discaire

From English disc (“vinyl gramophone or phonograph record”) + French -aire (suffix forming adjectives or nouns), modelled after disquaire. Disc is derived from French disque (“disk, record”), from Latin discus (“discus, quoit; dish shaped like a discus; disc of a sundial”), from Ancient Greek δίσκος (dískos, “disc, quoit; dish; round mirror; reliquary”), probably of Pre-Greek origin.

der

[I]n the winter he used to go out dancing at five in the morning, and why? Because then the crowd had gone, the discaire was no longer playing for them, but for his friends, and that was the best dancing.

1978, Andrew Holleran, chapter 1, in Dancer from the Dance: […] (A Plume Book), New York, N.Y.: New American Library, published October 1986, page 25

There was no one word to describe the variegated music we spent the night with. It was distinct enough for the discaire to begin a set quietly, build gradually to a climax, then let you down to start all over again. Do you remember that vanished custom?

1978 December, Andrew Holleran, “Dark Disco: A Lament”, in Christopher Street, volume 3, number 5, New York, N.Y.: That New Magazine, →ISSN, →OCLC; republished in Michael Denneny, Charles Ortleb, and Thomas Steele, editors, The Christopher Street Reader, New York, N.Y.: Perigee Books, 1983 (1984 printing), page 74

While the selection of tracks was a pretty accurate reflection of what was being played in discotheques at the time— [...] the "mixing" was pretty appalling (the songs just scrunched together as if they were on a crowded bus and there was no DJ credited on the album, not that any self-respecting discaire would have wanted to be associated with it) despite the claim that the album was "tight and distinctive … professional and polished … never contrived or stylized."

2005, Peter Shapiro, Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco, New York, N.Y.: Faber and Faber

The DJ booth was built in a glass elevator so the discaires could play for four different dancefloors at once, gliding from one to another as they selected their tunes.

2006, Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton, “Balearic Bryllyant”, in Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey, updated edition, New York, N.Y.: Headline Book Publishing

The most famous club, Le Discotheque (French for "The Record Library"), opened on rue de la Huchette [in Paris] in 1941. With a discaire, or disc jockey, spinning jazz records all night long, the main attraction was dancing. Thumbing their noses at the occupying Reich, Le Discotheque and other underground clubs opened their doors to blacks and homosexuals, the same groups that would first embrace disco music 30 years later.

2007, “Why Disco Happened”, in Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges into Music (Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader), e-book edition, Ashland, Or.: Portable Press/The Bathroom Readers’ Institute, Printers Row Publishing Group, published November 2011

A third, a discaire, also died; "That's absolutely the last disco funeral I'll ever attend," my friend reported. "You do know, don't you, that they played all his greatest tapes at the funeral."

2014, Edmund White, “New York City”, in States of Desire Revisited: Travels in Gay America, Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, page 275

(dance, music) Alternative spelling of disquaire (“disc jockey”)


diskery

Deal for network star Henry Morgan to sign a Majestic contract for two albums has fallen thru, with Paul Baron, newly-named artist and repertoire topper at the diskery, kiboshing a deal that virtually had been consummated between his predecessors and Music Corporation of America (MCA).

1947 September 6, “Paul Baron Nixes 2 Morgan Albums”, in Joseph G. Csida, editor, The Billboard: The World’s Foremost Amusement Weekly, volume 59, number 35, Cincinnati, Oh.: Roger S. Littleford Jr.; William D. Littleford, →OCLC, page 14, column 3

An upcoming problem to be thrashed out at a meeting of diskery reps and execs of the American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA), is the degree of AFRA's jurisdictional claim over singers on records. AFRA has claimed the jurisdiction generally, and for some months has been having exploratory talks with diskeries.

1950 October 28, “Diskers, AFRA Puzzle Singer Jurisdictions”, in Billboard, page 13

This week, diskery and phono manufacturer spokesmen sounded tempering notes of caution as they discussed the many problems still to be licked in developing truly compatible stereo with fidelity standards equal to those now available in monaural disks.

1957 December 30, Ren Grevatt, “Concensus Tabs Stereo Disk Still in Research Stage: Diskery and Phono Toppers Sound Tempering Notes of Caution”, in Billboard, page 11

(dated, music) A phonograph-record manufacturer; a shop that sells phonograph records.


dodecuple scale

en-noun

dodecuple scale (plural dodecuple scales)

twelve-tone technique
twelve-tone technique

(music) chromatic scale, using twelve-tone technique


choir organ

(music) One of the departments of a cathedral organ, standing behind the great organ, having its tones less powerful, and more suited to accompanying the voice.


Lombard rhythm

(music) A syncopated musical rhythm in which a short accented note is followed by a longer one, reversing the pattern normally associated with dotted notes.


langspiel

(music) A traditional Icelandic or Shetlandian drone zither.


rock opera

(music, theater) A collection of rock songs which tell a story, often released as a single album.


hip hopera

(music) A rap or hip hop musical piece or album which takes an operatic form.


micromelody

(music) A melody based on a scale whose intervals are less that a semitone (used to investigate vocal accuracy)


sordono

(music) An old musical instrument of the oboe family, resembling the bombard.


compound time

(music) Time in which each bar is made up of two or more simple bars.


raboday

(music) A genre of drum music from Haiti


combolin

Blend of combination + mandolin? One of the early combolins was a combined mandolin and guitar.

(music) Any of a series of unusual musical instruments combining various other instruments, first created in the 1960s.


saroh

(music, obsolete) An Indian musical instrument with three metal strings, played with a bow.


expression stop

expression stop (plural expression stops)

(music) A stop in a harmonium by which the performer can regulate the air to produce expression.


syntonic comma

(music) A small comma-type interval between two musical notes, equal to the frequency ratio 81:80 (= 1.0125) or around 21.51 cents. It often manifests itself as the difference between the Pythagorean major third of 81:64 and the classic major third of 5:4, between the Pythagorean minor third of 32:27 and the classic minor third of 6:5, and between the "major whole tone" of 9:8 and "minor whole tone" of 10:9.


comma of Didymus

comma of Didymus (plural commas of Didymus)

So called because it is the amount by which Didymus corrected the Pythagorean major third to a just major third.


hardcore techno

electronic dance music
electronic dance music

(music) A genre of electronic dance music originating from the gabber rave scene.


passing note

(music) A smaller note marking a tone introduced between two others, to effect a smooth passage from the one to the other, but forming no essential part of the harmony.


wind chime

(music, percussion) A singular tubular bell.


symphonion

(music, historical) A combination of pianoforte and harmonium, the precursor of the orchestrion.


shepherd's flute

(music) A flageolet or similar instrument.


panmelodion

(music, historical) A 19th-century keyboard instrument whose tone is produced by wheels rubbing on metal bars.


splice edit

(music) A similar technique in which two takes are merged, sometimes with digital modification in order to make the transition seamless.


trigonon

From Ancient Greek τρῐ́γωνον (trígōnon). Doublet of trigon and trigone.

The early Greek Trigonon, like its progenitor the Egyptian harp, appears to have had no fore-pillar; small Trigona were, however, made at some subsequent but unascertained time, with a fore-pilar and a very small sound box.

1873, W. K. Sullivan, “Introduction”, in On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, volume I, page cccclxxxviii

Soft Lydian pipes, trigonons, silvery flutes, / Blend in the lamp-lit air with gentle lutes.

1894, Mansfield Lovell Hillhouse, “XIX. The Merchant’s Banquet”, in Iola, the Senator’s Daughter: A Story of Ancient Rome (about 24 B.C.), New York, London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, page 175

To say that they represent a height of achievement which the poetry of our own time has not surpassed is just as ridiculous as to say that Aeschylus’ band of lyres, trigonons and sambukas made better music than the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

1915, The Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness, volume 46, page 153, column 2

Among other musical instruments in the north Pontic area of which we know from archaeological evidence, are the horns, shell-trumpets, trigonons (harps), Pan-pipes, lutes, and zithers.

1959, George Vernadsky, The Origins of Russia, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 157

On the other hand, there exists a statuette of a dancing-girl, no doubt dating from the year 5000, a prelude to an abundant choreographic and ritual representation of male and female musicians, and even soldiers, beating a rhythm with tambourines, crotals, (a sort of castanet), sistrums or their hands, to the tunes of slanting (circa 4000) or double flutes, harps (3 to 20 strings), lutes (4 strings) trigonons (harps with 22 strings, held on the knees) and zithers (of Syrian importation circa 2000).

Other contemporary representations of trigona show considerable variation in the angle at which the strings are set and in the position of the hands.

Of the two varieties of closed trigona, one is essentially like the open trigonon but with a post running parallel to the strings from the tip of the base arm to the tip of the soundbox.

1999, Thomas J. Mathiesen, “III. Musical instruments”, “Chordophones”, “Psalteria”, “Trigonon and sambuke”, in Appolo’s Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, page 277

It seems to me also that to invoke the gods with certain kinds of music and melody, for instance, with both hymns and auloi or Egyptian trigona, shows that we are eager for them to hear our prayers with a gentle temper.

1999, Jon Solomon, “Ptolemy Harmonics”, “Book III”, in Mnemosyne: Bibliotheca Classica Batava, Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill, published 2000, page 151

(music, historical) A small triangular harp.


dubdown

dubdown (countable and uncountable, plural dubdowns)

In this application, the loudspeaker monitor is the standard by which recordings are judged—from initial microphone placement, through mixing and dubdown, to final mastering.

1971, Exclusively Yours - Volume 24, page 59

Full bandwidth digitally recorded images don't pick up random analog noise during dubdown, but they can add "quantizing noise" (detectable rings separating areas of different luminance intensities).

(music) The process of remixing audio tracks to use fewer tracks.

You certainly should have the final dubdowns of your playbacks from the sixteen track to the three-stripe 35mm.

1980, Milton Lustig, Music editing for motion pictures, page 78

It's true that “Barnyard” only exists as a poor second generation copy, a dubdown to mono recorded onto one track of an otherwise blank 8-track/one inch tape.

2012, Todd Van Buskirk, Purple Chick, page 272


combination pedal

combination pedal (plural combination pedals)

(music) A pedal controlling several organ stops at once.


downpicking

You will know whether you want a tone ring, and if so, what kind, and whether or not you want a resonator (most people would rather do downpicking and two-finger picking on banjos without resonators, although this feeling is far from universal — my own all-round "working" banjo is a thirty-year-old Vega with resonator).

1968, Art Rosenbaum, Old-time Mountain Banjo, page 84

What I noticed was that Charlie did a lot of downpicking, like Eddie Durham, and he wasn't playing any modern chords.

2009, The Ghosts of Harlem: Sessions with Jazz Legends

Pete Seegerin fact credits Crisp with teaching him to “frail,” but apparently it was Stu Jamieson who was Crisp's major disciple and the main revivalist exponent of the downpicking style through the 1940s.

2015, Ken Perlman, Everything You Wanted to Know About Clawhammer Banjo, page 175

(music) The technique of playing a stringed instrument with a plectrum using all downward strokes.


downpick

Outstanding selections include a knuckle-busting medley ("Chilly Winds-Old Joe Clark-Salt River- Johnny Bring the Jug Around the Hill") played in the bright, aggressive downpick clawhammer style of Wade Ward.

2003, The Old-time Herald: A Magazine Dedicated to Old-time Music, page 226

Use all downpicks to get a more hard-driving sound.

2006, Dan Fox, Alfred's Teach Yourself to Read Music for Guitar, page 25

When there is an even number of notes, you must begin with the downpick and then alternate each note.

2015, John La Barbera, Traditional Southern Italian Mandolin and Fiddle, page 20

(music) A downward stroke with a plectrum on a stringed instrument; downstroke.


downpick

en-verb

downpick (third-person singular simple present downpicks, present participle downpicking, simple past and past participle downpicked)

downpicks (present singular third-person)
downpicking (participle present)
downpicked (participle past)
downpicked (past)

“When I was playing with James Hetfield in Metallica,” Dave says, “we pretty much decided that rhythm guitar should be downpicking when it comes to pedaling, until it's so fast that you can't downpick anymore..."

1992, Musician - Issues 165-170, page 100

Well, that is only a half-truth, as Mr. Steele also downpicked, that is, trailed.

1999, Old Time Herald - Volume 7, page 52

(music) To play a stringed instrument by using all downpicks.


downpicked

en-adj

downpicked (comparative more downpicked, superlative most downpicked)

more downpicked (comparative)
most downpicked (superlative)

Grinding speed metal rampages like "Disasterpiece" and "New Abortion," and the hyperspeed, furiously downpicked punk-style riffing of "Everything Ends" are no doubt harder, faster and, at least lyrically, sicker.

2002, Jeff Kitts, Brad Tolinski, Guitar World Presents Nu-metal, page 21

The Young Marble Giants song "Final Day" could serve as Minor Angels's soundtrack: a single sci-fi theremin note hovers over a quavering organ, muted, downpicked guitar, and a plain but lovely female voice that sings about the final day, the world lighting up for the last time only to fall into endless night "for the people who never had a say."

2005, Review of Contemporary Fiction, page 141

There's awesome speed, the revolutionary (for the time) blending of Brit-metal bombast— think Priest, Maiden, and especially Diamond Head—with the street-level aggression of hardcore punk, and the fierce technical edge of the music, best exemplified by Hetfield's aggressively downpicked, heavily palm-muted rhythm-guitar attack.

2013, Martin Popoff, Metallica: The Complete Illustrated History


echoi

From Ancient Greek ἦχοι (êkhoi, “sounds”), plural of ἦχος (êkhos).

(music) One of a set of eight modes, octoechoi, of music in Byzantine music. It selects the chant style or genre.


rondoletto

en-noun

rondoletto (plural rondolettos or rondoletti)

rondolettos (plural)
rondoletti (plural)


synthetist

(music) A musician that plays the synthesizer.


millennial whoop

millennial whoop (plural millennial whoops)

Coined in 2016 by the musician Patrick Metzger.

(music) A repeated motif of three notes consisting of a fifth, followed by a third, and returning to the fifth, extremely common in pop music of the early 21st century.


polyphant

(music, historical) An old musical instrument, resembling a lute, but strung with wire.


penorcon

(music, historical) An old musical instrument of the cittern family, with nine pairs of strings.


Kafir harp

(music) A traditional four- or five-stringed arched harp used by the Kafirs in the Nuristan province of Afghanistan.


head

Father Charles goes down and ends battle

(music, mnemonic) A mnemonic for the order of sharps: F C G D A E B.


guarania

Borrowed from Spanish guarania, from guaraní, from Guaraní abá guariní (“man of war”).

(music) A style of music from Paraguay, generally in a minor key.


wobble bass

(music) An extended bass note, characteristic of dubstep music, which is manipulated rhythmically to create an oscillating sound.


sourdeline

(music, historical) A kind of small bagpipe.


violining

(music) The use of a volume swell, a musical crescendo commonly associated with the electric guitar.


sidegirl

An assortment of sidemen (and sidegirls) provide a varied accompaniment on mouth-harp, dulcimer, fiddle, and, of course, guitar.

Playing lead alto saxophone and doubling on soprano, Patterson stands to announce each tune in a set, beats off the tempo and then credits each "sidegirl" at song's end for the solos performed.

1980 November 15, Dave Dexter Jr., “Billboard”, in All-Female Big Band Rolls In L.A., volume 92, number 46

The sidegirls paraded into their place beside the gangplank;

2016, Mike Shepherd, Kris Longknife: Bold, page 218

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


coordinome

(music) A punched tape based metronome for polymetric music.


sesquitertia

en-noun

sesquitertia (countable and uncountable, plural sesquitertias)

(music, obsolete) A perfect fourth, an interval having the ratio of 1 to 1⅓, or 3 to 4.


bisonoric

(music) In an accordion: producing a different note when the bellows are compressed or expanded.


unisonoric

(music) In an accordion producing the same note whatever the direction of bellows movement.


psychill

Special thanks to my guitars for helping me regain movement, momentum, flow, and energy during each break, and thanks to musicians/artists Robert Rich and Shulman, the compilation album Space Forming, and all the wonderful psybient/psychill electronic artists as well as all the wide variety of music I listen to... all music to write a dissertation with!

2015, Jason Beers, From Entheogens to Psychotropics: A Metabletic Analysis of Plant-Human Alienation in Chemical Intervention (PhD dissertation, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology)

There will be six stages with diverse music for any state you might be in. From techno, psychedelic, deep house, jazz, ambient, live bands, cumbia, psychill and many other subgenres only the DJs know, relaxation and zen are in order here.

2016 June 19, Oana Vasiliu, “Top festivals in Romania to check out in July”, in (Romania) Business Review

As at the previous edition, the event will have six stages featuring diverse music styles: techno, psychedelic, deep house, jazz, ambient, live bands, cumbia, psychill and many other subgenres.

2017 July 12, “Music festival kicks off in scenic Romania village”, in Romania Insider

(music) A subgenre of psytrance that is influenced by reggae and psybient.


psybient

Indeed, by the early 2000s, the music and cultures of psytrance (from psybient to darkpsy) was becoming entheogenically liminalised, a popular state of affairs from Europe to Israel, America to Australia and Brazil to South Africa.

2010, Graham St John, The Local Scenes and Global Culture of Psytrance, page 224

Psybient artists include Shpongle, Entheogenic (2), Evan Bluetech, Yaniv Shulman, Kickbong, and some of the works of Younger Brother.

Shpongle was formed in 1996 and has been described by Posford as “like nothing you’ve ever heard before.” They have been noted for pioneering the “psybient” genre, which combines world music, such as Ram’s infamous flute, with synth-based electronic mixing, making a sound that has been a strong influence for so many groups since Shpongle’s inception.

2014 May 9, Isabel McCan, “Shpongle: One-Time Show with Live Band at Red Rocks”, in 303 Magazine

The worldwide annual psychedelic festival for yoga, music, dance and nature lovers is again hosted lecturers, coaches, psychologists and healers along with 130 yoga workshops, seances and lectures, as well as a Psybient music festival with over 140 music artists and DJs performing on three stages.

2018 August 16, “Samsara Festival: In Nature We Escape – Photo Album!”, in Hungary Today

(music) A musical genre that is a fusion of psytrance and ambient.


madrigalistic

en-adj

madrigalistic (comparative more madrigalistic, superlative most madrigalistic)

more madrigalistic (comparative)
most madrigalistic (superlative)

Although madrigalistic and grammatical silences appear throughout Handel's cantata repertory, disruptive silence that cuts through the score and temporarily halts the flow of speech and music is a particular feature of his English set.

2004, Ellen T. Harris, Handel as Orpheus: Voice and Desire in the Chamber Cantatas


pantaleon

(music, historical) A very large dulcimer, invented around 1700.


BTS

(music) Initialism of Bangtan Sonyeondan (“a South Korean boy band”).


blackster

From Middle English blakestere, blakestre, equivalent to black + -ster.

A "blackster" (a fan of heavy metal, the satanic kind) isn't going to join a stuffed animal club, of course, but he does listen to music and try to translate the words of the songs.

2001, The Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press

Among different opinions expressed about Dani at different times by different people, a few stood out as most common. Dani Filth was a heartless sadistic bastard with a penchant for cheap mystique. Dani Filth was a typical dumb blackster.

2006, Nikki 666, Special Friend, page 37

(music, slang, rare) A fan of black metal music.


tridecimal

(arithmetic, music) Of a number, expressed in base thirteen.


groovebox

From groove + box, originally used by Roland Corporation to refer to its MC-303, released in 1996.

(music) A self-contained instrument for the production of live, loop-based electronic music with a high degree of improvisation.


organ harmonium

en-noun

organ harmonium (plural organ harmoniums)

(music) A large harmonium used instead of a pipe organ.


circle pit

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-circle pit.wav

From circle + pit, modelled after mosh pit.

Call Me in the Morning also fuses old and new, referencing the Rolling Stones' Paint It Black while swimming in Auto-Tune. The circle pit then swirls anew for Open the Till, which features a yellable chorus and more gnomic Skinnerisms. "You make ends meet," he [Mike Skinner] notes, "then they move the ends."

2019 January 26, Kitty Empire [pseudonym], “The Streets review – the agony and ecstasy of a great everyman”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-04-08

(dance, music) A dance at a concert where participants mosh in a circular path, leaving the centre clear.


freak folk

The wide array of artists that grew out of the freak folk or indie folk scene of the early 2000s were indeed as much inspired by the Anthology as they were by the loose musical forms of experimental jazz and avant-garde music and Induist and […]

2016, Ross Hair, Thomas Ruys Smith, Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music: America changed through music, Taylor & Francis, page 250

psychedelic folk
psychedelic folk#English


reciting note

(music) In chanting, a note on which several syllables are sung.


headjoint

(music) The joint of a flute containing the mouthpiece


stockhorn

(music) An old musical instrument, the pibgorn.


reed knife

(music) A metal implement for adjusting the tuning wires in a pipe organ.


bullerengue

Borrowed from Spanish bullerengue, a blend of bulla (“racket”) + arenga (“sermon”).

blend

(music) An African-styled music style and dance from Panama.


MPC

... so you'll have keyboard and all of that stuff within it, because really I didn't wanna lug all of that stuff... on my MPC and I got that organ sample from Sea Saint Studios

2019 January 29, Lance Scott Walker, Houston Rap Tapes: An Oral History of Bayou City Hip-Hop, University of Texas Press, page 128

Music Production Center
w:Music Production Center

(music) Initialism of Music Production Center.


power electronics

(music) A subgenre of industrial music with low-end drones, harsh loops, and screamed or distorted vocals.


non-transposing

Violin is a non-transposing instrument

(music) a musical instrument that is written in a the same pitch to how it sounds.


tenor trombone

(music) The Most common type of trombone which has a fundamental note of B♭ and is usually treated as a non-transposing instrument.


pitchpipe

(music) A small pipe used to set the pitch for an instrument, song etc.


Nachschlag

(music) A kind of ornament consisting of one or two additional notes after a note or trill.


inner voice

(music) A vocal part intermediate between the highest and the lowest.


dugazon

(music) A singer who has a voice intermediate between soprano and mezzo-soprano


string organ

(music) A reed organ having a graduated set of vibrators or free reeds connected by rods which cause the vibration of corresponding wires or strings stretched over a sounding board.


pops orchestra

I was minding my own business, tending pampered animals at my veterinary clinic, and looking forward to joining friends at an alfresco performance of the local Pops orchestra that evening.

2001, Lori Stone, The Black Squall, iUniverse, page 1

Steven was admittedly an unashamed romantic, but he thought the idea of naming the concerts should be consigned to the summertime pops orchestra.

2005, Robert Bartlett, The Salem Syndrome, Nelson Publishing&Marketing, page 111

When you hear a jazz trio or pops orchestra play the music of a song you know—provided that it is played in more or less the way you are familiar with—the words come back to you unbidden.

2014, David Jenness, Donald Velsey, Classic American Popular Song: The Second Half-Century, 1950–2000, Routledge

(music) An orchestra that plays popular music and show tunes as well as well-known classical works.


ondist

(music) A person who played a ondes martenot


ondes martenot

From French ondes Martenot (literally “Martenot waves”), named after Maurice Martenot (1898–1980).

named-after

Coordinate term: theremin

The score calls for three ondes Martenot, which are arranged spatially on the left, the right and in front of the conductor.

2017, Christopher Dingle, Messiaen's Final Works, Routledge, page 34

After another alternation of the two elements, there is a more playful episode, in which flute and bassoon take up the first element, with swooping glissando on the ondes Martenot.

2018, Robert Philip, The Classical Music Lover's Companion to Orchestral Music, Yale University Press, page 465

(music) An early electric keyboard instrument.


open tuning

(music) A tuning of a guitar or other stringed instrument in which the strings sound a chord when strummed together without being pressed against the fretboard.


organ-point

(music) A note sustained through a series of chords, although only in harmony with the first and last.


a battuta

(music) With the beat. A direction to resume strict time after the free declamation of a singer; chiefly used in recitatives. It is equivalent to a tempo.


breve rest

(music) A rest that has the same duration as a breve


precompositionally

(music) Prior to composing music; relating to precomposition.


precomposition

en-noun

precomposition (countable and uncountable, plural precompositions)

(music) Decisions made regarding a piece of music before composition begins, such as which key or which genre to use.


skramz

Originally coined to distinguish first-wave screamo from mall screamo. Possibly from screams.

It is also true that Evangelical churches can create like-minded youth; Jamie, involved with a London-based emo band, explained how the band members attend the same Evangelical Anglican church in south London, whose youth pastor introduced them to the obscure skramz sub-subgenre of hardcore that influences their sound.

2017, Ibrahim Abraham, Evangelical Youth Culture: Alternative Music and Extreme Sports Subcultures


sublow

(music) Grime music with very low bass frequencies.


BACH

(music) A motif consisting of the notes B flat, A, C, B natural.


holy unblack metal

The part holy unblack is a calque of Norwegian Bokmål hellig usvart, after Hellig Usvart, a record by Horde.

calque

(music) A subgenre of black metal with Christian lyrics.


underpoint

In larger dimensions, recurrent formulas, articulation, and phrase structure become important, and it may be possible to abstract various general curve types by studying the location of peaks and underpoints.

1966, Bonnie C. Kowall, Perspectives in music education, source - Book 3, page 151

Since his dynamic changes follow the development of the intensity of the music, they often indicate the direction of emotional movement to the climax or underpoints.

In skillful fugues the heightening tension of contrapuntal development finds confirmation in peaks and underpoints, dissonance quotient, and expansion or compression of tessitura, as well as other less direct sources of stress such as the largely intellectual pleasure of increasingly sophisticated and arcane manipulations.

1992, Jan LaRue -, Guidelines for Style Analysis, page 177

(music) The lowest intensity point of a diminuendo that is followed by an increase in volume and intensity.


kosmische musik

Borrowed from German kosmische Musik (“cosmic music”), used in German in the liner notes of the album Alpha Centauri (1971).

It began out of nothing, was given a joke name, and became the pop influence du jour: krautrock, kosmische musik, elektronische musik, or whatever you wish to call German experimental rock from the 1970s.

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

Another term commonly used for some German music from the 1970s is kosmische Musik (“cosmic music”). It was introduced by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser to market krautrock artists like Ash-Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, and Klaus Schulze. Although rejected by many artists associated with it, kosmische Musik remains a somewhat useful term to describe the synthesizer-heavy, meditative anti-rock of some West German musicians of the 1970s.

2016, Ulrich Adelt, Krautrock: German Music in the Seventies, University of Michigan Press, page 11

(music) West German experimental space rock from the 1970s.


double-stop

en-verb

double-stop (third-person singular simple present double-stops, present participle double-stopping, simple past and past participle double-stopped)

double-stops (present singular third-person)
double-stopping (participle present)
double-stopped (participle past)
double-stopped (past)

Divisi in the orchestra greatly reduces the need for double-stopping, per se, in this form of string playing.

1957, Clifford A. Cook, String teaching and some related topics, page 39

Some Greek musicians have used open tunings on the violin and double-stopped the strings to produce a drone.

2003, Aline Scott-Maxwell, John Whiteoak, Currency companion to music and dance in Australia, page 69

The whole movement gives the soloist an opportunity for hair-raising virtuosity, from rapid arpeggios and spectral harmonics to languid parallel sixths, double-stopped trills and, in the trio, a stratospheric cantabile, again on harmonics.

2008, Paolo Petrocelli, William Walton and the Violin Concerto in England between 1900 and 1940

(music) to play on two stopped strings of a stringed instrument simultaneously.


double-stop

There has been some question concerning whether the downbeat of m. 19 should be a triple-stop with the open D string as the bottom note or a double-stop with the open A string as the bottom note.

1999, Joel Lester, Bach's Works for Solo Violin: Style, Structure, Performance

You can play a double-stop on adjacent strings or on nonadjacent strings (by skipping strings).

2012, Mark Phillips, Jon Chappell, Guitar For Dummies, page 96

If you're a beginner player, you can always choose not to play a double-stop and instead play just the top note.

2014, Michael John Sanchez, Fiddle For Dummies

(music) a chord or combination composed of two notes played on separate strings simultaneously.


three-quarter time

en-noun

three-quarter time (countable and uncountable, plural three-quarter times)

(music) A time signature of a composition indicating three quarter notes or their equivalent in each measure.


Chapman stick

From the surname of its inventor, Emmett Chapman.

(music) A form of electric guitar, resembling a wide fretboard with 8, 10 or 12 strings.


post-metal

(music) A genre of modern music influenced by heavy metal but often focusing more on atmosphere.


chamber pop

The use of string and horn sections helped add rich layers to the band's theatrical fusion of indie rock and chamber pop, with the heart of the album residing in the opening quartet of songs sharing the title 'Neighborhood'.

2011, Colin Larkin, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Omnibus Press, page 2210

(music) A subgenre of rock music which places increased emphasis on melody, often incorporating vocal harmonies and bowed string instruments.


plugg

From "Plug!", earlier "Plugs!", the producer tag used by the members of BeatPluggz collective, who recorded the vocals for the tag.

(music) A laid-back subgenre of trap music.


versette

(music) Alternative form of verset (“very short organ interlude or prelude”)


NWOBHM

New Wave of British Heavy Metal
w:New Wave of British Heavy Metal

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


soprillo

(music) The smallest member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments, one size smaller than the sopranino saxophone and with a range of A♭₄ to E♭₇ or similar.


pickup cover

(music) A metallic cover of various alloys, which covers a guitar pickup in order to change its tone; Almost always a humbucker cover.

(music) A plastic pickup cover for protection and sometimes for duller tone.


trap-pop

Her latterday output has stuttered somewhat, but for Madame X the stars have aligned with Madonna’s Pinterest mood board once again. There are hot climates and a piratical eye-patch; shape-shifting to the sounds of the Portuguese diaspora, trap-pop and reggeaton.

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


Novachord

(music, historical) An early electronic polyphonic synthesizer.


polytimbral

(music) Containing many timbres (typically produced by many different instruments)


(music) A meter of five quarter notes per measure.


power trio

(music) A rock-and-roll band lineup consisting of electric guitar, bass guitar, and drum kit, omitting the rhythm guitar and keyboard instrument associated with larger lineups.


counterphrase

(music) A musical phrase that complements or responds to another phrase.


unacoustic

en-adj

unacoustic (comparative more unacoustic, superlative most unacoustic)

more unacoustic (comparative)
most unacoustic (superlative)

Our next respondent agrees with the previous opinion but also points out interest in using the computer for synthesizing original 'unacoustic' sounds.

1997, Alex Igoudin, Impact of MIDI on electroacoustic art music - Issue 102, page 122

Leave the backpackers behind and join Saigon's student population to see the seriously un-acoustic local rock bands performing predominantly American covers every night in this heaving live music hub at the end of a narrow alleyway.

2014, The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia On A Budget

(music) Not acoustic; electronically generated or amplified.


easycore

[…] the successful easycore DJs James and Martin Karminsky.

1997, Dylan Jones, Ultra Lounge: The Lexicon of Easy Listening, page 18

The uncanny ability of "easycore" artists to swoon us into special realms, especially ones deep in our hearts, is a major theme of "Ultra Lounge." But as the genre offers a vacation from despair, looming heartache often comes with the ticket.

1997, Billboard, volume 109, number 18, page 67

(music, rare) Music that verges toward easy listening, or that is less hardcore than comparable styles.

We have a forty-five minute slot, and the other bands are more easycore than we usually play with so there's a different crowd.

While a bevy of MySpace bands who used the word "easycore" as a self-descriptor to mark their poppy hardcore tastes, ADTR [A Day to Remember] make the rest of the pile seem like amateurs thanks to their laser-precise songwriting.

2017 August 31, John Hill, “A Day to Remember Albums Ranked”, in Loudwire

(music) A pop punk subgenre that combines elements of metalcore, incorporating use of breakdowns, screams, major key progressions and riffs and synthesizers.


untexted

(music) without accompanying words or text.


unnotated

(music) Not recorded in musical notation


cross-tune

en-verb

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

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

(music, transitive) To give an alternative tuning to (the open strings of a string instrument).


cross-tuning

en-noun

cross-tuning (countable and uncountable, plural cross-tunings)

(music) A system of tuning a musical instrument to pitches other than the accepted standard: for example, tuning one or more strings of a violin to pitches other than the commonly accepted GDAE.


accorgan

(music) A musical instrument combining an electronic keyboard with an accordion.


string plate

(music) A metal plate bearing the spring-block of a pianoforte.


cowboy chord

(music) An open chord, i.e. one played without pressing the string against the fingerboard.


solidbody

(music) Of a guitar, constructed from a solid material as opposed to a hollow one.


kernei

(music) A Kyrgyz wind musical instrument like a horn with no mouthpiece or playing apertures. (a kind of karnay)


intabulation

(music) an arrangement of a vocal or ensemble piece for keyboard, lute, or other plucked string instrument, written in tablature.


chromagram

(music) A graphic representation of the notes of a scale


wavefolding

(music) An audio synthesis effect where waveforms that exceed a maximum volume are folded back on themselves rather simply than being clipped.


Eurorack

(music) A kind of customizable modular audio synthesizer.


deep cut

A "cut" (track of a vinyl record) which is seen as being buried "deep" in an album.

"Dig a Pony" is my favorite Beatles deep cut.

2015, "Weekend Rock Question: What’s the Best Rolling Stones Deep Cut?", Rolling Stone, 10 April

2016, Nate Chinen, "Norah Jones Returns to Her Jazz Roots", The New York Times, 15 September
"With luck, her tour will include the standout Neil Young cover she included on “Day Breaks” — a deep cut called “Don’t Be Denied,” from 1973."

2017, Eric Renner Brown et al, "New Music Friday: 14 releases to hear now", Entertainment Weekly, 26 May
"But there are surprises, too, like the spooky Live/Dead deep cut “Death Don’t Have No Mercy..."

(music) An obscure song by a well known musician.


requiem mass

(Christianity, music) A mass sung for the repose of the soul of a dead person


cue-to-cue

(theater, music, film) Of a rehearsal: moving from one cue to the next, so that lighting etc. can be tested, without rehearsing scenes in their entirety.


suboscillator

(music) An oscillator, in an electronic synthesizer, that operates an octave below another oscillator


sight sing

en-verb

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

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

(music) To sing a musical piece while reading it for the first time, without rehearsal.

laulaa nuoteista

to sing a musical piece while reading it for the first time


stagger breathe

stagger breathe (third-person singular simple present stagger breathes, present participle stagger breathing, simple past and past participle stagger breathed)

stagger breathes (present singular third-person)
stagger breathing (participle present)
stagger breathed (participle past)
stagger breathed (past)

(music, intransitive) within a choir or wind instrument ensemble, to breathe independently so that no breath gaps can be heard in favour of a continuous sound effect


stagger breathing

(music) a technique for choir singers and wind instrument players as part of an ensemble, by which no breath gaps can be heard in favour of a continuous sound effect


undecet

From decet on the model of Latin undecim (“eleven”).

(music) A group of eleven musicians; a piece of music written for such a group


hundred twenty-eighth note

en-noun

hundred twenty-eighth note (plural hundred twenty-eighth notes)

(music) A note played for 1⁄128 of the duration of a whole note.

quintuple croche

a note played for 1⁄128 of the duration of a whole note


two hundred fifty-sixth note

two hundred fifty-sixth note (plural two hundred fifty-sixth notes)

When you cut four quarter notes in half, you get eight eighth notes, and so on, down the road, all the way to two-hundred-fifty-sixth notes.

2009, Phyllis Sdoia-Satz, Practicing sucks, but it doesn't have to!: surviving music lessons

(music, very rare) A note played for 1⁄256 of the duration of a whole note.


256th note

two hundred fifty-sixth note
two hundred fifty-sixth note#English

(music, US) Alternative form of two hundred fifty-sixth note.


128th note

hundred twenty-eighth note
hundred twenty-eighth note#English

(music, US) Abbreviation of hundred twenty-eighth note.


crunkcore

(music) A fusion genre combining cultural and musical elements of crunk, post-hardcore, pop, electronic music, and dance music. It often features screamed vocals, hip-hop beats, and sexually provocative lyrics.


prechorus

(music) Part of a song occurring after the verse and serving as a buildup to the chorus.


matched grip

(music) A method of holding drum sticks in which the stick is held the same way in both hands.


traditional grip

(music) A method of holding drum sticks in which the right hand uses an overhand grip and the left hand uses an underhand grip.


saringda

The stringed musical instruments like Pena, Ollobii Kada, Tingtila, Saringda, solid instruments like Gong, Cymbal, small Cymbals (locally known as Mandela) and Upum (Hollow wood) are used.

2011, Khomdan Singh Lisam, Encyclopaedia of Manipur (3 Vol.), p. 539


quadreble

He starts out by saying that there are three sights, the mene, treble, and quadreble, but actually he discusses only two, the treble and quadreble, both of which are read at the transposition of an octave.

1959, The Musical quarterly - Volume 45, page xlvi

The voices include a counter (always below the tenor), a countertenor (moving above and below the tenor), mene, treble, and quadreble.

1991, Blanche Gangwere, Music history during the Renaissance period, 1425-1520, page 25

The counter involves transposition of the sighted note to the fifth below (for extremely low notes a twelfth), the mene and countertenor do not transpose, the treble transposes to the octave above, and the quadreble to the twelfth above.

2003, Willi Apel, Don Michael Randel, The Harvard Dictionary of Music, page 780

(music) A voice in a musical composition (usually for male voices) above the treble; descant.


bugle scale

(music) The set of five distinct overtones that can be played on a simple bugle, without the use of valves or other pitch-altering devices.


whirly tube

(music) An experimental musical instrument consisting of a corrugated plastic tube or hose, open at both ends and possibly wider at one end, played by swinging it in a circle.


stagger-through

Deverbal from stagger through, on the model of readthrough and walkthrough; so called because there may be mistakes, pauses for discussion, etc.

And so I went there with the rehearsal pianists and we just did stagger-throughs, so that we could time it, so that we could know what was going on.

1998, Opera, volume 49, numbers 7-10, page 1036

There may be a “stagger-through” in between, a run-through with occasional stops for critical discussions and changes.

2016, Don Harmon, Producing in Theater, page 45

(music, television) The rehearsal of an entire show.


triple harp

(music) A type of multi-course harp employing three parallel rows of strings instead of the more common single row, a common version being the Welsh triple harp used in Welsh folk music.


pick slide

(music) An electric guitar playing technique in which the edge of the pick (plectrum) is scraped across two strings down the neck towards the nut, creating a descending scratching sound.


halldorophone

Named according to the inventor, Halldór Úlfarsson from Iceland, who developed the instrument in late 2000s while studying at University of Art and Design Helsinki.

Continua is a duet for cellist and live coder, each playing a hybrid instrument based on the Halldorophone, an electroacoustic instrument in which electromagnetically-controlled feedback can be induced independently on each string.

2016, Alice Eldridge, Chris Kiefer, “Continua: a resonator-feedback-cello duet for live coder and cellist”, in Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics and X, page 399

Following the design of the halldorophone, the self-resonating behaviour of the Feedback Cello is induced by acoustic and vibrational actuation: the signals from pickups under each string are sent to a speaker built into the back of the instrument, and a vibrational transducer fixed on the front.

2017, Alice Eldridge, Chris Kiefer, “The self-resonating feedback cello: interfacing gestural and generative processes in improvised performance”, in Proceedings of New Interfaces for Musical Expression

One recent example is the 'Halldorophone', a range of adapted string instruments built by Halldór Úlfarsson that combine acoustic, electronic and digital functions within a single instrument (Figure 8.3).

2018, Andrew Hugill, The Digital Musician, Routledge

After ten years of use, the halldorophone has a growing repertoire of works by prominent composers and performers.

2018, Halldór Úlfarsson, “The halldorophone: The ongoing innovation of a cello-like drone instrument”, in Proceedings of New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Influential works were the Overtone Fiddle [3], the Self-Resonating Feedback Cello [4, 5], the feral cello [6], the Magnetic Resonating Piano [7], the Feedback Resonance Guitar [2], Half-Closed loop [8] as well as the ongoing work of Halldór Úlfarsson, halldorophone[9] a cello-like feedback instrument.

2018, Thanos Polymeneas Liontiris, “Low Frequency Feedback Drones: A non-invasive augmentation of the double bass”, in Proceedings of New Interfaces for Musical Expression

(music) An electroacoustic string instrument, the sound of which makes use of electro acoustic feedback to produce drones and otherwise resembles a cello.


Beyhive

(slang, music) The singer Beyoncé's online fanbase.


top note

(music) The highest note that can be produced by a certain instrument or singer.


death whistle

(music, historical) An Aztec instrument, sometimes shaped like a skull, that when blown produces a human-like shriek.


low fidelity

en-adj

low fidelity (comparative more low fidelity, superlative most low fidelity)

more low fidelity (comparative)
most low fidelity (superlative)

(music) Having a rough quality, recorded at home with makeshift tools


Dylanology

From Dylan + -ology, from the surname of Bob Dylan (born 1941), American singer-songwriter.

(music) The study or admiration of the music or lyrics of Bob Dylan.


Dylanologist

From Dylan + -ologist, from the surname of Bob Dylan (born 1941), American singer-songwriter.

(music) One who studies or admires the music or lyrics of Bob Dylan; one with an interest in Dylanology.


basset clarinet

en-noun

basset clarinet (plural basset clarinets)

(music) A clarinet similar to the usual soprano clarinet but longer and with additional keys to enable playing several additional lower notes.


Zamrock

(music) The rock and roll scene and associated style that originated in Zambia during the 70s.


Caribbean dance music

(music) A hybrid music genre that fuses electronic dance music with Caribbean music such as dancehall, reggae and soca.


microlabel

(music) A very small-scale record label.


meloplast

(music) An empty staff with movable notes used as a teaching aid


Abbaesque

en-adj

Abbaesque (comparative more Abbaesque, superlative most Abbaesque)

more Abbaesque (comparative)
most Abbaesque (superlative)

They could use all the rooms for their own purposes, without decorating them the Abbaesque taste of their son or pseudo-Gothic fixations of their daughter.

2008, Tara Brabazon, “Wiring God’s waiting rooms: the greying of the World Wide Web”, in Tara Brabazon, editor, The Revolution Will Not Be Downloaded: Dissent in the digital age, Oxford: Chandos Publishing, page 45

Here, they accompanied disco funk rocker Reflektor with some spectacular mirrorball action while giant inflatable stickmen sprang up around the apron of the stage during Unconditional I (Lookout Kid) and the irresistible ABBAesque Everything Now.

2022 September 6, Fiona Shepherd, “Music review: Arcade Fire, Hydro, Glasgow”, in The Scotsman

(music) Similar in style to the Swedish pop supergroup ABBA.


COF

circle of fifths
circle of fifths#English

circle of fourths
circle of fourths#English

(music) Initialism of circle of fourths.


morache

(music) A Native American musical instrument consisting of a notched stick usually played by rubbing another stick or bone over it.


vib.

Abbreviation of Italian vibrato m, past participle of vibrare (“to vibrate”)

(music) The musical effect or technique where the pitch or frequency of a note or sound is quickly and repeatedly raised and lowered over a small distance for the duration of that note or sound.


German flute

From German + flute, likely because it originated in Germany.

(music, now chiefly historical) A transverse flute.


tropical rock

(music) A genre of popular music with elements of rock, reggae, country, folk, calypso, zydeco, and pop music, with themes and musical compositions inspired by a tropical island style.


drum fill

(music) An extended riff played on the drums


muselar

(music) A kind of virginal from northern Europe, having the keyboard placed right of centre and the strings plucked about one-third of the way along their sounding length.


sus chord

(music, informal) Short for suspended chord.


paraphone

(music) A sound midway between a concord and a discord.


paraphony

en-noun

paraphony (countable and uncountable, plural paraphonies)

(music) The quality of sound midway between a concord and a discord


quenacho

(music) A larger, lower-toned version of the quena (traditional flute of the Andes).


neck joint

On the classical guitar, the heel supports the neck joint on the back side.

(music, stringed instruments) Τhe junction where the neck (fretted or unfretted) meets the body of a stringed instrument.


cak

(music) A type of string instrument from Indonesia.


trumpophone

(music) A musical instrument combining a trumpet and a saxophone, especially a trumpet played with a saxophone mouthpiece.


zeuhl

Coined by French musician Christian Vander, who claimed it meant "celestial" in his constructed language Kobaïan.

coin

(music) A subgenre of progressive rock, typically incorporating asemic lyrics, massed unison vocals (often with both male and female vocalists), and jazz-influenced rhythmic accompaniment.


(music) A meter of nine quavers per measure.


octocontrabass

Among the many benchmarks of his career, he developed the first complete choir of in-tune clarinets, ranging from sopranino to octocontrabass.

(music) An instrument that is pitched one octave below the contrabass.


bedroom pop

Among the inscrutable terms invented to parse the stylistic subtleties of rock music, “bedroom pop” stands out as an elegantly descriptive coinage. The bedroom in question refers not to the content of the songs but to where they’re produced. These are solo projects, sort of like writing in a diary or sketching on a pad, and in New York, there is practically an epidemic of the stuff.]

[2006 January 26, Hugo Lindgren, “Garbagehead Revisited”, in New York

The Oakland, Calif., singer and songwriter Melina Duterte, who calls her D.I.Y. bedroom pop project Jay Som, does it all.

2017 March 22, Joe Coscarelli, “Jay Som Brings Her D.I.Y. Bedroom Pop to Brooklyn”, in The New York Times

“We’re straying from the idea of bedroom pop sonically but ‘Fake It Flowers’ was still me writing songs here,” Kristi said, motioning toward walls filled with photos of friends, a tricolor tapestry and iconic posters of Tom Hanks from the film “Big” and the Beatles at Abbey Road.

2020 October 8, David Peisner, “beabadoobee Made Bedroom Pop. Now She’s Turning Up the Volume.”, in New York Times

(music) A musical genre or aesthetic in which bands record at home, rather than at traditional recording spaces.


mumble rap

From mumble + rap. First coined by hip hop artist Wiz Khalifa in 2016 during an interview.

coinage

Derided by some, artists such as Future and Migos have been wildly successful mumble rap artists.

2018, Nick J. Sciullo, Communicating Hip-Hop: How Hip-Hop Culture Shapes Popular Culture, page 40

"Mumble rap" is the most active and vigorous scapegoat rap has had in years, in part because the internet — particularly social media — has created a landscape for it to thrive and be a hotly debated topic, engaging in the ideas of language and whether or not rappers should have to adhere to them, or whether or not this so-called mumble rap is actually pushing the genre forward, past some of its bowing to establishments.

2019, Hanif Abdurraqib, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest, page 201

The logical culmination of this tendency is today's mumble rap, featuring rhythmically monotonous phrasal and verbal repetition, strongly auto-tuned and, in some cases, literally mumbled.

2020, Macklin Smith, Aurko Joshi, Rhymes in the Flow: How Rappers Flip the Beat, page 256

There was an exciting proliferation of punk rap, mumble rap, emo rap and trap-influenced SoundCloud artists.

2020, Adrian Besley, Billie Eilish: From e-girl to Icon, Michael O'Mara Books

(music) A microgenre of hip hop with mumbling or unclear vocal delivery by artists, and may generally refer to rappers who do not share the genre's typical emphasis on lyricism.


Welsh harp

(music) A type of harp associated with traditional music of Wales, originally a simple single-string instrument and now more usually referring to a type of triple harp.


monzo

(music) In microtonal music, a vector that represents the prime factorization of a particular just intonation interval.


triccaballacca

(music) A Neapolitan percussion instrument


V-pop

From V- (“Vietnamese”) + pop, by analogy with J-pop.


banjeaurine

(music) A variant of the banjo with a shorter neck, and tuned a fourth higher.


Apache fiddle

(music) A bowed string instrument of the indigenous Apache people of the southwestern United States, made from a plant stalk with one or two strings, often of horse hair.


chop chord

(music) A clipped backbeat; a muted chord that marks the off-beats or upbeats.


proto-prog

(music) The earliest work associated with the first wave of progressive rock music.


acidcore

(music) A subgenre of both acid techno and hardcore which combines the two.


overdamper

Coordinate term: underdamper

(music) A damper located above the hammers in a piano.


underdamper

Coordinate term: overdamper

(music) A damper located beneath the hammers in a piano.


jazz-hop

(music) A fusion subgenre of hip-hop and jazz music; jazz rap.


con amore

/ˌkɒn aˈmɔːɹeɪ/

/ˌkɑn əˈmɔɹeɪ/

(music, usually as an instruction) played gently, with tenderness


signature song

See the main entries. Formed as a compound in the 1920s.

(music, usually in the singular) A song in which its artist or band is best associated with or known for.

chanson phare

the song a performer is primarily associated with


Schrammelmusik

From Austrian German Schrammelmusik. Named after the brothers Johann Schrammel (1850–1893) and Josef Schrammel (1852–1895), Austrian composers and violinists.

(music) A style of Viennese folk music originating in the late 19th century, influenced by Slovenian, Moravian, and Hungarian traditions and characterized by a melancholic but melodious sound.

Johann Schrammel
Josef Schrammel
Schrammelmusik


SKSK

Reduplication of SK (literally “stop keying”).

reduplication

Scary Kids Scaring Kids
w:Scary Kids Scaring Kids

(music) Initialism of Scary Kids Scaring Kids, an American posthardcore band.


metronomize

en-verb

metronomize (third-person singular simple present metronomizes, present participle metronomizing, simple past and past participle metronomized)

metronomizes (present singular third-person)
metronomizing (participle present)
metronomized (participle past)
metronomized (past)

(music) To indicate the tempo of a piece of music by means of a metronome setting


slash chord

So called from being written with a slash, such as Em/G (E minor with a G bass).

(music) A chord which has a bass note that is not the root note.


Melbourne shuffle

en-noun

Melbourne shuffle (plural Melbourne shuffles)

(music, dance) A style of dancing in the rave scene, with fast-paced steps and heel-and-toe movements, T-steps, the running man, etc.


CAGED

(music) The barre chords C, A, G, E, and D.


sidefill

(informal, music) A monitor speaker (one of a set) placed at the sides of a stage


downtune

en-verb

downtune (third-person singular simple present downtunes, present participle downtuning, simple past and past participle downtuned)

downtunes (present singular third-person)
downtuning (participle present)
downtuned (participle past)
downtuned (past)

We all downtune for this song so it's easier on the singer.

He downtuned his guitar to play along with the recording.

(music) To tune (a musical instrument) to a lower pitch.


koauau

Piripi holds the koauau toward them and places his finger at the mouth of the flute.

2004, Cathie Dunsford, Ao Toa: Earth Warriors, page 137

(music) A small Māori flute, ductless and notchless, with three to six fingerholes.


rhythm and grime

(music) A genre of music combining elements of grime and rhythm and blues.


cancrizans

From Medieval Latin, present participle of cancrizāre (“to go backwards”), from Latin cancr-, cancer (“crab”) + Late Latin -izāre (“-ize”).

(music) A type of canon in which the imitating voice repeats the notes of the theme in reverse order


capriccietto

en-noun

capriccietto (plural capricciettos or capriccietti)

capricciettos (plural)
capriccietti (plural)


carillonic

(music) Relating to, or characteristic of a carillon


chimesmaster

(music) A player of chimes, especially at Cornell University.


chromaticization

(music) The process, or the result of chromaticizing.


chromaticize

en-verb

chromaticize (third-person singular simple present chromaticizes, present participle chromaticizing, simple past and past participle chromaticized)

chromaticizes (present singular third-person)
chromaticizing (participle present)
chromaticized (participle past)
chromaticized (past)

(music) To make something chromatic or to use a chromatic scale


chromatist

(music) A person whose speciality is chromatics.


citharoedic

(music) Relating to a cithara or a citharist


clavicymbal

(music, historical) An early form of harpsichord.


MCM

en-noun

MCM (countable and uncountable, plural MCMs)

modern classical music
w:contemporary classical music

(music) Initialism of modern classical music.


capriccetto

capriccetto (plural capriccettos or capriccetti)

capriccettos (plural)
capriccetti (plural)

(music) Alternative form of capriccietto


bassanello

/ˌbæsəˈnɛləʊ/

From the name of Giovanni Bassano (Johann Bassanello), who may have been the inventor.

(music) A Renaissance double-reed woodwind instrument.


pianofortist

Mr. E[dward]. Knight completed his musical education in Germany, under the celebrated Ferdinand Ries, and was esteemed an excellent pianofortist and composer.

1834, United States Gazette, quotee, “Drama &c.”, in The Lady’s Magazine and Museum of the Belles-Lettres, Fine Arts, Music, Drama, Fashions, &c., volume IV, number 8, London: […] J Page, […], section “Theatrical and Musical Intelligence”, paragraph “Death of Mr. E. Knight”, page 249, column 2

“My love,” he answered, stopping and holding her still before him, “have you not yet perceived how your great-grandmother’s marriage will affect us? When the Countess of Halston marries her butler, no one will even think twice about her great-grand-daughter wedding a pianofortist.”

1976, Fiona Hill [pen name; Ellen Pall], Love in a Major Key, New York, N.Y.: Diversion Books, published 2014

Miss Keele performed first and played exceptionally well, which was not surprising. She was by far a superior pianofortist.

2002, Valerie King [pen name; Caris Roane], A Rogue’s Embrace (Zebra Regency Romances), New York, N.Y.: Zebra Books, page 181

(music) A person who plays the pianoforte.


acocotl

(music) A Mexican musical instrument made from a gourd.


decadation

(music) The modification of a decad, typically to obtain a new series of consonant triads


rackboard

(music) A long board drilled with holes to support the pipes as part of an organ.


polymetre

(music) The use of different metres or time signatures either simultaneously or in succession


polymeter

polymeter (countable and uncountable, plural polymeters)


polyphonal

From Ancient Greek πολύφωνος (polúphōnos) + -al.


polytonalist

(music) A person who composes or plays polytonal music


hexatone

(music) A derivative of an octave in which two notes are missing


heptadecad

(music) A group of seven decads arranged to produce twenty-four tones


misfinger

en-verb

misfinger (third-person singular simple present misfingers, present participle misfingering, simple past and past participle misfingered)

misfingers (present singular third-person)
misfingering (participle present)
misfingered (participle past)
misfingered (past)

The pupil comes for his lesson and possibly has not thoroughly learned some part of it; he does not keep the time true, misfingers, strikes wrong notes, or, to take a milder illustration, does not feel the balance of the parts, does not divine the meaning of the composer, does not appreciate the beauty of the unity of the work as a whole, has not, in fact, "finished" it;

1893 June, Herbert J. Krew, “A Music Teacher's Duty From the Standpoint of an Intelligent Pupil”, in Theodore Presser, editor, Etude: The Music Magazine, volume 11, number 6, page 129

If Holmes misfingers a note on one of the violin strings, that is merely some small fault within the unified organisation of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson Incorporated.

2000, Patricia Fanthorpe, Death: The Final Mystery, page 119

The dancers had started on a third pass when Lady Lucianne piped a sour note. She blushed and laughed at her own mistake, interrupting her playing and causing Victor to misfinger his part as well.

2001, Teresa DesJardien, The Marriage Masquerade, page 49

This means that if he misfingers and is thrown a distance from his intended note, he can continue from where he is, even if the note results in a modulation that takes him into another key.

2009, Stanley Crouch, Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz

(music) To make a mistake in the finger positions when playing an instrument, resulting in a wrong note.


dodecuplet

(music) A group of twelve notes, typically to be played in place of eight.


szopelka

(music) A Russian double-reed wind instrument, similar in form to the zurna.


viola d'amore

en-noun

viola d'amore (plural viola d'amores or viole d'amore)

viola d'amores (plural)
viole d'amore (plural)

Borrowed from Italian viola d'amore (“viol of love”).

(music) A 7- or 6-stringed musical instrument similar to the treble viol, used chiefly in the Baroque period.


omnitonic

(music, of an instrument) That can be played in any key


quinton

(music) A type of violin that had five strings


luminaphone

(music, historical) A kind of organ whose keys project light beams through perforated revolving disks onto selenium cells in order to produce electrical vibrations that generate the sound.


khyal

From Hindi ख़याल (xayāl)/Urdu خیال (xyāl).

(music) A form of Indian song composed of two matras


whamola

(music) A bass musical instrument played in the United States; a descendant of the washtub bass.


dolewave

(music, Australia) An Australian music genre which emerged in the early 2010s, typically laid-back, lo-fi and guitar-driven.


slide trumpet

(music) A trumpet fitted with a slide (an early form of a slide trombone)


word painting

word painting (countable and uncountable, plural word paintings)

(music) Program music, or the process of composing it.


glassophone

(music) A set of glasses filled with differing amounts of liquid so that they produce different musical notes when struck.


bitcrush

en-verb

bitcrush (third-person singular simple present bitcrushes, present participle bitcrushing, simple past and past participle bitcrushed)

bitcrushes (present singular third-person)
bitcrushing (participle present)
bitcrushed (participle past)
bitcrushed (past)

(music, transitive) To drastically distort the audio of sounds or music, usually using a bit crusher.


Bitcrusher

(music) Alternative spelling of bit crusher.


pentatonicism

(music) The condition of being pentatonic


pentatonically

(music) In a pentatonic manner; using a pentatonic scale


A/derived terms

Rank or size
* A1
* AA
* double A
* AAA
* triple A
* A cup
* A game, A-game
* A level
* A list
* A team
* grade A
Letter grade
* straight A's
* A minus
* A plus
(music) tone three fifths above C
* A-flat
* A major
* A-minor
* A-sharp
* concert A
Blood type
* A positive
* A negative
* AB


multikeyboard

(music, of an instrument) Having two or more keyboards


keraulophon

Derived from Ancient Greek κέρας (kéras, “horn”) + αὐλός (aulós, “pipe”) + φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound, voice”).

der+

(music) A particular flue organ stop of 8' pitch which produces a reedy tone.


drawknob

(music) A knob used to control the stop of an organ.


(music) A meter of five eighth notes per measure.


cutting contest

en-noun

cutting contest (plural cutting contests)

(music, historical) A musical contest between pianists in the stride jazz genre.


tone painting

tone painting (countable and uncountable, plural tone paintings)


text painting

text painting (countable and uncountable, plural text paintings)


water drum

(music) Any membranophone characterized by the filling of the drum chamber with some amount of water to create a resonant sound.


aeolsklavier

(music, historical) A modification of the aeolodicon, having wooden reeds or springs, and a pedal which triggered a set of bellows (one for each note) and produced a soft and ethereal sound.


preaching band

Musicians who identify as being part of a “Christian band,” also referred to as a “preaching band,” argue that “Christians in a band,” Christian musicians who do not call themselves a “Christian band,” are insincere because they keep quiet about their Christianity.]

[2020, Ibrahim Abraham, Christian Punk: Identity and Performance, Bloomsbury Publishing


producer tag

(music) A short soundbite used by a producer, inserted into songs as an aural signature.


sonizance

(obsolete, music) The sound produced by a musical instrument


octavina

(music) A Filipino musical instrument resembling the guitar.


tone hole

(music) an opening in the body of a wind instrument which, when alternately closed and opened, changes the pitch of the sound produced.


progressive house

(music) A house music genre originating from the late 1990s.


ravanahatha

(music) An ancient bowed stringed instrument of India, Sri Lanka, and surrounding areas, possibly an ancestor of the violin.


Brill Building

After the Brill Building in New York City, where some (though not most) of the songs were written. The building acquired its name from a haberdasher who operated a store there and subsequently purchased the building.

But when a list of Brill Building songs was attached to the proposal, it seemed to go on forever and read like a history of pop music.

2001 August 25, Jim Bessman, quoting Carol Anne Dolan, “TV's ‘Hitmakers’ Spotlights Home of Brilliant Songwriting”, in Billboard, →ISSN, page 44

As importantly, Brill Building music tended to utilize elements of African American music, often making use of vocal stylings characteristic of rhythm and blues—and, indeed, many songs typical of the Brill Building sound were sung by African American artists […]

2008, Jack R. Fischel, Encyclopedia of Jewish American Popular Culture, page 33

Located at Broadway and 51st St. in Manhattan, Aldon and Nevins-Kirshner were part of the famous Brill Building music scene.

2016, Mark A. Moore, The Jan & Dean Record, page 74

(music, historical, attributive) A style of pop music of the early 1960s, written by teams of professional songwriters to be performed by girl groups and teen idols.


bocedization

From the first three sung syllables ("bo, ce, di") + -ization.

(historical, music) A Flemish system of singing, similar to sol-fa, but employing the syllables "bo, ce, di, ga, lo, ma, ni".


demisemihemidemisemiquaver

From demi- + semi- + hemi- + demi- + semi- + quaver.

prefix

two hundred fifty-sixth note
two hundred fifty-sixth note

(music) A note having a time value half as long as a quasihemidemisemiquaver or 128th note; a two hundred fifty-sixth note.


sophisti-pop

Blend of sophisticated + pop, coined retrospectively.

The fact that the intellectual Green [Gartside] was also a friend and protégé of leading post-structuralist scholar, Jacques Derrida, served further to hype the postmodern playfulness of his sophisti-pop.

2012, Iain Ellis, Brit Wits: A History of British Rock Humor, Intellect Books, page 102

(music) A subgenre of pop music that emerged during the mid-1980s in the UK.


relative pitch

en-noun

relative pitch (plural relative pitches)

Coordinate term: absolute pitch

(music, uncountable) The ability to identify or create a given note by comparing it with a reference note and discerning the interval between those two notes.

relativní sluch

the ability to identify or create a given note by comparing it with a reference note and discerning the interval between those two notes

(music, countable or uncountable) The interval between two notes.


jubilus

(music) The long melisma placed on the final syllable of the alleluia as it is sung in the Gregorian chant.


vamphorn

If we want to hear the full symphony of English church music, we have to include in our imaginings the sound of a Christmas anthem, sung through a vamphorn, accompanied by instruments strung with whipcord and twine.

2017, Andrew Gant, O Sing Unto the Lord: A History of English Church Music, page 252

(music, historical) A horn without holes or keys, used to amplify the voice in singing.


surpeti

Other Indian drone instruments include the surpeti. This is a small reed-free organ with no keys that has small bellows pumped by hand to produce the drone sound.

2010, Deborah Lock, editor, Children's Book of Music, Dorling Kindersley Limited, page 33


JMT

Journal of Music Theory
w:Journal of Music Theory

(music) Initialism of Journal of Music Theory.


amarevole

/ˌɑːməˈɹɛvəleɪ/


politicore

Blend of politico- + -core, or political + -core.

F.U.A.L. / ($7) truely great politicore from North Ireland

1990, Profane Existence, number 3, unnumbered page

As far as I’m concerned, faster-than-you politicore like this is a hell of a lot more dangerous to individual thought than George Bush or a handful of Nazi skinheads will ever be.

1991, Jersey Beat, number 41, unnumbered page

Politicore from Pennsylvania. Philosophically, this is pretty right on, calling for a “socialist/collectivist world-state.”

1997, Punk Planet, number 20, unnumbered page

You will be billed later, shading within a garment may occur, shamelessly hamhanded politicore, sharp as a stick but not small in stature, […]

Austin politicore thrasher Beyond Gods and Empires

2013 August 9, The Austin Chronicle, page 60

(music, uncommon) A subgenre of punk with overtly political themes.


fluviol

They are danced to the music of a curious orchestra of eleven instruments. The uppermost of these instruments is the fluviol, which is the melodic agent in the primitive combination of two instruments performed upon by the same player.

1929 August 11, Olin Downes, “As to the Sardanas”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Sardanas begin with an improvised fluviol solo introduction of ten measures.

2008, Robert Francis Waters, Déodat de Séverac: Musical Identity in Fin de Siècle France, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., page 177

(music) A small piccolo-like wooden flute used to accompany the sardana.


neoperreo

Probably borrowed from Spanish neoperreo.


First New England School

(music, historical, US) A group of self-taught composers active in New England from 1770 until about 1810; the Yankee tunesmiths collectively.


New England Classicists

Second New England School
Second New England School#English

(music, historical, US) Synonym of Second New England School


Yankee tunesmith

Yankee tunesmith (plural Yankee tunesmiths)

(music, historical, US) One of a group of self-taught composers active in New England from 1770 until about 1810.


Boston Six

Second New England School
Second New England School

(music, historical, US) Six specific influential classical-music composers who lived during the late-19th and early-20th centuries in Boston, considered part of the Second New England School: John Knowles Paine (1839–1906), Arthur Foote (1853–1937), George Chadwick (1854–1931), Amy Beach (1867–1944), Edward MacDowell (1861–1908), and Horatio Parker (1863–1919).


trve

en-adj

trve (comparative more trve, superlative most trve)

more trve (comparative)
most trve (superlative)

(music, slang, humorous) True to the ideology or stereotypical manifestation of a given subculture, particularly among fans of heavy metal.


Second New England School

(music, historical, US) A group of classical-music composers who lived during the late-19th and early-20th centuries in New England, based in and around Boston, Massachusetts.


xenochronous

All the guitar solos (apart from “Watermelon In Easter Hay”) were xenochronous, creating a spacious, free-floating sonic universe.

2005, Katherine Norman, editor, Poetry of Reality, Routledge, page 132

The effect creates a xenochronous composition out of a peculiar matching of quite disparate pieces.

2007, Kevin Courrier, Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

(music, uncommon) Recorded or processed using xenochrony.


xenochrony

From xeno- (“alien”) + Ancient Greek χρόνος (khrónos, “time”), coined by Frank Zappa.

af

Still, xenochrony was new: he had to fight his own engineers to allow him to do it, and it resulted in some extraordinary music.

1997, Andre Kostelanetz, The Frank Zappa Companion: Four Decades of Commentary, Schirmer Books, page 183

Xenochrony is the technical term for this, and you can hear it when several shamans participate in one ritual, each with a personal tempo of drumming, each addressing personal spirits. Xenochrony became, in fact, an important strand in the story of K-Space, the trio that Ken Hyder and I put together with Tuvan singer and instrumentalist Gendos Chamzyryn.

2016, Tim Hodgkinson, Music and the Myth of Wholeness: Toward a New Aesthetic Paradigm, MIT Press, page 148

(music, uncommon) A studio technique where a guitar solo or other musical part is transposed into a completely different song.


He too is filling the pocket, darting in the space between the 808 and the glittering melody, closing the distance with his short lines and ad libs.

2021, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Open Water, Viking, page 129

A synthesized drum or bass sound that emulates the sound of a Roland TR-808.

(music, chiefly hip-hop) A bassline or sub-bassline, or the sound used for such.


tongue drum

(music) A drum made from an otherwise closed steel container with cuts made into the top in the shape of tongues. Striking a "tongue" produces tones.


harsh noise

(music) A subgenre of noise music characterized by extreme levels of distortion, abrasive textures and a lack of harmonics.


home key

(music) The tonic or keynote of a piece.


bitcrusher

(music) Alternative spelling of bit crusher


bro-country

In short, “Cruise” is bro-country: music by and of the tatted, gym-toned, party-hearty young American white dude.

2013 August 11, Jody Rosen, “Jody Rosen on the Rise of Bro-Country”, in New York Magazine

Instead, bro country songs string together a formulaic subset of tropes about beer sipping, truck driving, sunglasses wearing, unpaved roads, and tanned girls in shorts, typically building to a predictable catchphrase singsong chorus.

2018, Bill C. Malone, Tracey E. W. Laird, Country Music USA, University of Texas Press, page 547

(music) A subgenre of mainstream country music originating in the 2010s, influenced by hip hop, hard rock and electronica.


pocket symphony

en-noun

pocket symphony (plural pocket symphonies)

Popularized by English journalist Derek Taylor, meaning “miniature version” of a symphony.

The changes of orchestration and acoustic space from section to section serve to take the listener into new sonic realms every thirty seconds or so, which may be one reason Wilson dubbed this song [Good Vibrations] his “pocket symphony”:[…]

2010, Virgil Moorefield, The Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music, MIT Press, page 21

(music) A song with some characteristics of a symphony.


Cher effect

Named after the American singer Cher, who pioneered the effect in her 1998 hit Believe.

(music) A vocal effect produced when the entire lyrics of a song are processed through an auto-tune system.


kengirge

Borrowed from Tuvan кеңгирге (keñgirge). Compare Mongolian хэнгэрэг (xengereg) and several other cognates.

(music) A large, double-sided Tuvan drum, often made of goatskin and adorned with bells, introduced by Tibetan Buddhists.


amapiano

Borrowed from Zulu [Term?] (literally “the pianos”).

Coordinate term: kwaito

A new generation of amapiano artists reference kwaito not only in terms of its style but for what it meant to the culture, as the soundtrack to a generation breaking free from the oppression of Apartheid.

2021 September 22, Nkgopoleng Moloi, “Amapiano: inside South Africa’s sound of freedom”, in Dazed

(music, South Africa) A house music subgenre that emerged in South Africa, often incorporating jazz piano and lounge music.


emo rap

There was an exciting proliferation of punk rap, mumble rap, emo rap and trap-influenced SoundCloud artists.

2020, Adrian Besley, Billie Eilish: From e-girl to Icon, Michael O'Mara Books

Last fall, Bring Me the Horizon kicked off a new era of their band with a standalone single called "DiE4u", which sounded like a a heavy, metallic take on My Chemical Romance-style pop-punk mixed with the electronic flair of modern emo-rap.

2022 July 6, Eli Enis, “See Bring Me the Horizon's Horrifying, NSFW Video for New Song "sTraNgeRs"”, in Revolver

(music) A fusion genre of hip hop and emo.


SoundCloud rap

After the audio streaming platform SoundCloud, where this genre initially spread.

It was just another unpredictable, bruising night in the world of SoundCloud rap — a swelling subgenre that takes its name from its creators’ preferred streaming service — which in the last year has become the most vital and disruptive new movement in hip-hop thanks to rebellious music, volcanic energy and occasional acts of malevolence.

2017 June 22, Jon Caramanica, “The Rowdy World of Rap’s New Underground”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

SoundCloud rap is characterized by its distinct sound, which is typically a mix of trap, lo-fi, electronic, and hip-hop music. Artists of this genre are also known for the short length of their songs, their popular social media presences, and sometimes their dangerous drug use, especially Xanax.

2018, Vanessa Oswald, Hip-Hop: A Cultural and Musical Revolution, Greenhaven Publishing LLC, page 80

SoundCloud rap moved from the more hidden corners of the internet into mainstream consciousness in June 2017.

2018 December 6, Lauren Levy, “The Gatekeepers of SoundCloud Rap”, in Vulture

More than a year on from when we actively began the research into SoundCloud rap, nearly four years on from my first impulse to make a programme about the subject, we've finally embarked on a wholly new project, […]

2021, Louis Theroux, Theroux The Keyhole: Diaries of a grounded documentary maker, Pan Macmillan, page 67

(music) A short-lived subgenre of hip hop mixing trap, lo-fi, and electronic music.


in the pocket

Throughout The Late, Late Show, Staton is right on the money (or right in the pocket, as musicians say)...

2010, Will Friedwald, “Dakota Staton”, in A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, page 448

I've never thought that the groove was the beat; I always saw it as the space between the beats. I believe that's where the phrase "in the pocket" originated.

2013, Loren Weisman, The Artist's Guide to Success in the Music Business, page 229

Musicians who play funk and Latin tunes refer to the groove as the sense of being "in the pocket," while jazz players refer to the groove as the sense that a song is really "cooking" or "swinging"... Historically speaking, the term pocket originated in the middle of the previous century, when a strong backbeat (the snare drum striking on beats 2 and 4) became predominant in popular music... Many people feel that the question is not so much what the pocket is as much as how you know when you're in it; I guarantee that you'll know it when you feel it, because the music feels as though it's playing itself. It feels as though everything has merged together, with all the rhythmic parts being played by one instrument.

2016, Bobby Owsinski, The Music Producer's Handbook, 2nd edition

Use his approach for both songs to keep your rhythms in the pocket. You needn't be rigid; some stretching of the phrase is absolutely allowable for the sake of meaning. For the most part, however, ride the driving pulsations of the accompaniment with an equally grooving vocal approach.

2019, Joseph Church, Rock in the Musical Theatre, page 173

...Iyer argues that the backbeat in much postwar African-American popular music is seldom precisely on the beat: it is slightly delayed, lending it a more 'laid back' feel. Again, as with swing, playing the backbeat 'in the pocket'—just slightly behind the beat—does not disrupt the regularity of the beat so much as demand that we hear (and feel) the rhythm in a more subtle and integrated way...

2020, Paul Thberge, “Click/Beat/Body: Thoughts on the Materiality of Time and Tempo”, in The Auditory Culture Reader, page 344

Most musicians who play classical music usually play too "stiff" (rigidly) to perform on popular music recordings. All forms of popular music require musicians to feel the groove and to play in the pocket (playing within the feel of the rhythm section).

2021, Michael Zager, Music Production, page 97

Hell yes, use that take. She was in the pocket.

(music slang) Alternative form of in the zone, playing perfectly in time, perfectly in sync with others, or with a perfect groove.


Cemb.

Borrowed from Italian cembalo (“harpsichord”).

Abbreviation of harpsichord.

(music, always capitalized, used in musical notation to indicate staffs to be played with harpsichord)


hard-driving

en-adj

hard-driving (comparative more hard-driving, superlative most hard-driving)

more hard-driving (comparative)
most hard-driving (superlative)

The heavy metal band Gods of Fire struggled trying to write a hard-driving song about potato pancakes for their 2009 album "Hanukkah Gone Metal."

(Can we date this quote?), Stephanie Simon, Ann Zimmerman, The Wall Street Journal, volume Hanukkah Boosters Light a Fire Under Holiday

(music) Having a strong, fast-paced beat.


guitalele

(music) A musical instrument that is a hybrid between a small guitar and a ukulele.


guitarmony

The best thing to do is this: get a variable speed tape recorder. Slow down your favorite solos. Play along with them slowly. The pitch will be lower but don't worry about that - match the pace and the rhythm and think of it as a Guitarmony.

2003 November 21, Todd LaRoc, “The need for speed”, in alt.guitar.beginner (Usenet)

Grooved-out guitarmonies, blustering syncopations from two of indie rock's better drummers, and a subtle sense of humor on tracks like "Doing Research For An Autobiography" are the main attraction, and fans of either band should be able to spot their heroes under the surface.

Starting in the late '60s as the Sweetshop, they nicked from Jeff Lynne-era Move (whose "Do Ya" was a template), but their layered vocals, clever guitarmonies, and feathered hairstyles influenced Queen and Def Leppard, among many others.

(music) A harmonised melody played on guitar.


sul tasto

Borrowed from Italian sul tasto (“on the fingerboard”).

bor+

(music, chiefly violin) Bowed near the fingerboard for the duration of a passage


tetratonic

The two Creek Indian "Duck Dance Songs" from the north- eastern United States illustrate the use of a tetratonic scale, A, C, D, E ( Example 5a ), and a pentatonic scale, A, C, D, E, G ( Example 5b ).

1976, Bruno Nettl, Helen Myers, Folk Music in the United States, page 38

Pentatony can also come about through the simple complement and melodic development of the tetratonic melodic nucleus.

1994, János Kárpáti, Bartók's Chamber Music, page 111

This four-note pattern is called a tetratonic, or also sometimes referred to as a melodic structures (by saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi, and others). […] This is powerful because applying this tetratonic formula R235 or R345, you have something that works(!) to play on every chord change and on every beat.

2015, Andy McWain, Jazz Practice Ideas with Your Real Book

(music) Made of four different musical notes.

Of course such tetratonic music is capable of powerful expression in its own particular mood but there has apparently been no attempt to evolve form as such.

1974, I. E. N. Chauhan, Ethnomusicology-tribal Music: The Music of Kinnaur, page 20

Beyond these areas Sasak music largely diverges from pélog and slendro tonality, and there are a number of tetratonic forms — in compositions for gamelan beleq and kamput, for example.

2006, David D. Harnish, Bridges to the Ancestors: Music, Myth, And Cultural Politics, page 232

Tetratonic music was noted as common in Polynesia and Melanesia.

2020, Zhengbing Hu, Sergey Petoukhov, Matthew He, Advances in Artificial Systems for Medicine and Education III, page 197

(music) Pertaining to or using a tetratonic scale.


alboka

From Basque alboka, from Arabic الْبُوق (al-būq, “the trumpet”).

(music) A Basque single-reed woodwind instrument having two small-diameter melody pipes with finger holes and a bell traditionally made from animal horn.


autoparody

This was exactly why, for him, the autoparody became her inescapable prison. Above all, this EuroBrazilian artist had, and continued to have, a defining impact within Brazil's mainstream sense of selfhood, so much so that by the late[…]

2015 August 26, Cristina F. Rosa, Brazilian Bodies and Their Choreographies of Identification: Swing Nation, Springer

1–6 Another type of historical reference involves a type of reverse autoparody. Consciously or not, Bruckner reuses an imitative sequence from the Kyrie of Palestrina's Mass in his wellknown setting (ca. 1886) of the Gradual Christus[…]

2015 June 24, Chester L. Alwes, A History of Western Choral Music, Oxford University Press

As Osolsobě observes, parody was both a sign of reputation and a tool with which to achieve it, with eighteenth- century French authors of operas often creating parodies of their own works (autoparodies): parodies not only promote the[…]

2022, Christopher R. Wilson, Mervyn Cooke, The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Music, Oxford University Press, page 776

(literature, art, music) A parody of one's own work.


tech house

(music) A subgenre of house music that combines stylistic features of techno with house.


damenization

From the first syllables da, me, ni + -ization.

(music, historical) A singing system resembling solfeggio, developed by German composer and tenor Carl Heinrich Graun (1704-1759), and using the syllables da, me, ni, po, tu, la, be, to.


funeral doom

(music) An extreme subgenre of heavy metal music influenced by funeral dirges and played at a very slow tempo.


kick drum

(music) A relatively small bass drum forming part of a drum kit and struck with a beater attached to a pedal.


sompoton

(music) A woodwind instrument made of bamboo, used by indigenous people in Borneo.


Bombarde

(music) A powerful, brassy reed stop on an organ of 8', 16' or 32'.


baroque pitch

en-noun

baroque pitch (usually uncountable, plural baroque pitches)

(music) A reference tuning pitch intended to imitate those used in the baroque period; usually using the standard of A415, but sometimes as low as A392.


Trompette Militaire

(music) A powerful, solo reed stop on an organ with a piercing, brassy tone.


Contra Bourdon

(music) A flute stop on an organ, almost always of 32', characterized by a very low, dark tone.


string stop

(music) An organ stop having the tone of a string instrument.


Bird Whistle

(music) An organ stop that is imitative of warbling birds, consisting of two or more small pipes with one end in water or a light oil.


flute stop

(music) An organ stop having the tone of a flute instrument.


block flute

Calque of German Blockflöte (“block flute”), so named for Blockflöte (“recorder”).

cal

(music) A flute stop on an organ of 4' or 2' that is imitative of a recorder.


Aeoline

(music) A string stop on an organ with a very soft tone.


khushtar

(music) A bowed stringed instrument from the Uyghur Region of China, having four strings in four courses.


T-pop

From T- (“Thai”) + pop, by analogy with J-pop.


lancaran

(music) In gamelan music, a cycle of 16 beats in the sequence TWTN TPTN TPTN TPTG, where T indicates the strike of the ketuk, P the kempul, N the kenong, G the simultaneous gong and kenong, and W the wela, the pause where the kempul is omitted.


TTB

1976, Miriam Gideon, Spiritual madrigals: for male voices (T.T.B.) with viola, cello and bassoon:

I accepted and set about creating a program of songs that I transcribed and arranged for TTB

2017, Velvel Pasternak, Behind the Music, Stories, Anecdotes, Articles and Reflections, page 78


Aretinian

Named after the Italian music theorist Guido of Arezzo (c. 991–992 – after 1033), who introduced it, modeled after Arretine.

(music) Of or relating to the solfège sight singing system.


melodeclamation

en-noun

melodeclamation (countable and uncountable, plural melodeclamations)

One of these is found in the salon song for voice and piano, which is suddenly invaded by melodeclamations and mythological themes. One of the most prominent contributors here was Vladimir Rebikov (1866௅1920), whose piano cycles[…]

2016 June 22, Katerina Levidou, Katy Romanou, George Vlastos, Musical Receptions of Greek Antiquity: From the Romantic Era to Modernism, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, page 22

When combined with dialogue we get a kind of melodeclamation, and then both dialogue and music are faced with the demands generally presented to melodeclamation, that is to say, coincidence of rhythm, and their artistic symbiosis,[…]

2010 November 4, Mervyn Cooke, The Hollywood Film Music Reader, Oxford University Press on Demand, page 44

Then she found the sheet music for melodeclamation that she had taken from Russia , and that occasioned an explanation of the beauties of Russian diction . " It's a euphonious language — consonant , vowel , consonant , vowel — and I[…]

1996, John N. Kotre, Outliving the Self: How We Live on in Future Generations, John Kotre, page 129

(historical, music) The practice of reciting poetry while accompanied by concert music.


semiquaver rest

semiquaver rest (plural semiquaver rests)

(music) A pause or interval of silence equal in duration to half a quaver rest

(music) The corresponding symbol used in musical notation.


Celtic harp

(music) A triangular frame harp traditional to the Celtic nations of northwest Europe.


guitalin

(music) A musical instrument that is a hybrid between a banjo and a mandolin (despite its name).


flat-wound

(music, of guitar strings) With a flat outer winding wire.


DI unit

(music) A unit that converts a high impedance signal to a low impedance signal to reduce interference, used to connect an instrument to a mixing console.


round-wound

(music, of guitar strings) With a round outer winding wire.


house band

For years, this 30-plus crew of session musicians, the house band at Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios, were crack accompanists.

1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, page 308

(music) A band that is regularly stationed at an establishment (restaurant, television studio, etc.)


degung

(music) A form of Sundanese gamelan music using a subset of modified gamelan instruments with a particular mode of pelog scale.


ragini

(music) The feminine counterpart of a raga in Indian music.


chord change

An unexpected chord change is thought to trigger a rush of dopamine in the brain similar to that created by food and sex.

2017 August 24, Victoria Allen, “The secret to the perfect pop song”, in Daily Mail

(music) A change in the harmony of a piece of music, as it progresses, from one chord to another.


IOT

(music, MIDI) Initialism of in-out-through.


Marxophone

From Marx + -o- + -phone, after Henry Charles Marx (1875–1947), who patented the design of its hammer mechanism.

(music) A fretless zither played via a system of metal hammers.


thaat

Borrowed from Hindi or Marathi थाट (thāṭ).

Coordinate term: (in Carnatic ragas) melakarta

(India, music) One of the basic musical scales or modes used by classical Hindustani ragas, characterized by seven notes (swaras).


varnam

(music) A type of composition in the Carnatic music system.


beatmatch

en-verb

beatmatch (third-person singular simple present beatmatches, present participle beatmatching, simple past and past participle beatmatched)

beatmatches (present singular third-person)
beatmatching (participle present)
beatmatched (participle past)
beatmatched (past)

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


J-core

(music) A style of Japanese hardcore techno music that originated in the 1990s.


singeli

(music) A fast, energetic form of electronic dance music from Tanzania.


overwinded

en-adj

overwinded (comparative more overwinded, superlative most overwinded)

more overwinded (comparative)
most overwinded (superlative)

The diapasons, very much overwinded, as I venture to think, puff and whistle to the exclusion of all other sounds.

1890, Proceedings of the Musical Association, volume 16, Great Britain: Musical Association, page 154

[…] the pressure of wind is too much, the tone being forced or overwinded; […]

1895, The Organist and Choirmaster, volume 3, page 43

(music) Of a musical instrument: provided with too much air or wind.


Eskibeat

Blend of Eskimo + beat, coined by the musician Wiley (Richard Kylea Cowie Jr., born 1979).

Wiley was the creator of Eskibeat riddim tracks (that were conflated with Grime) that were named after things associated with cold, such as Eskimo and Igloo.

2016, Kehinde Andrews, Lisa Amanda Palmer, Blackness in Britain, page 93

(music) An early form of grime music based around themes of anger and isolation.


RVW

Ralph Vaughan Williams
w:Ralph Vaughan Williams

(UK, music) Initialism of Ralph Vaughan Williams; an English composer.


backpack rapper

en-noun

backpack rapper (plural backpack rappers)

(music, slang) A performer of backpack rap music.


backpack rap

In reference to the backpacks in which records might be carried.

The sound of backpack rap dates to rap music's origins, but was popularized in the late 1980s and early 1990s by “Native Tongue” acts such as De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest.

2014, Geoff Harkness, Chicago Hustle and Flow: Gangs, Gangsta Rap, and Social Class

Backpack rap is often synonymous with underground rap, in which the focus is on lyrical craft. Backpack rappers tend to avoid topics that are common in mainstream commercial rap, such as money and expensive cars; […]

2018, Michael Berry, Listening to Rap: An Introduction

(music, slang) Underground or alternative rap music.


counterfugue

(music) A fugue in which the answer or imitation to the melody is played in an inverse manner.


knee stop

(music) A lever worked by the performer's knee, for regulating the air supply of a reed organ, etc.


outsider music

(music) Music created by self-taught or naive musicians.


outsider musician

outsider musician (plural outsider musicians)

(music) An untrained musician who works outside of the mainstream.


ambient music

(music) A genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm.


hyperbolaeon

Trite, the third; as, Trite Hyperbolaeon, the third string, reckoning from the top of the hyperbolaeon or highest tetrachord; […]

1835, W. Wilson, A new Dictionary of Music, page 278

1914, Vitruvius (translated by Morris Hicky Morgan), Ten Books on Architecture
In the middle range, place first at the extreme ends the vessels which give the note of the chromatic hyperbolaeon; next to them, those which give the chromatic diezeugmenon, a fourth below; third, the chromatic synhemmenon; fourth, the chromatic meson, a fourth below; fifth, the chromatic hypaton, a fourth below; sixth, the paramese, for this is both the concord of the fifth to the chromatic hyperbolaeon, and the concord of the chromatic synhemmenon.


quartole

A very able pianist might shift the phase of the trioles in such a way that their first stroke falls between two 3x8 = 4x6 strokes of a quartole.


moombahcore

(music) A subgenre of moombahton with dubstep influences.


slow jam

(music) A slow, romantic song, found mainly in R & B or soul ballads.