitar

steel guitar (countable and uncountable, plural steel guitars)

Steel guitar — in which the player used a metal or glass slide to note the strings — became popular when Hawaiian musicians, such as master steel guitarist Sal Hoopi, toured and recorded in the 1910a and 1920s.

2005, W. K. McNeil, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, page 167:

(music, uncountable) A method of playing slide guitar using a steel (a kind of slide).

While the acoustic guitar is stereotypically tied to country music, the pedal steel guitar, perhaps even more so than the acoustic guitar, represents country music by virtue of its visual appearance and more importantly its sound. […] During the 1950s and the era of the Nashville Sound, artists like Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, Eddy Arnold, and Ray Price eschewed the hard country sounds of the steel guitar and fiddle and replaced them with softer back-up singers and string sections as they strove for a homogeneity that would appeal to a wider audience.

2003, Victor Coelho, The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar, pages 138–139:

The sound of the steel guitar had become popular in country music in the 1940s and was especially noticeable in the fusion of country and big band jazz called western swing.

2004, A. J. Millard, The Electric Guitar: A History of an American Icon, page 53:

The ukulele, slack key guitar, and steel guitar all came from this mixing of Hawai'ian and haole culture.

2005, Ben Marcus, Jeff Divine, Surfing USA!: An Illustrated History of the Coolest Sport of All Time, page 85:

(music, countable) Any of several types of guitar designed to be played using this method.


quintole

(music) A group of five notes to be played or sung in the time of three, four or six.


ground bass

ground bass (countable and uncountable, plural ground basses)

(music) A constantly repeated bassline or harmonic pattern in a piece.


jaw harp

Unclear; it either comes from, or is the origin of, Jew's harp. It probably does not come from the common English word jaw. See Jew's harp for more.


yttrotantalite

yttrotantalite (usually uncountable, plural yttrotantalites)

(mineralogy) A brown or black tantalate of uranium, yttrium, and calcium.


octachord

A musical instrument with eight strings.


stridulous

en-adj

stridulous (comparative more stridulous, superlative most stridulous)

more stridulous (comparative)
most stridulous (superlative)

From Latin stridulus (“creaking, giving a shrill sound”), from stridere (“to utter an inarticulate sound, creak, grate”).

uder

the Sarmatian boor driving his stridulous cart

c. 1874, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ovid in Exile:

Emitting a particularly harsh or shrill sound.


sub-bass

en-noun

sub-bass (countable and uncountable, plural sub-basses)

(music) Audible sounds below 60 Hz and extending downward to the lowest frequencies humans can hear, typically 20 Hz.


art rock

(music) A subgenre of experimental, intellectual rock music, often presented as a suite of pieces with a story or theme.


thriambus

Borrowed from New Latin thriambus, from Ancient Greek θρίαμβος (thríambos), of Pre-Greek origin. Doublet of triumph and trump.

(religion, Ancient Greece) A hymn to Dionysus, sung in processions in his honour.


Newton's cradle

Newton's cradle (plural Newton's cradles)

A device that demonstrates conservation of momentum and energy via a series of swinging spheres. When a sphere at one end is lifted and released, the resulting force travels through the line and pushes the opposite sphere upward, repeating the process as it swings back down.


forebeat

(music) The primary, stronger half of a musical beat.


onbeat

(music) The first and third beats in a bar of four-four time.


afterbeat

He does so by giving the first structural tone an afterbeat comparable to that which follows the second structural tone.

1989, Leonard B. Meyer, Style and music: theory, history, and ideology:

The most distinctive rhythmic feature of ska is a strong afterbeat: a strong, crisp chunk on the latter part of each beat.

2007, Michael Campbell, James Brody, ROCK AND ROLL: AN INTRODUCTION:

(music) A secondary, weaker half of a musical beat.


nuclear forensics

The scientific techniques used to investigate nuclear accidents and other incidents


quinible

(music, obsolete) An interval of a fifth, or a part sung with such intervals.


yarr

en-verb

yarr (third-person singular simple present yarrs, present participle yarring, simple past and past participle yarred)

yarrs (present singular third-person)
yarring (participle present)
yarred (participle past)
yarred (past)

She yapped and yarred and ran in foolish circles, as though quarrelling with her own tail.

And when he saw that all the dogs were flocking about her, yarring at the retardment of their access to her, and every way keeping such a coil with her as they are wont to do about a proud or salt bitch, he forthwith departed […]

1653, François Rabelais, translated by Thomas Urquhart, Gargantua and Pantagruel:

(intransitive, archaic) To growl or snarl like a dog.


yarr

(UK, dialect) The plant Spergula arvensis, corn spurry.


yarr

Yarr, this be a fine ship.

Alternative form of arr (“used stereotypically in imitation of pirates”)


sirvente

Borrowed from French sirvente, from Old Provençal sirventes, sirventesc, originally, the poem of, or concerning, a sirvent, from sirvent, properly, serving, n., one who serves (e.g., as a soldier), from servir (“to serve”), from Latin servīre.

The knight in the meantime, had brought the strings into some order, and after a short prelude, asked his host whether he would choose a sirvente in the language of oc, or a lai in the language of oui, or a virelai, or a ballad in the vulgar English.

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter XVII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 42:

[T]here was a little, sleek, fat clerk of the name of Chaucer, who was so apt at rondel, sirvente, or tonson, that no man dare give back a foot from the walls, lest he find it all set down in his rhymes and sung by every underling and varlet in the camp.

1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The White Company, New York, N.Y., Boston, Mass.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell & Company […], →OCLC, page 138:

(music, historical) A typically satirical song sung by the troubadours of Provence.


noncuple

First attested in adjectival use in 1557, in nominal use in 1636, and in verbal use in 1674; from the post-Classical Latin noncuplus (“nine times larger than”), from the Classical Latin nōnus (“ninth”) + -cuplus; compare nonuple.

uder

Ðe rigt hand diſcanteŧ in Noncuple uppon đe plain Triple of đe left hand.

1636, Charls Butler, The Principles of Muſik in Singing and Setting, page 25:


l'istesso tempo

From Italian l'istesso tempo (“the same tempo”). Lo istesso is contracted to L'istesso in standard written Italian.

der

(music) Indicates that the following movement should be played at the same tempo as the last, often employed when switching from simple to compound metres or vice versa, to clarify that the tempo stays the same in reference to the beats felt, not the time signature.


pre-hook

(music) Before the hook (normally a chorus) of a popular song.


sixteenth note

(music) A note that has 1/16 the value of a whole note.


eighth rest

(music) A rest that has the same length as an eighth note.


sixteenth rest

(music) A rest with the same length as a sixteenth note.


shepherd's pipe

en-noun

shepherd's pipe (plural shepherd's pipes or shepherds' pipes)

shepherd's pipes (plural)
shepherds' pipes (plural)


32nd note

(music, US) a note with 1/32 the length of a whole note


thirty-second note

thirty-second note (plural thirty-second notes)

(music) A note that has 1/32 the length of a whole note.


pipes of Pan

In Greek mythology, Pan is often represented playing panpipes, whence the instrument derives its name.


alla breve

Borrowed from Italian alla breve (“at the breve”).

(music) A time signature for which the half note is the beat and there are two beats per measure.


alla breve

(music) According to the time signature for which the half note is the beat and there are two beats per measure.


harmonic minor scale

harmonic minor scale (plural harmonic minor scales)

tone - semitone - tone - tone - semitone - augmented second - semitone.

(music) a type of minor scale with the 3rd and 6th notes lowered by one semitone, with the interval pattern:


natural minor scale

natural minor scale (plural natural minor scales)

tone - semitone - tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone.

Starting on the note C, this produces a scale with the notes C, D, E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, C:

{c'd'es'f'g'aes'bes'c}

(music) A type of minor scale with the 3rd, 6th, and 7th notes lowered by one semitone, with the interval pattern:


tenor clef

(music) a musical clef that is higher than the bass clef and lower than the alto clef where the A that is a third lower than middle C is the center line


octavated

Ob 2 = violin 2 (octavated, except bar 4, which is from basset-horn 2)

1987, Bastiaan Blomhert, The Harmoniemusik of Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, page 60:

(music, rare, of an instrument) Altered to sound a pitch one octave lower than its usual range.


down bow

(music) movement from the frog to the tip on the bow of a stringed instrument


up bow

(music) movement from the tip to the frog on the bow of a stringed instrument


melodic minor scale

melodic minor scale (plural melodic minor scales)

tone - semitone - tone - tone - tone - tone - semitone, and

tone - semitone - tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone

(music) a type of minor scale with the 3rd note lowered by one semitone when the scale is played ascending, and the 3rd, 6th, and 7th notes lowered by one semitone when descending, with the interval patterns:


octavating

The idea underlying this section is ‘the exploitation of non-octavating pitch-sieves (scales) and their cyclic transpositions.’

The tenor, originally written in standard G clef, is here written in octavating G clef, showing that it is to be read an octave lower than it is notated.

1984, Richard A. Crawford, editor, The Core Repertory of Early American Psalmody, page xvii:

Ob 1 = flute 1 (= octavating violin 1)

Soprano, alto, and tenor clefs used for the corresponding vocal parts in the principal and concordant sources have been changed here respectively to treble, treble, and octavating treble.

1994, Antonio Salieri, edited by Jane Schatkin Hettrick, Mass in D Major, preface, page xii:

The tenor is here written in the octavating G clef, indicating that it is to be sung an octave lower than notated. The counter parts in part 1, which were originally meant to be read as though octavating, are here written at actual pitch.

1995, Stephen Jenks, edited by David Warren Steel, Collected Works, page xlviii:

Clefs for the treble and bass have been retained, the treble clef substituted for the alto clef in the counter, and the octavating treble clef supplied to the tenor.

1995, Daniel Read, edited by Karl Kroeger, Collected Works, pages 221–222:

The octavating treble clef has been used for the tenor part, indicating that it should be sung an octave lower than written.

1997, Timothy Swan, edited by Nym Cooke, Psalmody and Secular Songs, page 268:

In the expanded Gamut with its octavating hexachords, all C’s, D’s, G’s, and A’s could be allotted three voces.

2005, David Lasocki, editor, Musicque de Joye, page 316, note 153:

I have systematically employed an octavating treble clef for tenor vocal parts.

2011, Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by Dale Cockrell, The Ingalls Wilder Family Songbook, page 343:


octavation

First attested in 1922; probably formed as octav(e) + -ation, but compare octavate.

OCTAVATION (also called Pitch Control) — Changing the rate of tape speed over the playback head of a tape recorder changes the pitch of the signal being played back. If the speed is doubled, the signal will increase in pitch one octave.

1973, George R Neaderhiser, Guidelines for the Development of a Comprehensive Music Curriculum for Elementary Secondary Schools, page unknown:

A French rondeau from the Roman de la Rose (12th century) first establishes the triad, then turns to the seventh, but leaves it immediately to catch the octave, only to return in haste to the safer, wonted seventh. A similar example of uncertain octavation will be described in the following section on the Fate of Quartal and Quintal Patterns.

1977, Curt Sachs, edited by Jaap Kunst, The Wellsprings of Music, page 158:

I arranged ‘octavations’ which seemed to me to give the two movements greater elegance and litheness.

1988, William Primrose quoted by David J. Dalton in Playing the Viola, page 202

The method provides a simple control mechanism to provide spectral morphing via the octavation parameter.

1996 August 19th–24th, Lydia Ayers and Andrew Horner [eds.], Proceedings of the 1996 International Computer Music Conference, page 127

He also once mentioned a principle of “octavation” (his term), whereby, coming to a difficult point in the evolution of a contrapuntal texture, the composer could, as it were, escape to fresh territory by the straightforward strategy of jumping a part up or down by an octave.

1998, Hayes Biggs, Susan Orzel, editors, Musically Incorrect, page 13:


octavate

en-verb

octavate (third-person singular simple present octavates, present participle octavating, simple past and past participle octavated)

octavates (present singular third-person)
octavating (participle present)
octavated (participle past)
octavated (past)

First attested in verbal use in 1922 and in nominal use in 2000; formed as octav(e) + -ate, in the musical sense after the French octavier.

The string, originally divided, will continue for some time to “octavate”.

1922, Diran Alexanian [aut.] and Frederick Fairbanks [tr.], Complete Cello Technique (2003 repub.), page 105

Adolphe Sax, when he invented the saxophone, had at first only in mind the object of improving the clarinet by permitting it to ‘octavate.’

1947, Ernest Closson, translated by Delano Ames, History of the Piano, page 64:

‘Octavate’ (i.e. overblow at the octave. Does decimate mean to overblow at the tenth? Is the Primate the fundamental note of an instrument?).

1948, The Galpin Society Journal, I-IV, page 69:

When it octavates, the holes being closed, it often assumes its natural pitch again on opening the holes, instead of continuing its tones to the octave above, so that it octavates much more easily when the holes are closed than when they are unstopped.

1957, Marin Mersenne, translated by Roger Eddington Chapman, Harmonie Universelle, page 305:

(music) To sound one octave higher or lower.

(intransitive, of an instrument) To resonate or sound one octave higher or lower.

Ability to ornament, octavate, play chords and do some improvising.

He varies and octavates, leaving Bach listeners thunderstruck.

2007, Michael Gallant, “OCTAVATE!: Spread your hands to create powerful sounds.” in Keyboard XXXIII–XXXIV, page unknown

(intransitive, of a person) To span (at least) one octave in playing a musical instrument.

A 12-string doubles the octaves of only the lower four strings…. A doubled, capoed guitar “octavates up” the top two strings.

1999, Jon Chappell, The Recording Guitarist, page 133:

(transitive, rare, of an instrument, construed with up) To double the pitch of (a part of itself).


C major

(music) The major key with C as its tonic, and no sharps or flats, having the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, and B.

(music) The major chord with a root of C.


multimovement

Asked to write a set of voluntaries, Mendelssohn — who admitted in an 1844 letter to Coventry that he did not understand what the term meant — fashioned a series of small pieces, then arranged them into multimovement works for publication in 1845.

2009 February 3, Steve Smith, “Pomp and Mendelssohn With Fluid Pedal Work”, in New York Times:


dhrupad

Sitar prodigy Kartik Seshadri, now in his late 30s, began studying with Ravi Shankar in 1974, immersing himself in senia and dhrupad, a couple of distinctive northern Indian performing traditions.

1996 September 20, Ted Shen, “Kartik Seshadri”, in Chicago Reader:

A vocal genre in Hindustani classical music


akonting

But there’s no less spirit in the singing and thumb piano playing of Ruth Akello, an unheralded Ugandan, or in the banjo-like akonting playing of the Jatta family, in Gambia.

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

A folk lute of the Jola people of West Africa; a banjo-like instrument with a skin-headed gourd body, two long melody strings, and one short drone string.


mugham

en-noun

mugham (countable and uncountable, plural mughams)

From Azerbaijani muğam. Doublet of maqam, muqam, and makam.

But the more complicated issue was that the sections composed for orchestra and chorus, in the style of a 19th-century Italian opera, seemed entirely separate from the mugham sections, long improvisations in which Mr. Qasimov interprets the plight of Majnun using one of the 24 different mughams specified by Hajibeyov.

2009 March 1, Meline Toumani, “For the Love of Layla”, in New York Times:

A musical composition of Azerbaijan in a complex form that blends classical poetry and musical improvisation.


kirtan

From Sanskrit कीर्तन (kīrtana, “narrating”).

She was not devout or overly religious but she went to temples and kirtans regularly.

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 137:

Recently, Mrs. Breighner and Ms. Damon attended a Friday night kirtan at the Integral Yoga Institute.

2009 March 5, Sara Eckel, “Yoga Enthusiasts Hear the Call of Kirtan”, in New York Times:

A call-and-response chant performed in India's devotional traditions.


aniline green

aniline green (countable and uncountable, plural aniline greens)


una corda pedal

una corda pedal (plural una corda pedals)


skippy

en-adj

skippy (comparative skippier, superlative skippiest)

skippier (comparative)
skippiest (superlative)

(music) Having an upbeat rhythm, suitable to skip to.


D-flat major

{\key des \major des'es'f'ges'aes'bes'cdes2}

(music) a major key with the notes D♭, E♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♭, C, the key signature of which has five flats

(music) a chord with the notes D♭, F, and A♭:


D-flat major

(music) describing a piece, song, or scale that has a D-flat major key


crash cymbal

A cymbal that produces a loud, sharp crash, used for occasional accents.


E major

{\key e \major e'fis'gis'a'b'cisdise2}

(music) The major key with the notes E, F♯, G♯, A, B, C♯, D♯, the key signature of which has four sharps.

(music) The major chord with a root of E.


G major

{\key g \major g'a'b'cdefisg2}

(music) The major key with the notes G, A, B, C, D, E, F♯, the key signature of which has one sharp.

(music) The major chord with a root of G.


D major

{\key d \major d'e'fis'g'a'b'cisd2}

(music) The major key with the notes D, E, F♯, G, A, B, and C♯, the key signature of which has two sharps.

(music) The major chord with a root of D.


postserial

Here was music by a young composer audaciously combining postserial techniques with the buzz-saw din of rock.

2009 April 9, Anthony Tommasini, “Four Debuts, One Farewell”, in New York Times:


melos

(music) The melody in Ancient Greek music.


F major

{\key f \major f'g'a'bes'cdef2}

(music) The major key with the notes F, G, A, B♭, C, D, E, the key signature of which has one flat.

(music) The major chord with a root of F.


ghatam

For a stretch, this cohort made additional room for T. H. Vinayakram, an expert on the ghatam, an earthenware pot played with thrummed fingers or open palms.

2009 May 1, Nate Chinen, “Bringing Along Friends Who Can Add to the Beat”, in New York Times:

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

(music) An earthenware pot used as a percussion instrument in the Carnatic music of South India.


gyil

“Dust Dances” (1994), the vigorous opening work here, is the fruit of a four-month visit to Ghana, where Mr. Bermel studied the gyil, an African xylophone.

2009 May 10, The New York Times, “Sounds Both Eclectic and Electric”, in New York Times:

(music) A pentatonic instrument of Africa, resembling a xylophone.


subcritical mass

en-noun

subcritical mass (plural subcritical masses)

(physics) A mass of fissile material that is insufficient to sustain a nuclear chain reaction.

alikriittinen massa

insufficient mass to sustain chain reaction


supercritical mass

supercritical mass (plural supercritical masses)

(physics) A mass of fissile material that is more than sufficient to sustain a nuclear chain reaction.


uilleann piper

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

partial translation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


güira

A percussion instrument from the Dominican Republic.


Chartres blue

en-noun

Chartres blue (usually uncountable, plural Chartres blues)

Chartres blue:

(glassworking) A shade of blue created for the stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral, containing traces of red for enhancement.

bleu de Chartres

blue used for the windows of Chartres Cathedral


ultrablond

en-adj

ultrablond (comparative more ultrablond, superlative most ultrablond)

more ultrablond (comparative)
most ultrablond (superlative)

Of course, there was the requisite shot from when they both appeared on Oprah, hand-holding shots on red carpets with Celia in a flame of an orange dress and Kick in a smooth tuxedo sporting the ultrablond hair from one of his summer blockbuster movies.

2007, Sharon Naylor, It's Not My Wedding (But I'm in Charge), page 50:

As her partner, Maxim Beloserkovsky has too little freshness and too much calculated charm in his dancing; and he is distractingly ultrablond in a way that strongly recalls too many Soviet male dancers of yesteryear.

2009 May 21, Alastair Macaulay, “Adrift in a Spectacle of Balanchine and Tchaikovsky”, in New York Times:


C-clef

(music) a sign that indicates where middle C is on the staff with the center of the sign being middle C.


alt-country

alternative country
alternative country#English

(music) Clipping of alternative country.


steel blue

steel blue:

A grayish shade of the color blue, like the metal steel

blau acer

a grayish shade of the color blue, like the metal steel


uranopolycrase

(mineralogy) An orthorhombic-dipyramidal brown red mineral containing niobium, oxygen, tantalum, thorium, titanium, uranium, and yttrium.


uranotungstite

(mineralogy) An orthorhombic mineral containing barium, hydrogen, iron, lead, oxygen, tungsten, and uranium.


uranocircite

(mineralogy) A tetragonal-ditetragonal dipyramidal mineral containing barium, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and uranium.


curite

en-noun

curite (usually uncountable, plural curites)

From Curie (“a surname”) + -ite, after Pierre Curie and/or his wife Marie, early researchers of radioactivity — the ore being radioactive due to its uranium.

The color is lighter than that of curite.

1956, Walter Fred Hunt, editor, American Mineralogist, volume 41, page 555:

The present note relates to the behaviour of uranium minerals such as uraninite, curite, and uranophane in high-tension separators.

1962, Thomas Arthur Rickard, editor, The Mining Magazine, volumes 106-107, page 9:

1982, R. W. Boyle, Geochemical Prospecting for Thorium and Uranium Deposits, Elsevier, Developments in Economic Geology: 16, page 68,
Yellow, orange, greenish, and bluish oxidation products of uranium and copper comprising gummite and containing minerals such as curite, liebigite, malachite and azurite may be developed locally in the oxidized rubble and gossans.

(mineralogy) An orthorhombic-dipyramidal mineral containing hydrogen, lead, oxygen, and uranium.


sound hole

(music) An opening in the belly of a stringed instrument that increases its volume and enhances its tone quality.

ääniaukko

an opening in a stringed musical instrument


phosphuranylite

For its composition, a phosphorus-bearing mineral with a uranyl anion base, + -ite.

(mineralogy) An orthorhombic-dipyramidal mineral containing calcium, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, potassium, and uranium.


chart-topping

After signing a record deal at just 17 while the rest of us (me) were making $5 per week mowing neighbors’s lawns, the singer [Doja Cat] released multiple chart-topping albums and had several songs go absolutely viral on TikTok.

2024 September 4, Mehera Bonner, “Doja Cat Is One of Music’s Highest-Paid Artists, and Her Net Worth Shows It”, in Cosmopolitan:

(music) That sells the most copies (of a record) during a particular time.


double whole note

double whole note (plural double whole notes)

(US, music) A note with twice the value of a whole note; a breve.

倍全音符

music: a note with twice the value of a whole note


champeta

Bomba Estéreo’s set at the Bowery Ballroom on Thursday night — part of a six-band lineup — was kaleidoscopic and danceable, mingling the clip-clop bounce of cumbia and another Colombian rhythm, champeta, with echoey guitar, reggae backbeats and the singing and rapping of Liliana Saumet.

2009 July 11, Jon Pareles, “Latin Alternative Music’s Movers and Shakers Meet”, in New York Times:

(music) A form of local independent music from Colombia.


padam

The dance-drama students will have already learned their roles in the padams, without music, in group “sitting classes” in the dance-drama kal·aris; in theory they would have to perform these padams in sitting classes perfectly rehearsing with musicians in the colliyattam studio

2009, Richard Wolff, Theorizing the Local: Music, Practice, and Experience in South Asia and Beyond:

The best way to express our indebtedness to the Brinda-Muktha legacy would be to include a padam or javali in concerts

This first delivery of the line of a padam might best be described as a 'pre-acting' of the line. It establishes the general mood.

2003, Phillip Zarrilli, Kathakali Dance-Drama: Where Gods and Demons Come to Play:

in Carnatic music, a type of short song, or the accompanying dance


thwop

Tennis may be the quietest sport, with long stretches of respectful silence interrupted only by the thwop of balls being hit.

2009 August 28, Laurel Graeber, “Spare Times: For Children”, in New York Times:


thwop

en-verb

thwop (third-person singular simple present thwops, present participle thwopping, simple past and past participle thwopped)

thwops (present singular third-person)
thwopping (participle present)
thwopped (participle past)
thwopped (past)


Mixolydian mode

tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone - semitone - tone.

Starting on the note C, this produces a scale with the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B♭, C.

{c' d' e' f' g' a' bes' c2}

(music) a mode whose scale is the same as a major key with the seventh scale degree lowered by one half step, with the interval pattern:


scale degree

(music) a number given to each note of a scale


Dorian mode

tone - semitone - tone - tone - tone - semitone - tone

Starting on the note C, this produces a scale with the notes C, D, E♭, F, G, A, B♭, C

{c'd'es'f'g'a'bes'c}

(music) a mode whose scale is the same as a minor key with the sixth scale degree raised by one half step, with the interval pattern:


Phrygian mode

semitone - tone - tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone.

Starting on the note C, this produces a scale with the notes C, D♭, E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, C

{c'des'es'f'g'aes'bes'c}

(music) a mode whose scale is the same as a minor key with the second scale degree lowered by one half step, with the interval pattern:


fire service

en-noun

fire service (countable and uncountable, plural fire services)

(firefighting) Service in a fire department or other firefighting organization, whether as a chosen career, or as a result of volunteering or a form of prison labor.


Lydian mode

tone - tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone - semitone.

Starting on the note C, this produces a scale with the notes C, D, E, F♯, G, A, B, C

{c'd'e'fis'g'a'b'c}

(music) a mode whose scale is the same as a major key with the fourth scale degree raised by one half step, with the interval pattern:


Ionian mode

tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone - tone - semitone

Starting on the note C, this produces a scale with the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

{c'd'e'f'g'a'b'c}

(music) A mode that is the same as a major key, with the interval pattern:


Aeolian mode

tone - semitone - tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone

Starting on the note A, this produces a scale with the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A

{a b c'd'e'f'g'a'2}

(music) a mode whose scale is the same as a natural minor scale, with the interval pattern:


overstand

From Middle English overstonden, from Old English oferstandan (“to stand over”), equivalent to over- + stand. Cognate with Dutch overstaan (“to stand over”), German überstehen (“to stand through, survive”).

cog

(lutherie) The measurement between the top plate and the fingerboard where the neck meets the body of the instrument.


rumorous

en-adj

rumorous (comparative more rumorous, superlative most rumorous)

more rumorous (comparative)
most rumorous (superlative)

Indistinct or confounded in sound; murmuring; vaguely heard.


nuclear power station

en-noun

nuclear power station (plural nuclear power stations)

For 75 years, it has fulfilled a wide range of roles: producing weapons-grade plutonium for early atomic weapons in the aftermath of the Second World War; the world's first commercial nuclear power station supplying electricity to the National Grid; reprocessing and storage of nuclear fuel; and the processing of lower grades of radioactive waste for off-site storage.

2023 December 27, Ben Jones, “Inside Sellafield... by rail”, in RAIL, number 999, page 20:

A power station that obtains its primary energy from the heat generated in nuclear reactions.


nuclear power plant

nuclear power plant (plural nuclear power plants)

A power plant that obtains its primary energy from the heat generated in nuclear reactions.

原子力発電所

げんしりょくはつでんしょ


double sharp

(music) An accidental that indicates that a note should be played a whole step higher.

dubbelkruis

music: an accidental that indicates that a note should be played a whole step higher


double flat

Coordinate term: double sharp

(music) An accidental that indicates that a note should be played a whole step lower.

dubbelmol

music: an accidental that indicates that a note should be played a whole step lower


octatonic scale

octatonic scale (plural octatonic scales)

(music) A scale that has four half step intervals and four whole step intervals that alternate.


hemitonic pentatonic scale

hemitonic pentatonic scale (plural hemitonic pentatonic scales)

(music) A pentatonic scale that contains half steps.


augmented second

augmented second (plural augmented seconds)

(music) an interval that is equivalent to a major second widened by one chromatic semitone. In twelve-tone equal temperament, this is equal to three half steps where the notes are in consecutive staff positions (compare minor third.)


sixty-fourth note

sixty-fourth note (plural sixty-fourth notes)

(music) a note with 1/64 the value of a whole note


anhemitonic pentatonic scale

anhemitonic pentatonic scale (plural anhemitonic pentatonic scales)

(music) A pentatonic scale that does not contain half steps.