squeeze box

Mama's got a squeeze box she wears on her chest. / From when Daddy comes home, he never gets no rest. / Because she's playing all night, and the music's all right.

1975 November, Pete Townshend (lyrics and music), “Squeeze Box”, in The Who by Numbers, performed by The Who

(Pause. peter picks up his squeeze box.) / peter I sing with this. / george A concertina. / peter No, it's a squeeze box. Can you play it? / george I love music, but can't play a thing.

1980, Louis Nowra, “Inside the Island”, in Helen Gilbert, editor, Postcolonial Plays: An Anthology, Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2001, page 291

Like the "concertina oompah" phase of the Dutchman style, the Slovenian polka sound emphasizes skill with a squeezebox.

1999, James P. Leary, “Polka Music in a Polka State”, in James P. Leary, editor, Wisconsin Folklore, Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, page 279

Intoxicating, the cheap Moroccan wallets, squashed and flattened in their elasticated dozens, which he eased apart like squeeze-boxes, releasing their scent of oxhide, of urine, of all the dyes and spices of the kasbah.

2002, Howard Jacobson, chapter 2, in Who's Sorry Now?, London: Jonathan Cape, ISBN 978-0-224-06286-2; republished London: Vintage Books, 2003, ISBN 978-0-09-943737-6, page 29

It [Serenade for Winds in B Flat Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart] started simply enough: just a pulse in the lowest registers – bassoons and basset horns – like a rusty squeezebox. It would have been comic except for the slowness, which gave it instead a sort of serenity. […] But the squeezebox went on and on, and the pain cut deeper into my shaking head, until suddenly I was running, dashing through the side door, stumbling downstairs into the street, into the cold night, gasping for life.

2003, Cliff Eisen, quoting Antonio Salieri, “Mozart’s Chamber Music”, in Simon P. Keefe, editor, The Cambridge Companion to Mozart, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, page 105

Squeezeboxes are essential instruments in most polka traditions, especially the button accordion, the piano accordion, and the Chemnitzer concertina. […] Manufacture and sale of squeezeboxes made the instruments widely accessible at a time when polkas were all the rage. The squeezebox-polka association remains. A majority of polka bands use an accordion or concertina.

2006, Richard March, “Polka”, in Richard Sisson, Christian Zacher, Andrew [R. L.] Cayton, editors, The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, page 388, column 1

Memories held by an older generation faded—memories of concertinas used in twilight dances on deck under a tropical sky or of Royal Navy soldiers dancing a hornpipe to its sound—and succeeding generations saw only Captain Pugwash’s “Tom the Cabin Boy,” fictional Disney pirates, and Tinseltown crooners with fake squeezeboxes.

2010, Dan M[ichael] Worrall, “The Concertina at Sea”, in The Anglo-German Concertina: A Social History, 3rd edition, volume 1, Fulshear, Tx.: Concertina Press, page 324, column 2

(music, informal) An accordion or concertina.


nyabinghi

From Nyabinghi, the name of a legendary Ugandan/Rwandan tribe queen.

(Rastafari, music) A style of music and a rhythm originally associated with the Nyabinghi sect of Rastafarians, but now more generally known as a component of reggae, especially roots reggae.


reggaeish

en-adj

reggaeish (comparative more reggaeish, superlative most reggaeish)

more reggaeish (comparative)
most reggaeish (superlative)


roots reggae

(music) A genre of reggae with a rootsy, folk-influenced style and a lyrical focus on social, political and spiritual (especially Rastafarian) themes.


rockers reggae

The word rockers is variously attributed either to UK youth slang for reggae fans or to the name of a sound system owned by Augustus Pablo.

(music) A mid-1970s genre of reggae characterized by a melodious style and an upbeat drum-focused sound, influenced by rock, funk and other American and British styles.


polkabilly

(music) A music genre that combines polka with punk, rockabilly and other genres of rock music.


rockesque

rockesque (comparative more rockesque, superlative most rockesque)

more rockesque (comparative)
most rockesque (superlative)


funklike

funklike (comparative more funklike, superlative most funklike)

more funklike (comparative)
most funklike (superlative)

(music) Similar to funk music, or funky.


dublike

dublike (comparative more dublike, superlative most dublike)

more dublike (comparative)
most dublike (superlative)


grungelike

grungelike (comparative more grungelike, superlative most grungelike)

more grungelike (comparative)
most grungelike (superlative)


disco-like

disco-like (comparative more disco-like, superlative most disco-like)

more disco-like (comparative)
most disco-like (superlative)

(music) Similar to disco music or culture.


calypso-like

calypso-like (comparative more calypso-like, superlative most calypso-like)

more calypso-like (comparative)
most calypso-like (superlative)


prog-like

prog-like (comparative more prog-like, superlative most prog-like)

more prog-like (comparative)
most prog-like (superlative)

(music) Similar to, or reminiscent of, progressive rock.


punklike

punklike (comparative more punklike, superlative most punklike)

more punklike (comparative)
most punklike (superlative)

(music) Similar to, or reminiscent of, punk rock or similar styles.


gospellike

gospellike (comparative more gospellike, superlative most gospellike)

more gospellike (comparative)
most gospellike (superlative)


zouk love

(music) A genre of popular zouk influenced by reggae fusion, contemporary R&B and other styles, and with a focus on romantic lyrics.


jazz fusion

(music) A style of jazz music that is influenced by rock music, funk, rhythm and blues and other styles.


ambient-like

ambient-like (comparative more ambient-like, superlative most ambient-like)

more ambient-like (comparative)
most ambient-like (superlative)


zouk-like

zouk-like (comparative more zouk-like, superlative most zouk-like)

more zouk-like (comparative)
most zouk-like (superlative)

(music) Similar to, or reminiscent of, zouk.


qawwali-like

qawwali-like (comparative more qawwali-like, superlative most qawwali-like)

more qawwali-like (comparative)
most qawwali-like (superlative)

(music) Similar to, or reminiscent of, qawwali music.


klezmer-like

klezmer-like (comparative more klezmer-like, superlative most klezmer-like)

more klezmer-like (comparative)
most klezmer-like (superlative)

(music) Similar to, or reminiscent of, klezmer music.


ragtimelike

ragtimelike (comparative more ragtimelike, superlative most ragtimelike)

more ragtimelike (comparative)
most ragtimelike (superlative)

(music) Similar to, or reminiscent of, ragtime music.


polka-like

polka-like (comparative more polka-like, superlative most polka-like)

more polka-like (comparative)
most polka-like (superlative)

The members’ real innovation is their embrace of a Finnish polkalike genre called humppa, which sounds — well, like it sounds, more or less.

2007 September 22, Kelefa Sanneh, “Finnish Folk-Metal, in Swedish, Plus Trolls”, in New York Times


salsa-like

salsa-like (comparative more salsa-like, superlative most salsa-like)

more salsa-like (comparative)
most salsa-like (superlative)

(music) Similar to, or reminiscent of, salsa music.


Nyabinghi

(Rastafari, music) A style of music and a rhythm associated with the sect and ceremony, and with reggae music.


jazz-funk

Meanwhile, for those who doubted the sheer breadth of music Glastonbury offers, a short walk took you from Thundercat’s exploratory, spaced-out take on jazz-funk – where the smooth sound of yacht rock crashed into extended passages of improvisation to thrilling effect – to the aforementioned Craig David, clad entirely in white and padding out his set by the simple expedient of playing other people’s records and singing along to them, and thence to Liam Gallagher on the comeback trail.

2017 June 26, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in the Guardian

(music, jazz) A genre of funk heavily influenced by jazz.


division viol

division (florid instrumental variations of a melody) + viol (a type of viola da gamba)

(music) A type of bass viol with the ability to be tuned in a very broad range, originating in the performance of divisions in 17th century English.


jazz-rock

(music, jazz) A genre of rock music heavily influenced by jazz.


kayagum

(music) Alternative spelling of gayageum


gadulka

Borrowed from Bulgarian гъдулка (gǎdulka).

bor+

(music) A traditional Bulgarian stringed instrument, played with a bow, and most commonly featuring three main strings and up to sixteen sympathetic strings.


gayageum

Borrowed from the Revised Romanization of Korean 가야금(伽倻琴) (gayageum).

(music) A zither-like chordophone, most often with twelve strings, originating in the traditional music of Korea.


ghaychak

(music) Any of several lute-like stringed instruments of Asian origin.

A double-chambered bowl lute used by the Iranian and Baloch people, with three or four strings and a short neck without frets.

A spike lute used in Afghanistan and throughout Central Asia, often featuring a tin can for a soundbox.


quintern

(music) A type of four-stringed gittern, originating in Germany.


candombe

en-noun

candombe (countable and uncountable, plural candombes)

"Candombe is the only original folkloric music in Uruguay, and it is a product of the black community," said Julio Olivera, an artist and head of the Association for the Development of Afro-Uruguayan Art and Culture.

1993 May 7, Nathaniel C. Nash, quoting Julio Olivera, “Uruguay Is on Notice: Blacks Want Recognition”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

The 10 song-and-dance numbers include candombe rhythms, with African roots, but the music is mostly murga, Uruguayan carnival sounds.

1999 August 1, Alvin Klein, “Cheating Death, Uruguayan Style”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(music) A musical style of Uruguay originating from African slaves.

Together, we watched locals and tourists practice their dance moves in the center, a converted warehouse whose walls were lined with candombe drums carved with images of slave ship hulls filled with chained human cargo.

2014 September 12, Michael T. Luongo, “Argentina Rediscovers Its African Roots”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(music) A type of drum used to accompany this music.


zhuihu

Borrowed from the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 墜胡／坠胡 (zhuìhú).

(music) A two-stringed chordophone (string instrument) with a fretless fingerboard, played with a bow, of Chinese origin and especially associated with Henan and Shandong.


sarinda

(music) A type of stringed instrument featuring anywhere from three to thirty strings and a hollow soundbox partially covered with an animal skin, played vertically with a bow, originating in the traditional music of India and Nepal.

serja

used mainly in reference to the instrument played by the Bodo people of Assam


polyharmony

polyharmony (countable and uncountable, plural polyharmonies)

(music) Music that is played in more than one key at once, creating an aesthetically pleasing harmonic sound.

polyvalence

use of more than one harmonic function in one key


tenor banjo

(music) A type of small banjo-like stringed instrument with a short neck, usually with 17 or 19 frets and four strings, and played with a plectrum, originating in American jazz music.


guitarrón

(music) Any of several stringed instruments of Latin American origin.


haegeum

Borrowed from Korean 해금(奚琴) (haegeum). Doublet of xiqin.

Like clockwork, she reached for the haegeum that leaned against the main counter top. Jung-Soo held his breath as she prepared herself to play.

2017, Young-Im Lee, Forgotten Reflections: A War Story

(music) A musical instrument (chordophone) with a hollow soundbox, two strings made from silk, and a rod-like neck, of traditional Korean origin.


Sabbathesque

en-adj

Sabbathesque (comparative more Sabbathesque, superlative most Sabbathesque)

more Sabbathesque (comparative)
most Sabbathesque (superlative)

(rare, music) Similar in style to the heavy metal band Black Sabbath.


tricordia

(music) A twelve-stringed variant on the mandolin.


ramkie

From Afrikaans ramkie, from Portuguese rabequinha (“little fiddle”).

(music) An improvised guitar-like string instrument made from a discarded oil can, with or without frets, most commonly with three or four strings made from either fishing line or a bicycle brake wire, originating in the folk music of Southern Africa.


tom-tom drum

(music) A cylindrical drum without snares, used as part of the modern drum kit.


kabosy

(music) A wooden box-shaped guitar-like musical instrument, most commonly with six strings and characterized by the use of partial frets, originating in traditional Malagasy music.


kacapi

Borrowed from Sundanese ᮊᮎᮕᮤ (kacapi, “zither”).

(music) A box zither with an open bottom, played by plucking, originating in traditional Sundanese music, especially tembang sunda and pantun sunda.


eunuch flute

Now there was in Shakespeare's time a pipe called the eunuch flute. It was not an instrument that could generate sound but only a contrivance for imparting to the voice a trembling or buzzing sort of tone not unlike that which children produce by means of a piece of paper folded over a comb.

2011, Christopher Welch, Six Lectures on the Recorder and Other Flutes in Relation to Literature

(music) A simple musical instrument consisting of a wooden tube with a hole in it, used like a modern kazoo.


kobyz

(music) A stringed instrument traditionally made of a single piece of wood, with either two or four strings and played with a bow, of traditional Kazakh origin.


church organ

(music) A large pipe organ installed in a Christian church.


long drum

(music) A musical instrument characterized by extreme length, typically made out of an entire hollow tree trunk.


hourglass drum

(music) A drum (membranophone) with an hourglass-like shape.


hand percussion

(music) Any percussion instrument that can be held in the hand.


frame harp

(music) A type of harp with a front pillar, forming a triangular frame.


barrel drum

(music) A drum (membranophone) with a shape that bulges in the middle, forming a barrel-like appearance, usually very large and made of wood with a one-headed and open-bottomed body.


vertical flute

(music) Any type of flute that is held vertically when played.


footed drum

(music) A drum (membranophone) whose resonance is improved by an open bottom that is held by the player's feet.


conical drum

(music) A typically single-headed drum (membranophone) with one end larger than the other, and a body that slopes towards one end, forming a conical shape.


transverse flute

en-noun

transverse flute (plural transverse flutes)

(music) Any type of flute that is held sideways when played.


double-conical drum

double-conical drum (plural double-conical drums)

(music) A type of barrel drum with two heads instead of one.


yoke lute

(music) Any chordophone (stringed instrument) with two arms extending from a body to a crossbar (a yoke), and strings, parallel to the soundboard, connecting the body to the yoke.


contrabass bugle

contrabass bugle (plural contrabass bugles)

(music) A type of tuba designed for marching. It is preferred by drum corps with large tuba sections because it offers a more rich sound than a sousaphone at the expense of volume.


pellet drum

(music) A drum (membranophone) that has two heads and produces sound through two pellets, tied to the body of the drum and manipulated so as to strike the heads.


friction drum

(music) A drum (membranophone) that produces sound through friction.


saung

Borrowed from Burmese စောင်းကောက် (caung:kauk).

(music) An arched harp used in Burmese traditional music.


prepared piano

(music) A piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects (called preparations) on or between the strings.


metalbilly

metalbilly (countable and uncountable, plural metalbillies)

(uncountable, music) A music genre that combines heavy metal with rockabilly.


khoomei

Borrowed from Tuvan хөөмей (xöömey) and Mongolian хөөмий (xöömii), ᠬᠥᠭᠡᠮᠡᠢ (kögemei).

horsehead fiddle
horsehead fiddle#English

(music) A style of throat singing, often accompanied by the horsehead fiddle, from Mongolia and eastern Siberia.


tiorbino

(music) A stringed instrument, a type of small theorbo.


romantic guitar

romantic guitar (plural romantic guitars)

(music) An archaic kind of early guitar, from the classical and romantic eras, with six single strings and a long, fretted neck.


suroz

(music) A stringed instrument with a long neck, played vertically and with a bow, especially associated with the Baloch people.


Selmer guitar

From the surname of the French manufacturer.

(music) A kind of acoustic guitar of French origin, used in the early to mid-20th century.


sanshin

Borrowed from Japanese 三線 (sanshin) or Okinawan 三線 (sanshin, literally “three strings”). Doublet of sanxian.

bor

(music) A three-stringed instrument of Okinawan origin, the precursor to the shamisen.


tanpura

From Hindi तंबूरा (tambūrā) or Hindi तानपूरा (tānpūrā), from Persian تنبور (tanbur).

(music) A Hindustani/Indian classical stringed instrument, typically having a gourd as its resonating chamber.


sanxian

Borrowed from Mandarin 三弦 (sānxián). Doublet of sanshin.

(music) A three-stringed fretless Chinese instrument.


minisolo

There are sharp lyrics, lovely harmonies at the hook and a pair of raucous guitar minisolos, a minute apart, which constitute this album’s most explicit moment of Rancid reaching beyond itself for something greater, and getting it.

2009 June 1, The New York Times, “New CDs”, in New York Times


sympitar

(music) A stringed instrument similar to a guitar with sympathetic strings like a sitar.


shahrud

(music) A type of short-necked lute, similar to an archlute, originating in traditional Persian music.


parlor guitar

(music) A kind of small acoustic guitar, originally meant to be played (often by women) in the parlor of a Victorian-era home; more modern models are still used today, commonly in folk music.


Portuguese guitar

en-noun

Portuguese guitar (plural Portuguese guitars)

(music) A plucked guitar with a pear-shaped body and round soundholes, with twelve strings in six double courses, associated most prominently with Portuguese music, especially fado.


taro-patch fiddle

taro-patch fiddle (plural taro-patch fiddles)

(music) A five-stringed musical instrument originating in the traditional music of Hawaii.


self-accompanied

(music) Providing instrumental music alongside one's own performance, usually as a singer.


pommer

From German Pommer, from Middle High German bumhart, from Italian bombarda.

The treble pommer was the equivalent of our hautboy; the bass pommer corresponded to our bassoon. Midway between these lay the alto and tenor pommers, of which the former (the alto), was doubtless the forerunner of the cor anglais.

The Emperor Sigismund, Pope John XXIII, and many other Church dignitaries and others high in the affairs of state, sat in the council which opened in that year and lasted until 1418. For this occasion there were gathered together some five hundred musicians who played on fifes, fiddles, trumps, trombones, and pommers.

1936, Ray Giles, «Here Comes the Band!», New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, page 176

The Fleming Denis van Alsloot’s ‘Procession of the Religious Orders from the Town of Antwerp…’, painted in 1616 shows with excellent clarity six musicians playing a trombone, two alto pommers, a discant schalmey, cornetto, and a dulzian played on the left side with the right hand uppermost, the exact opposite to the dulzian’s descendant, the bassoon, which is played the other way round.

1948, The Monthly Musical Record, page 230

(music) An alto, tenor, or bass instrument of the shawm family.


bigophone

From Bigot + -phone (after its French inventor Romain Bigot).

Elsewhere, professionals could enthuse over new precision instruments capable, for instance, of measuring weights down to a tenth of a milligram, or over a host of self-registering thermometers and barometers, microscopes, typewriters, calculators and all sorts of technical and musical devices, including automatic concertinas, edeophones, auto-harps, bigophones and other long-forgotten objects.

1978, Jan Romein, The Watershed of Two Eras: Europe in 1900, page 303

(music) Any of a series of cheap musical instruments, made to resemble orchestral instruments, that were blown in the manner of a kazoo


trumpet marine

trumpet marine (plural trumpets marine or trumpet marines)

trumpets marine (plural)
trumpet marines (plural)


triple contrabass viol

triple contrabass viol (plural triple contrabass viols)

(music) A stringed instrument of the viol family, a variant of the octobass distinguished by its extreme size -- at more than ten feet all, it must be performed by a person on a platform.


tromba marina

From Italian, meaning "marine trumpet".
* The tromba may originate in a comparison to the valveless trumpet of the Middle Ages, which produced harmonic overtones like the tromba marina, or as a reference to the unique trumpet-like rasping sound created by the intentionally loose bridge of the instrument vibrating against its face. The marina may refer to the Virgin Mary, perhaps because the instrument was played by nuns in convents.

(music) A Middle Ages European string instrument with a long, slender and triangular-shaped body, featuring one main string and sometimes additional sympathetic strings, known for an extremely loud sound making it useful for signalling between ships, and for a distinctive ethereal tone (harmonic overtones) created by the player fingering the string at precise intervals below the point where the string is to be bowed, rather than above as most similar instruments.


ashiko

(music) A conical drum with one open end and a head on the wide end, originating in Yoruba music.


tarraxinha

It’s an apt metaphor for the music, a collision of African dance genres such as kuduro, kizomba and tarraxinha with house and techno that is unique to Lisbon’s ghettos.

2015 October 27, “Príncipe Disco: the new club sensation from the Portuguese projects”, in The Guardian

(music) A form of kizomba that has a strong, electronic bass


bit crusher

(music) A lo-fi digital audio effect that produces a distortion by reducing the resolution or bandwidth of the audio data.


bailecito

bailecito (countable and uncountable, plural bailecitos)

A high point of the group's performance was "Canto Popular," written by Ambar Canales. Using the traditional "bailecito" rhythm of Argentina with Judit Moschkovich playing congas (she's the Argentine, Canales is the Puerto Rican) the piece celebrates the people's song movements of Latin America and all the meetings and exchanges between us.

1982 August 7, Arora Levins-Morales, “Cross Currents: Multi-Cultural Spirit in San Francisco”, in Gay Community News, page 6

(music) A genre of traditional style of dance music of Bolivia and Northern Argentina in 6/8 time.


backlining

backlining (countable and uncountable, plural backlinings)

(uncountable, music) The positioning of amplifiers behind the performers when playing on a stage.


singback

singback (countable and uncountable, plural singbacks)

(music) An exercise where the pupil is instructed to sing back a sequence of notes previously played or sung.


clapback

clapback (countable and uncountable, plural clapbacks)

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

(uncountable, countable, music) An exercise where the pupil is instructed to repeat a previously played rhythm by clapping.


subcontraoctave

(music) The octave on the bass clef ranging from three octaves below the staff (C0) to two octaves below the staff (B0).


oversouling

From over- + soul + -ing, coined by the music journalist and producer Jerry Wexler.

(music, derogatory) The excessive use of melisma in singing.


belloneon

The belloneon, likewise mechanical, seems to have been a complete military band which executed marches and flourishes with a unity, precision, and correctness beyond the reach of the most practiced artists.

1976, Otto Mayr, Philosophers and machines

(historical, music) A mechanical musical instrument consisting of twenty-four trumpets and two kettle drums.


dectet

This medium is divided by the total of performers involved, ranging from duos to dectets, with the compositions in each section discussed alphabetically.

1981, Arthur Cohn, Recorded Classical Music: A Critical Guide to Compositions and Performances


duodecet

From decet on the model of Latin duodecim (“twelve”).

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


extended play

(music) A musical recording that contains more music than a single, but is usually too short to qualify as a full studio album or LP.


C-sharp

(music) A musical note one semitone higher than a C, notated C♯.


enneatonic

In m.11 (ex. 6.4b), an eighth-note variant of this enneatonic fragment is harmonized by a half-diminished-seventh chord on A resolving to an A♭-major triad; as shown beneath the lower staff of example 6.4b, this harmonization generates an enneatonic collection different from that implied by the melody.

2005, William Kinderman, Katherine Rae Syer, A Companion to Wagner's Parsifal, page 226

Now the enneatonic diatonic descending genus, išartum: cbagfedcb consists of two junct pentachords: cbagf and: fedcb containing two octochords: cbagfedc and bagfedcb .

2005, Richard J. Dumbrill, The Archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East, page 53

The complete pitch content of the opening seven measures is the enneatonic collection, the highly symmetrical nine-note mode of limited transposition that is the complement of an augmented triad.

2009, Evan Allan Jones, Intimate Voices: Debussy to Villa-Lobos, page 217


-gaze

(music) Denotes a genre of music which makes heavy use of distortion effects and wall of sound production.


metalgaze

SanFran metalgaze band Deafheaven deliver New Bermuda to Casbah on Thursday.

2015 October 14, Barnaby Monk, “Deafheaven, a Heartbreaker, Hinds ...and the best of the rest in San Diego clubs this weekend”, in San Diego Reader

(music) A musical genre derived from heavy metal, with minimalist ambient instrumentation and wall of sound effects.


fanfared

Pure fanfared melodies also occur, as we have seen, in rural Annam and in Cambodia.

1954, Egon Wellesz, New Oxford History of Music: Ancient and oriental music, page 188

Fanfared music, on the other hand, is exclusive, as far is known, to Karesau and the central range. The area in which the panpipes are found and that in which fanfared music occurs are, therefore, by no means identical.

2013, Jaap Kunst, Music in New Guinea: Three Studies, page 31


choir school

(music) A school, attached to a cathedral or abbey, that provides education to its choristers


Cav and Pag

/ˈkæv ən ˈpæɡ/

(music, informal) The two one-act operas Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci presented as a single event.


peckhorn

(music, slang) An alto horn or mellophone.


audiation

audiation (countable and uncountable, plural audiations)

/ɔːdɪˈeɪʃən/

/ˌɔdiˈeɪʃən/

Presumably audio + -ation, coined by American music researcher and educator Edwin E. Gordon (1927–2015), possibly in Learning Sequence and Patterns in Music (1976).

Audiation takes place when one hears music through recall or creation (the sound not being physically present) and infers musical meaning as compared to aural perception where one listens to music actually being performed.

1976, Edwin E. Gordon, “Development of the Taxonomies”, in Tonal and Rhythm Patterns: An Objective Analysis: A Taxonomy of Tonal Patterns and Rhythm Patterns and Seminal Experimental Evidence of Their Difficulty and Growth Rate, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, footnote 2, page 7

[P]erformance always faces the risk of failure. One may get the notes right but quite misconstrue the work. One can discover one’s problems and then correct them. Private ‘audiations’ are systematically insulated from the ambient environment critique performance lives in. If being acquainted with the work in one’s head involves the same demands as becoming acquainted with it in public, presumably one can get it all wrong.

1992, Stan Godlovitch, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, →OCLC, page 7; republished as “Performances and Musical Works”, in Musical Performance: A Philosophical Study, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 1998, part II (Challenges to the Model), page 91

Some performers spend considerable time reviewing the score and experiencing the music through audiation, or engage in internal dialogue to get themselves into the right orientation to play while others complete a technical/physical warm-up with their instruments, playing both exercises and parts of the repertoire.

1995, John T[homas] Partington, “Pre-concert Preparation”, in Making Music, [Ottawa, Ont.]: Carleton University Press, page 127

Children will stare for a few seconds at the parent, teacher, or another person as they become aware that there is a difference between their own singing or chanting and someone else's. […] In a sense, children are now attempting to enter the world of audiation. At this point, however, they do not know how to correct their singing, chanting, or movement and, thus, they are unable to begin to cope with audiation.

2003, Edwin E. Gordon, “Part Six: Imitation”, in A Music Learning Theory for Newborn and Young Children, Chicago, Ill.: GIA Publications, page 86

Rock's fantasists and their immediate parents, like the Beats, invented their visions and audiations from a vocabulary of imaginary sound and time spaces (thus, perhaps, "audiochronotopes").

2008, Michael Long, “Listening in Dark Places”, in Beautiful Monsters: Imagining the Classic in Musical Media, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, page 157

(music) The comprehension and internal realization of music by an individual in the absence of any physical sound.


funaná

(music) An accordion-based style of music from Cape Verde.


konpa

Wednesday at 7 p.m., Haitian konpa music by the group CaRiMi, in Brower Park, Brooklyn and St. Marks Avenues, Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

2009 July 31, Anne Mancuso, “Spare Times”, in New York Times


ringle

The ringle is expected to contain three songs—one hit and maybe one remix and one older track—and one ringtone, on a CD with a slip sleeve cover.

2007 September 15, Ed Christman, “Ringles In, List Price Out?”, in Billboard, volume 110, number 37, page 21

Meanwhile, label profit margins for the format are considered slim. The majors are gambling that the ringle can instill in consumers the mind-set to connect to the Internet via the CD.

2007 October 10, “Music industry betting on 'ringle' format”, in CNET, archived from the original on 2024-06-16

The ringle is a physical CD that contains three songs — a hit, a remix and an older track by the artist—and a mobile phone ringtone. Both Sony/BMG and Universal Music Group are releasing ringles into the market in time for Christmas sales. Sony/BMG is experimenting with the release of 50 ringles, while Universal is releasing up to 20 during the same period.

2009 April 30, Proceedings: The 84th Annual Meeting 2008, number 97, National Association of Schools of Music, page 78

(music, uncommon) A CD single which includes a shortened ringtone version.


tsymbaly

(music) The Ukrainian version of the hammered dulcimer.


pop chart

(music) A list of the most popular or best-selling pop music at a given time.


idioglot

Further north, in rural Lithuania, a folk clarinet has a cylindrical tube closed at the top, with idioglot reed taken in the player's mouth for its entire length.

1975, Sibyl Marcuse, A survey of musical instruments, page 729

Pipes with idioglot reeds (not separate pieces of cane, but cut in the tube itself) have been identified from later civilisations, for example the Greek aulos and the Sardinian launeddas.

1995, Colin James Lawson, The Cambridge Companion to the Clarinet, page 2

Alongside the clarinet of today, idioglot instruments are still played in many European countries, along the Baltic and in the Balkans, as well as Asia, Africa and South America.

2008, Eric Hoeprich, The Clarinet, page 13

(music) Having a vibrating reed that is an integral part of the instrument.


idioglot

Masa (tongs) -an idioglot with a sound-rhythmical effect and with a secondary musical function; made of iron.

1987, The World of Music - Volume 29, page 69

These simple instruments (idioglots) still found in Syria, Crete, Turkmenistan amongst others are also used by children who have a good supply of reeds nearby.

1988, Eric Montbel, Le Roseau et la musique, page 78

The single reed iterations were often idioglots because of the simple structural design required to produce such a sound generator.

2016, Michael J. Pagliaro, Basic Elements of Music, page 88


heteroglot

The more specific definition will become useful when we discuss the earliest manifestations of the eighteenth- century clarinet and distinguish these from the closest relative of the clarinet — the chalumeau with a heteroglot reed.

1992, Albert R. Rice, The Baroque Clarinet, page 1

Depending on whether the reeds are single or double, slit from the pipe itself or inserted separately the bagpipe is an idioglot, a heteroglot, or mixed.

2000, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments, page 130

Some reed-pipes are made not with what is termed an 'idioglot reed' - one sliced from the reed or cane material of the tube itself - but from a 'heteroglot reed', in which the vibrating reed is a separate sliver of reed or other suitable material, these days including plastic tied over an aperture in a reed-bearing mouthpiece.

2006, Rebecca Berkley, The illustrated complete musical instruments handbook, page 155

(music) Having a vibrating reed that is made from a different material than the instrument itself and is often removable.


Prodge

The main event arrived later that year, when the Prodge began playing a new, punk-esque song called Firestarter […]

2010, John Harris, Hail! Hail! Rock'n'roll

With its unsettling mid-way change of pace, it unexpectedly reveals a more thoughtful Prodge, dealing with darker themes […]

1999, Al Spicer, Rock: 100 Essential CDs: The Rough Guide, page 140

(music, slang) The Prodigy, an English electronic music group formed in 1990.


quadtone

(music) An interval of four whole tones.


CCR

Creedence Clearwater Revival
w:Creedence Clearwater Revival

(music) Initialism of Creedence Clearwater Revival.


utonal

(music) Exhibiting or relating to a utonality.


otonal

(music) Exhibiting or relating to an otonality.


kvlt

en-adj

kvlt (comparative more kvlt, superlative most kvlt)

more kvlt (comparative)
most kvlt (superlative)

You gotta wear make-up at kvlt gigs or you'll be thrown out.

(music, slang, humorous) True to the ideology of black metal or a stereotypical manifestation of that subculture.


gold record

(US, music) An album or single that has sold 500,000 or more copies.


slap bass

(music) A percussive playing style in which the strings of a bass guitar are thumped (often with the thumb) or pulled away from the instrument so they vibrate against the fingerboard.


troparion

en-noun

troparion (plural troparions or troparia)

Coordinate term: apolytikion

When awakened, Kyr Avram sits in bed and, as if out of fear, sings troparia and contakia in honor of his ancestors, whom the Serbian church has declared saints.

1988, Milorad Pavić, translated by Christina Pribićević-Zorić, Dictionary of the Khazars, Vintage, published 1989, page 31

(Eastern Orthodoxy, music) A short hymn of one stanza, or organised in more complex forms as a series of stanzas.


yayue

Borrowed from Mandarin 雅樂／雅乐 (yǎyuè, literally “elegant music”). Doublet of gagaku and aak.

zh-m

(music) A form of Chinese ritual music performed at imperial courts since the Zhou Dynasty, and usually associated with Confucianism.


funkadelics

Little Boss put a stop to the funkadelics of Maurice's new radio, but he was powerless to prevent his whistling as he walked about at a smart clip.

1992, Darryl Pinckney, High Cotton, page 232

But guest producers like RJD2 and Joey Chavez help keep Acey's beats on track, from the velvet lounge vibe of "The Saga Continues" to the folksy funkadelics of "Ace Cowboy."

2003, Vibe, volume 11, numbers 7-12, page 156


aerophonic

(music) Of or relating to the aerophones.


albumblatt

en-noun

albumblatt (plural albumblatts or albumblatter)

albumblatts (plural)
albumblatter (plural)

(music) A short instrumental composition, usually performed on the piano and light in character.


Pingju

From the pinyin romanization of Mandarin 評劇／评剧 (píngjù).


aeolopantalon

(music) An obsolete musical instrument combining the aeolomelodicon with a piano, allowing them to be played separately or together.


aeolodicon

(music) An obsolete keyed wind instrument resembling the harmonium, its tone produced from steel springs.


aeolomelodicon

In the æolopantalon, invented about the year 1830, by Dlugosz of Warsaw, the æolomelodicon was combined with a pianoforte, so arranged that the player could make use of either instrument separately or both together.

1879, Sir George Grove, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (A.D. 1450-1889), volume 1

Naturally, the "foremost Polish pianist", the 15-year-old Chopin, was called on to give a public recital on the aeolomelodicon, a strange instrument invented by Brummer and Hoffman.

1968, Adelaide Murgia, The life and times of Chopin, page 13

One was to launch a new keyboard instrument, a hybrid between the pianoforte and the organ, which during its brief life span was known as the aeolomelodicon.

1978, Ruth Jordan, Nocturne: a life of Chopin, page 45

(music, historical) An obsolete musical instrument derived from the aeolodicon but having brass tubes affixed to the reeds, making it more like an organ.


shruti box

During the “Gayatri Mantra” her voice soared over the hypnotic drone that one hand coaxed from her shruti box, while the other hand energetically massaged the air.

2006 December 2, Vivien Schweitzer, “Prayer, Texts and Chants, Along With Some Improv”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(music) A musical instrument resembling a harmonium, used to provide a droning accompaniment in Indian classical music.


timbrally

Perimeter Drive explores the potential for a single instrument to function timbrally, harmonically, and rhythmically as a multiple resource.

1984, Carol Gertrud Isaac, Three compositions: Perimeter drive, A quartet, Shot?, page v

The first represents the degree of variation of successive harmonic peaks in the spectrum (this would indicate a timbrally rich music); the second, the relative strength of a tonal centre (e.g. a stable, predictable music); and the third, the degree of minor-to-major tonality, so that a higher value is ‘more major’ (see [30 ], p. 112, 127, and 129).

2015 December 8, “Colour Association with Music Is Mediated by Emotion: Evidence from an Experiment Using a CIE Lab Interface and Interviews”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI


strophicus

(music) A neume resembling an apostrophe, possibly indicating a small variation in pitch.


salicus

(music) A neume consisting of an ascending group of three notes, resembling the scandicus but having the second note emphasized.


tristropha

(music) A neume that trebles the value of the first note in a series.


distropha

(music) A neume that doubles the value of the first note in a series.


bivirga

(music) A neume that doubles the value of the first note in a series of virgae.


trivirga

(music) A neume that trebles the value of the first note in a series of virgae.


economy picking

(music) A guitar picking technique designed to maximize efficiency. When picking multiple notes on a string, alternate picking is used, and when changing to a new string, sweep picking is used.


oriscus

(music) An ornamental neume of unclear meaning, usually found added to another neume as an auxiliary note.


daseian

(music) Using or relating to a medieval form of musical notation with varying numbers of staves and a system of four shapes rotated to represent eighteen pitches.


widdly

en-adj

widdly (comparative more widdly, superlative most widdly)

more widdly (comparative)
most widdly (superlative)

25 November 2016, Malcolm Jack, Judas Priest review – a fans-only affair picks up in the final act in The Guardian
The new material is largely a fans-only affair – anyone not entertained by widdly guitar solos would have been advised to bring a book for the likes of Halls of Valhalla..

Not even the Seventies' prevailing trend for widdly, interminable guitar frottage in could mask Gwynne's basic lack of talent. As soon as the Dream Team's tour finished, Gwynne was told, in no uncertain terms, to fuck off.

2004, Patrick Browning, The Smell of Old Dreams

(music, colloquial) Characterized by a lot of long fast guitar riffs


motivically

In contrast to the motivically imprinted accompagnato, however, in which the motive has a purely accompanying function, the arioso often contains motivic imitation between the vocal and instrumental parts.

2005, Alfred Dürr, Richard Douglas Jones, The Cantatas of J.S. Bach: With Their Librettos in German-English Parallel Text

(music) In accordance with, or by means of, a motif.


utonality

Fixed tonal systems find utonalities disturbing. There are four utonalities prominent in the chromatic gamut.

1966, Jonas Mekas, Film Culture - Issues 40-42, page 6

A similar correlation is evident in the physical layout of the Kithara II, which consists of twelve banks of six strings, each bank tuned to a specific, although incomplete, otonality or utonality.

1982, Percussive Notes - Volume 21, page 71

Contrasting otonality and utonality allows Johnston to mark distinctions between a melody and its inversion.

1995, 1/1: The Quarterly Journal of the Just Intonation Network

(music) A family of pitches that can all be expressed as ratios with a specified fixed tone, such that all ratios have the same numerator; a subharmonic series.


otonality

Multiples up from otonalities, whereas divisors change the harmonic center and introduce new tonal sense (utonality).

So an otonality based on the 1-limit would have a 1-Identity (its first pitch), a 3-Identity (its second pitch), a 5-Identity (its third pitch), and so on.

2014, S. Andrew Granade, Harry Partch, Hobo Composer, page 214

(music) A family of pitches that can all be expressed as ratios with a specified fixed tone, such that all ratios have the same denominator.


forestroke

Yes, and we call it a waving forestroke. It sometimes waves upward, sometimes downward.

1882, Harmony Simplified: Text-book of the Harmony Circle

The particular kind of forestroke was also indicated by double letters.

1901, The Musical Herald and Tonic Sol-fa Reporter

(music) An ornament in which one or more notes are added before the principal note, such as an appoggiatura or acciaccatura


anaphone

(music) A particular sign as represented in music; a sound or melody that represents something, such as motion or romance.


ghost note

(music) A musical note with a rhythmic value, but no discernible pitch when played, sometimes represented by an X in musical notation.


high doh

en-noun

high doh (countable and uncountable, plural high dohs)

(music) The eighth note in the sol-fa system, being an octave above doh.


Five Finger Death Punch
w:Five Finger Death Punch

(music) Initialism of Five Finger Death Punch.


podatus

(music) A neume representing two notes ascending.


quilisma

(music) A neume of uncertain meaning, consisting of several jagged lines.


flutina

(music) An early precursor to the diatonic button accordion, having one or two rows of treble buttons, configured to have the tonic of the scale, on the "draw" of the bellows.


clownstep

(music, sometimes derogatory) A subgenre of drum and bass music with simplistic bouncing basslines.


verrophone

(music) A musical instrument consisting of an arrangement of open-ended glass tubes of various sizes, which are rubbed or struck with a mallet to produce the sound.


sympathetic string

sympathetic string (plural sympathetic strings)

(music) Any of a set of auxiliary strings found on certain musical instruments, generally not played directly by the performer but used to provide resonance in response to the main strings.


pyramidon

From pyramid + -on (after accordion, harmonicon etc.).

(music) An organ stop having wooden pipes in the form of an inverted pyramid, giving very deep notes somewhat like those of a stopped diapason.


triple time

(music) A rhythm or time with three beats per bar: one accented followed by two unaccented.


full score

(music) a large book showing all the notes of a composition with many simultaneous parts (instruments or voices), with all the parts shown in lines underneath each other in a fixed order. Commonly used by conductors.


parhypate

(music) In ancient musical theory, the lower of the two movable notes between the hypate and mese, the upper being the lichanos.


lichanos

From Ancient Greek λιχανός (likhanós, “the forefinger”).

uder

(music) In ancient musical theory, the upper of the two movable notes between the hypate and mese, the lower being the parhypate.


power noise

(music) A predominantly European noisy genre of electronic music.


tear it up

en-verb

tear it up (third-person singular simple present tears it up, present participle tearing it up, simple past tore it up, past participle torn it up)

tears it up (present singular third-person)
tearing it up (participle present)
tore it up (past)
torn it up (participle past)

/ˈtɛəɹ ɪt ˈʌp/

Dad would see them watching me polishing the leather and he'd call me out on stage and the crowd went wild. Little twelve-year-old girl tearing it up.

2009, J. B. Kohl, Eric Beetner, One Too Many Blows to the Head, page 188

His Double Trouble started tearing it up all over the world. Was just three guys—Stevie, Tommy Shannon on bass, and Chris Layton on drums—but man, they had a big sound.

2012, Buddy Guy, David Ritz, When I Left Home: My Story, page 242

The Motor City Madman's albums hadn't been selling as well as Cat Scratch Fever a couple of years earlier, but he was still tearing it up Nugent style.

2015, Marky Ramone, Richard Herschlag, Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone, page 210

(music) To perform with great energy and flair.


filmi geet

en-noun

filmi geet (countable and uncountable, plural filmi geets)

Borrowed from Hindi फ़िल्मी गीत (filmī gīt).

Unlike most filmi geets this song is a continuous, seamless melody which dispenses with non-traditional musical devices.

2003, Ashraf Aziz, Light of the Universe: Essays on Hindustani Film Music, page 91

(India, music) A type of music typically used in the soundtracks of films from Mumbai, or a particular song of this type.


microtiming

microtiming (usually uncountable, plural microtimings)

The appreciation of microtiming seems to be an exclusive pleasure for the music elite.

2015 August 20, Lorenz Kilchenmann, Olivier Senn, “Microtiming in Swing and Funk affects the body movement behavior of music expert listeners”, in Frontiers in Psychology, volume 6, →DOI

(music) Very small differences in the timing (of beats etc) during a performance


glitch hop

electronic dance music
electronic dance music

(music) A subgenre of electronic dance music that combines elements of hip hop and glitch music


rhythm pole

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

(music) A percussion instrument, consisting of small bells attached to a pole, used exclusively by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band


wolf tone

This cello has a terrible wolf tone on the D string.

(music) An unpleasant tone produced when a note matches the natural resonating frequency of the body of a musical instrument, the quality of which may be likened to the howl of a wolf.


zabumba

(music) A Brazilian bass drum that performers wear and is tapped with both hands.


E-sharp

(music) A tone one semitone higher than an E, denoted E♯.

eis

a tone one semitone higher than an E, denoted E♯


G-flat

(music) A tone one semitone lower than a G, denoted G♭.

ges

a tone one semitone lower than a G, denoted G♭


G-sharp

(music) A tone one semitone higher than a G, denoted G♯.

gis

a tone one semitone higher than a G, denoted G♯


B-sharp

(music) A tone one semitone higher than B, denoted B♯.

his

a tone one semitone higher than a B, denoted B♯


F-sharp

(music) A tone one semitone higher than an F, denoted F♯.

fis

a tone one semitone higher than an F, denoted F♯


D-sharp

(music) A tone one semitone higher than a D, denoted D♯.

dis

a tone one semitone higher than a D, denoted D♯


D-flat

(music) A tone one semitone lower than a D, denoted D♭.

des

a tone one semitone lower than a D, denoted D♭


F-flat

(music) A tone one semitone lower than an F, denoted F♭.

fes

a tone one semitone lower than an F, denoted F♭


C-flat

(music) A tone one semitone lower than a C, denoted C♭.

ces

a tone one semitone lower than a C, denoted C♭


enharmony

enharmony (countable and uncountable, plural enharmonies)

(music) The property of being enharmonic.

(music) The equivalence between two notes whose names are different.


VST

Twitch uses Reason; synthesizer software Absynth and Reactor; Pluggo, to add special sound effects through VST plug-ins; Peak, an audio editor that lets you cut audio to the right length; and the sequencer software Ableton Live.

2005 March 10, Natalie Hanman, “Mix and match”, in The Guardian, retrieved 2021-07-21

Virtual Studio Technology
w:Virtual Studio Technology

(music) Initialism of Virtual Studio Technology.


apostrophus

You find not the apostrophus, and so miss the accent. Let me supervise the canzonet.

1598, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost

In the early Graduals Benevento VI. 38 and 40, the apostrophus is common in syllabic passages in sequences, tropes and prosulae.

2009, Iain Fenlon, Early Music History, page 66

In transcriptions from Ben 34, I have not distinguished the apostrophus from regular notes.

2010, Rebecca Maloy, Inside the Offertory: Aspects of Chronology and Transmission, page iv

The early Beneventan apostrophus was optional, instructive and exemplary, suggesting low, quick, unaccented syllables at the start of a phrase (sometimes implying a preceding breath) in the Gregorian Mass Propers and short or quick syllables in tropes, prosulae and sequences.

2017, John Boe, Chant and Notation in South Italy and Rome before 1300, page 66

(music, historical) An open notehead ( ~ ) or an apostrophe ( ' ) used as a neume to mark a low, unaccented syllable at the beginning of a phrase or a short quick syllable


kecak

The kecak is performed as a spectacle rather than a ceremony and new versions are commissioned for festivals and TV.

2000, Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham, World Music: The Rough Guide, page 125

(anthropology, music) A type of ceremonial chant in Bali, based on the Ramayana story, where men sit in a circle and imitate the sounds of monkeys.


chromelodeon

(music) A Partchian pump organ designed to conform to Partch's tonality system.


zymo-xyl

(music) A Partchian xylophone augmented with everyday articles such as bottles and hubcaps.


diamond marimba

diamond marimba (plural diamond marimbas)

(music) A Partchian marimba with keys arranged in a physical manifestation of the 11-limit tonality diamond.


bluesify

en-verb

bluesify (third-person singular simple present bluesifies, present participle bluesifying, simple past and past participle bluesified)

bluesifies (present singular third-person)
bluesifying (participle present)
bluesified (participle past)
bluesified (past)

2000, Tracy Johnson, ncounters with Bob Dylan: If You See Him, Say Hello
Most harpists back then played cross harp, sucking in on the notes to bend and bluesify them.

(transitive, music) To adapt to sound like blues.


Daydreamer

After Adele's song “Daydreamer” (2008). See more at daydream and daydreamer.

Adele’s fans – many of whom call themselves ‘Daydreamers’ – found they had to wait for the dream of a third album to come true. Not only that, as they waited they were subjected to several delays and disappointments.]

[2015, Chas Newkey-Burden, Adele: The Biography, updated edition, London: John Blake Publishing, page 228

This story was told by fans around the world, especially Daydreamers, the fandom of Adele.

2021 November 16, Pat Phoompuang, “Adele's New Album Release: 30”, in The Brewster Browser, volume 44, number 2, Wolfeboro, NH: Brewster Academy, page 8, column 3

Eagle-eyed Daydreamers were quick to notice the similarities between “Easy On Me” and her longest-leading Hot 100 No. 1 “Hello,” which were both shot in black and white (though the latter is sepia-toned) and feature the same house, Sony Music confirmed.

2022 January 13, Danielle Pascual, “Adele Easter Eggs: Fan-Spotted References to Past Music Videos In Her ’30’ Era”, in Billboard, archived from the original on 2022-01-13

Her shows, called “A Weekend with Adele,” scheduled to run weekends through April, were expected to be the most lucrative residency in Las Vegas history. They’ve been indefinitely postponed, the singer announced in a Twitter video Thursday. The cancellation has fueled skepticism and disappointment among Adele’s Daydreamers, her fandom.

2022 January 25, Linda Hasco, “Adele’s postponed Las Vegas residency: She’s apologized, but do we really know what’s behind it?”, in PennLive, archived from the original on 2022-01-26

(music) A fan of British singer-songwriter Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 1988), simply known as Adele.


isoperiodic

The majority of the surviving English motets of the fourteenth century are isoperiodic.

2000, Ross W. Duffin, A Performer's Guide to Medieval Music, page 60

(music) In which the phrases of two or more voices are the same length.


microformal

For example, the note values and tonality of a phrase cannot be chosen independently of those of the other phrases; and similar restirctions apply also for many other microformal characteristics.

1984, Mario Baroni, Laura Callegari Hill, Musical grammars and computer analysis, page 209

However, the results of the research do implicitly show how musical form reflects and implies some of these mental devices. In the first two repertories examined, the rules have been divided into two categories: macroformal and microformal rules.

1989, Stephen McAdams, Irène Deliège, Music and the Cognitive Sciences

General similarities and symmetries, broad tonal relationships, compass of parts, and so forth belong to the macroformal plane, while internal phrase structure, pitch contour, rhythmic peculiarities, and the like belong to the microformal plane (Baroni and Callegari 1989).

1993, Goffredo Haus, Music Processing, page 7

Each section harbours a ternary microformal pattern based upon its own thematic content.

2009, Paul-André Bempéchat, Jean Cras, Polymath of Music and Letters, page 242

(music) Pertaining to the internal structure of a single phrase.


top forty

en-noun

top forty (countable and uncountable, plural top forties)


semigrand

Both companies make the upright, grand, semigrand, and baby-grand pianos, and in such styles as colonial, empire, antique, etc.

1910, The Oriental Economic Review, volume 1, page 394

(music) Of a piano: having a size intermediate between grand and baby grand.


dvojnice

Tone pitch depends on the dimensions of the dvojnice tubes and upon the position of the first hole in relation to the lower opening of the pipe.

2014, Jasmina Talam, Folk Musical Instruments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, page 172


zurla

It cannot be doubted that for hundreds of years zurla and tapan ensembles have played professionally for many ethnic groups in southern Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, the Macedonian province of Greece, the Pirin region of Bulgaria (southwest), and some parts of Balkan Thrace.

2012, Carol Silverman, Romani Routes: Cultural Politics and Balkan Music in Diaspora


gajda

Many of them are one-time pupils of Pece Atanasovski, until his recent untimely death the finest gajda player in the country, and leader of the very fine Radio Skopje (now Macedonian TV-Ratio) ensemble, the Ansambl na Narodni Instrumenti, with which he recorded frequently.

1999, Simon Broughton, World Music: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, page 203


alipta

Alipta is said to be of two types, ragalipta and rupalipta. The former is a combination of nada with svara and raga, while the latter is a combination of nada with raga and svara.

1992, Mandayam Bharati Vedavalli, Mysore as a Seat of Music, page 137

(music) One of the four margas (traditional techniques for playing percussive intruments), which combines strokes of the vamaka and urdhavaka drums.


darkside

darkside (countable and uncountable, plural darksides)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

From dark + side. Sense 2.1 (“side that is evil”) was popularized by the film Star Wars (1977; later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) where the term was used to describe the aspect of a metaphysical power called the Force which could be used to act aggressively and perpetrate evil.

The label closely observed the shifts in techno during the 90s, being a staple source of ‘darkside’ hardcore in 1992.

1994, “Reinforced Records”, in Colin Larkin, editor, The Guinness Who’s Who of Rap, Dance & Techno, Enfield, Middlesex [London]: Guinness Publishing, page 304, column 1

1993 was the year that hardcore began to get more varied with different styles being made. One style known as "darkness" or "darkside" used less pianos and more darker sounding chords.

2003 May 6, Alex Nikolaenko Jr., “What is a Jungle?”, in fido7.ru.music.drum-bass (Usenet)

After some atonal washes and twitchy breakbeats, the track lurched to a sudden halt and – in a moment that still takes my breath away when I listen to it now – a brief snatch of the spidery, abstract electronics instantly recognisable from the Japan record leapt into the chasm, before being immediately consumed by viscous bass ooze and the synthetic screeches that were the sonic signatures of darkside Jungle.

2007 December, Mark Fisher, “Epiphanies”, in The Wire, number 286, London: The Wire Magazine, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-05-17, page 106, columns 1–2

(uncountable, music) A style of electronic music, being a form of hardcore characterized by discordant sounds.


combination tone

combination tone (plural combination tones)

(music) The psychoacoustic phenomenon of an additional tone or tones being perceived when two real tones are sounded at the same time.


phasey

en-adj

phasey (comparative more phasey, superlative most phasey)

more phasey (comparative)
most phasey (superlative)

Tone all phasey, woozy, wicky-wacky.

2009 October 11, Ben Ratliff, “Doom Metal, Melodic Jazz, Boiled-Down Funk”, in New York Times


kargyraa

Mastery of throat-singing techniques like sygyt and kargyraa, the first an overtone-saturated whistling style, the second a deep, droning growl, are no longer the exclusive province of Mongolian tribesmen.

2015 October 15, Corinna Da Fonseca-Wollheim, “What’s That Sound? It’s Tough to Tell”, in New York Times

(music) A deep form of Tuvan overtone singing


overtone singing

fundamental frequency
fundamental frequency

(music) A type of singing in which the individual singer manipulates the resonances of the voice to produce notes independent of the fundamental frequency


scetavajasse

/ˌʃeɪtəvaɪˈɑːseɪ/

Borrowed from Neapolitan scetavajasse (literally “maid-waker”), from sceta (“wake up”, imperative of scetà) + vajasse (“maids, female servants”, plural of vajassa).

affix

imperative of <i class="Latn mention" lang="nap">scetà</i>

plural of <i class="Latn mention" lang="nap">vajassa</i>

(music) A Neapolitan percussion instrument composed of two wooden sticks, a serrated one and a smooth one, played by rubbing the former on the latter.


contrapunctus

The ambitus of the metrical weight profile increases towards the middle of the contrapunctus; minimal local meter length is 2.

2018, Guerino Mazzola, The Topos of Music II: Performance: Theory, Software, and Case Studies


art song

Although effective rendition of an art song requires great skill on the part of the singer, virtuosity for its own sake is generally eschewed. Hence one seldom finds florid passages or excessive ornamentation. This is especially true of the French […]

1980, Barbara Meister, An introduction to the art song, Crescendo

"Art song" is our answer to the German Lied or the French mélodie, which implies a through-written recital song as distinct from a chanson. A definition is required, and especially so for American song, because when all is said and done […]

1986, Alan Blyth, Song on Record:, Cambridge University Press, page 246

While their worth is unquestionable, these arias do not equate in form or intention with the classically defined art song. Yet, art song does exist in Italy in a large body of works known as liriche da camera — compositions for solo voice and piano […]

1989, Ruth C. Lakeway, Robert Charles White, Italian Art Song

(music) A vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment.


chap-hop

Never wear plimsolls if not doing sport
Unless you're a chap-hop superstar sort

2010, Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer (lyrics and music), “Hail the Chap”, in I Say!, performed by Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer

Any style of music can become steampunk if the story is right. Thus the rise of a seemingly incongruous pairing: steampunk rap, or chap-hop.

2013, Julie Anne Taddeo, Cynthia J. Miller, Steaming into a Victorian Future, page 90

[…] the compliment has now been returned, with the rise of a style known as chap-hop, in which people in tweeds such as Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer freestyle over a banjulele accompaniment barbed songs of political comment such as 'They Don't Allow Rappers in the Bullingdon' (2012).

2016, Max Décharné, Vulgar Tongues: An Alternative History of English Slang

(music) A parodic musical genre that blends elements of hip-hop with steampunk and traditional English stereotypes.


lolicore

From loli + -core.
Last.fm claims it was coined by Loli Ripe in 2006 and their RYM artist profile says they were an anonymous 4chan poster - which doesn't seem unrealistic as the place of its origin, at least as far as the more western scene (which seems to be where the term "lolicore" came from).

(music) A subgenre of breakcore that is characterised by heavily distorted and pitch-shifted samples, typically taken from anime, and often inspired by Japanese otaku culture.


C&W

country and western
country and western#English

(music) Initialism of country and western.


one-woman band

(music) A woman who plays multiple instruments at once.


Euro-metal

(music) Relatively melodic European metal music, in particular used of European power metal.


doom/death

2007, Keith Kahn-Harris, Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge, Berg, →ISBN, page 133.
The Gathering from the Netherlands also previously a doom/death metal band, now play a form of psychedelic/gothic rock.

2010, Jeff Wagner, Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal, Bazillion Points, →ISBN, page 245.
The only other notable band incorporating violin into metal at taht time was U.K. avant-garde doom/death act My Dying Bride.

2015, "Myraeth", in Brian Giffin (comp.), Encyclopaedia of Australian Heavy Metal, Lulu (3rd revised ed.), →ISBN, page 2194.
Myraeth is a doom/death band from the Blue Mountains, formed by Samantha Kempster from Lycanthia, Ryan Casey and Max Vandyke in 2009.

(music) A hybrid genre derived from doom metal and death metal.


Vo

(music) Abbreviation of vocals (of a rock band).


positive organ

(music) A small pipe organ designed for portability, common in sacred and secular music between the 10th and 18th centuries.


extratone

Borrowed from German extrahieren (“to extract”) + Tone (“notes”).

(music) A variation of speedcore with a bpm exceeding 1000.


clavicymbalum

(music) An early keyboard instrument and ancestor of the harpsichord.


clavicytherium

en-noun

clavicytherium (plural clavicytheriums or clavicytheria)

clavicytheriums (plural)
clavicytheria (plural)

From Late Latin clavicytherium, from Medieval Latin clāvis (“key”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kleh₂w- (“crook, hook, peg”)) + cithara (“cithara, guitar, lute, lyre”) + -ium (“suffix forming nouns”).

der

[T]he harpſichord is an improvement of the Clavicitherium, an inſtrument known in England in Gower's time by the name of the Citole, from Cistella, a little cheſt.

1776, John Hawkins, “Preliminary Discourse”, in A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, … In Five Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for T[homas] Payne and Son, at the Mews-Gate, →OCLC, page xiv

When we consider the state of imperfection in which all keyed instruments, the organ excepted, remained till within these few years past, we can scarcely bring ourselves to believe tha instruments analogous to them were in use as far back as 1530. Yet such was the case: four instruments of this kind were then employed, the compass of which was three octaves and a half. They were—1st, the Clavicitherium, which was mounted with catgut-strings, and sounded by means of a jack put in motion by the touch: […]

1827 January, Fetis [i.e., François-Joseph Fétis], “Improvement in the Construction of Pianos. From the Revue Musicale”, in The Harmonicon, a Journal of Music, volume V, London: Printed for the proprietors, published by Samuel Leigh, No. 18, Strand, →OCLC, page 158, column 1

The first stringed instrument to which the key-board was applied, was probably the clavicytherium, or keyed-cithara. In its early stage, it was a small oblong box, with the strings arranged in the form of a half-triangle. The strings, which were of catgut, were sounded by means of quill-plectra, attached in a rude way to the ends of the keys.

1860, Edward F[rancis] Rimbault, “The First Instruments of the Pianoforte Class”, in The Pianoforte, Its Origin, Progress, and Construction; with Some Account of Instruments of the Same Class which Preceded It; viz. the Clavichord, the Virginal, the Spinet, the Harpsichord, etc. To which is Added a Selection of Interesting Specimens of Music Composed for Keyed-stringed Instruments. …, London: Robert Cocks and Co. New Burlington Street, Regent Street, W. music publishers to Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, and His Imperial Majesty Napoleon III, →OCLC, page 28

[W]e find indications of a keyed instrument after the year 1300, called the Clavicytherium, or keyed cithara. The invention of keys permitted the strings to be covered over, and therefore the strings of the clavicytherium were enclosed in a box, instead of being stretched on a box. […] The clavicytherium was usually a very small instrument,—an oblong box, three or four feet in length, that could be lifted by a girl of fourteen. The clavichord and manichord, which we read of in [Wolfgang Amadeus] Mozart's letters, were only improved and better-made clavicytheria.

1867 July, “The Piano in the United States”, in The Atlantic Monthly. A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume XX, number CXVII, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, 124 Tremont Street, →OCLC, page 86, column 1

The writer referred to [Edward Francis Rimbault] traces the instrument from the ancient lyre, through various mechanical phases, the harp, psaltery, dulcimer, etc. to the clavicitherium—a name compounded from the Latin clavis, a key, and cithera, the name of an ancient instrument of music, which consisted of strings drawn over a sounding wooden surface or bottom, and not unlike the modern guitar. The clavicytherium was an oblong box, containing a number of strings arranged in a triangular form, and which were struck by a plectrum—a little mallet, commonly made of ivory, with which the ancients beat the strings of the lyre.

1872, Horace Greeley et al., “Piano-fortes”, in The Great Industries of the United States: Being an Historical Summary of the Origin, Growth, and Perfection of the Chief Industrial Arts of This Country, Hartford, Conn.: J. B. Burr & Hyde; Chicago, Ill.; Cincinnati, Oh.: J. B. Burr, Hyde & Co., →OCLC, page 275

Clavicytheria, or upright harpsichords, were also made in Italy. Although they probably were built almost everywhere, the evidence of the extant instruments indicates that they were more common here than elsewhere. Playing a clavicytherium is a sensual experience: the soundboard is directly in front and the sound is projected right at the player.

1978, Edward L[eon] Kottick, “A Short History of the Harpsichord”, in The Harpsichord Owner’s Guide: A Manual for Buyers and Owners, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, published 1992, page 34, column 3

However, [Albert] Delin's originality is manifested from the start through his building of clavicytheriums, in which the mechanism is an innovation; it appears that he was trying to distinguish himself from the other makers of the eighteenth century in the Low Countries.

2007, Frederick Hammond, “Delin, Albert (1712–1771)”, in Igor Kipnis, editor, The Harpsichord and Clavichord: An Encyclopedia (Encyclopedia of Keyboard Instruments; 2), New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, page 147, column 1

(music) A harpsichord in which the soundboard and strings are mounted vertically facing the player.


Bourdon

(music) A flute stop on an organ of 8', 16' or 32', generally characterized by a low, dark tone.


Gibby

The reviews I read to day were just product brochures. I'd like to know how that $4,000 Gibby is different and better than a $1,200 Gibby and a $400 Epi. Teach me something!

2006 October 22, Mark Nahra, “Re: Most magazine guitar reviews suck”, in alt.guitar (Usenet)


pantonality

(music) Twelve-tone music, seen as an extension of tonality to all keys (rather than to no key).

(music) Non-functional tonality or pandiatonicism.


ma non troppo

The opening section is clearly written in the French overture style, leading into a lively Allegro ma non troppo where imitative, fanfare-like entries abound.

1992, Albert R. Rice, The Baroque Clarinet, page 106

There is some confusion over the metronome mark of the slow movement. The violin and piano reduction gives ♪=69, which is wholly inconsistent with the tempo indication 'Lento ma non troppo'.

2013, Norman Del Mar, Richard Strauss: A Critical Commentary on His Life and Works


Nahavand

(music) Synonym of maqam, a modal structure.


yacht rock

A retronym, suggesting the stereotype of a yuppie listening to the music while out sailing.

Yacht rock from the 1970s floated over the aisles like a bad storm cloud, dumping torrents of Christopher Cross and of the band that gave me sweaty nightmares, Steely Dan.

2012, Jenn Bennett, Summoning the Night: An Arcadia Bell Novel, Simon and Schuster

(music) A smooth, melodic form of soft rock music of the late 1970s and early 1980s.


guitar pop

The term saw increased usage in the 1980s in journals like NME.

(music) Guitar-based pop/rock music, such as pop rock, jangle pop, or indie pop.


scrunge

[…] Sun to Sun sure gives the current crop of jingle-jangle scrunge bands the kick in the ass they deserve.

1996, SPIN, volume 11, number 11, page 24

(music, slang, derogatory) An inauthentic form of grunge music.


mutant disco

From the name of an early compilation album from ZE Records.

(music) An avant-garde subgenre of disco music.


acousticky

en-adj

acousticky (comparative more acousticky, superlative most acousticky)

more acousticky (comparative)
most acousticky (superlative)

(music, informal) More or less acoustic in nature.


brostep

In a crowded field for negative epithets, brostep was the term that won as a pejorative, the buzzword of a concerted but increasingly futile campaign to mock the masculinist tendency in dubstep out of existence. […] But then, as so often happens, the word began to be embraced as a positive identity.

2013 [1998], Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash, new and revised edition, Faber & Faber

By the late 2000s, dubstep had splintered into numerous factions, from brostep to wonky to the evocative “purple,” […]

2015, Jan Kyrre Berg O. Friis, Robert P. Crease, Technoscience and Postphenomenology: The Manhattan Papers

(music, originally derogatory) A harsher-sounding form of dubstep music, influenced by house music and heavy metal.


afterstroke

From Middle English after-stroke, equivalent to after- + stroke.

(music) A type of grace note that appears after the subject note rather than before


barrel piano

(music) An early pianola or player piano.


crunkmeister

From crunk + -meister (suffix indicating an expert on a specified subject).

suffix

In the South, where folks often walk straight off the corner into the congregation, people expect rap to touch on the sacred as well as the profane, though it handles the latter much more convincingly than the former. Pastor Troy flips this equation. On his uneven but occasionally stirring new release, the ATL crunkmeister is at his best when dropping lyrics about the rapture […]

2002, Vibe, volume 10, number 11, [Miamisburg, Oh.?]: Vibe Media Group, Miller Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 162

The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards returns to South Florida Oct. 10, the magazine officially announced at a news conference in New York Thursday. […] Chicago newcomer Kanye West tops the list of nominees with seven nods. Atlanta rapper Ludacris follows with six; crunkmeister Lil Jon was nominated for four awards.

2004 September 10, Evelyn McDonnell, “Source Awards hop to Miami”, in The Miami Herald, number 362, Miami, Fla.: Miami Herald Media Company, The McClatchy Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4A, column 1

Lil Jon, Petey, T.I., Trick Daddy, all you thuggin' crunkmeisters, I apologize. A while back, I started listening to Power 92, where crunk currently reigns supreme, and now I'm fucking hooked.

2005 January 6, Brendan Joel Kelley, “Crunk junkie”, in Phoenix New Times, Phoenix, Ariz.: New Times, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-01-16

[A] couple of reggae-flavored tracks [from In My Mind by Heather Headley], including the Shaggy-assisted "Rain," and the sweetly nostalgic doo-wop throwback "Back When It Was," which, in a marked stylistic departure, was produced by crunkmeister Lil Jon.

2006, People, volume 65, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 41

And though his [Juicy J's] sound has definitely diverged from the gritty gangsta rap style he perfected while in Three 6 Mafia, the rubbery-voiced emcee, who now makes upbeat, bouncy party jams, is still every bit the crunkmeister.

2017 February 2, Jessie Schiewe, “Chronicles of the Juice Man: Three 6 Mafia co-founder Juicy J is killing it as a solo artist”, in SF Weekly, San Francisco, Calif.: Clint Reilly Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-09-16

(music, slang, rare) A performer of crunk music.


museme

Brought to popularity by Philip Tagg, derived from the work of Charles Seeger.

Having established extramusical 'meaning' at the micro level, one should proceed to the explanation of the ways musemes are combined, simultaneously and successively.

2000, Richard Middleton, Reading Pop : Approaches to Textual Analysis in Popular Music

(music) A minimal unit of musical meaning, analogous to a morpheme in linguistics.


spring reverb

en-noun

spring reverb (countable and uncountable, plural spring reverbs)

(music, countable) A system with a transducer at one end of a metal spring and a pickup at the other, used to create a reverb sound effect.


bisrock

(music) Rock and pop music with lyrics primarily in Cebuano.


gqom

Derived from an onomatopoeic combination of click consonants from the Zulu language, representing the sound of a drum.

South African artists include rapper Sho Madjozi, gqom acts Rude Boyz, Dominowe and Phatstoki, and sgubhu producer Sleeping Buddah.

2018 September 4, “Lokodo: This ugly thing called Nyege Nyege not happening this year”, in Daily Monitor

Although gqom's early history is blurry, its originators generally agree that it first emerged from Durban around the start of the 2010s, recorded using pirated software, shared on social media and by mobile phone, and popularised by minibus-taxi drivers who blasted the sound to attract young passengers to ride with them.

2018, Matthew Collin, Rave On: Global Adventures in Electronic Dance Music, University of Chicago Press, page 202

(music) A minimalistic style of house music from South Africa.


Thai stick

Thai stick (countable and uncountable, plural Thai sticks)

Each model also has a rubber cap over the butt end of the bundle, so if you want a totally "click-free" sound for certain sections of a song, you can flip the Thai stick over and use the back end.

2002, Modern Drummer: MD. - Volume 26, Issues 7-12, page 56

Instruments used in the songs include drumset, djun-djun, Udu drums, metal guiro, Thai sticks, bata drums, cajon, surdo, shekere, klong yaw (a drum from Thailand, like a djembe), doumbek, asonga (hybrid standing drum by Remo), tubano (another drum by Remo), and various exotic cymbals.

2004, Percussive Arts Society, Percussive notes - Volume 42, page 64

. Intense trap-set drumming with mega 'rim shots' proved that our Thai Sticks made from bundled bamboo were tougher than wood sticks commonly used by drummers.

2007, Ken Albertsen, Farmsteading in Thailand, page 60

(countable, music, usually in the plural) A bundle of thin bamboo sticks used for percussion.


zendrum

(music) An electronic percussion instrument plated somewhat like a guitar


keywork

The fingering challenges that arise are similar to those above, involving unorthodox key usage, half- and sometimes quarter-holing, and unusual configurations of keywork.

2017, Eric F. Clarke, editor, Distributed Creativity: Collaboration and Improvisation in Contemporary Music

(music) Collectively, the mechanisms of a woodwind musical instrument such as a flute or clarinet that support the operation of its keys.

koneisto

collectively, the mechanisms of a woodwind musical instrument such as a flute or clarinet that support the operation of its keys


Ajam

Borrowed from Arabic عَجَم (ʕajam, “non-Arabs; Persians”), or via Persian عجم ('ajam). Doublet of Ayam.


bass drop

Based around a wailing diva and a bass drop that had the emotional weight of a Detroit synth wash, "Remember the Roller" proved that you could be just as expressive with rhythmic elements as you could with keyboards.

1999, Peter Shapiro, Drum 'n' Bass: The Rough Guide

There's no way to build to a peak except to get quiet first, and after each breakdown comes another bass drop.

2013, Chuk Moran, Superactually: Micro-Essays on Post-Ironic Life

In metalcore subgenres, bass drops are often utilized under the first chord of a breakdown, to emphasize the breakdown and give it a presence. A bass drop in this genre can be created by the bass, mostly known by a slide, or the drums, with an electronic pad.

2016, CTI Reviews, Photography, A Cultural History

The bass drop—like the tonic cadence in tonal music—has become a convention of the style.

2017, Tom Perchard, From Soul to Hip Hop

(music) A pause in the percussion, followed by a reintroduction of drums accompanied by a heavy bass line.


tahrir

Borrowed from Persian تحریر (tahrir), from Arabic تَحْرِير (taḥrīr, “liberation; release”).

der

Karimi includes an extensive tahrir within the final syllable of the verse ...

2009, Owen Wright, Touraj Kiaras, Touraj Kiaras and Persian Classical Music: An Analytical Perspective, page 103

But it should be emphasized that Iran and Azerbāijān, which partake of the same musical culture, have the most intricate and highly elaborate form of tahrir in the world.

2012, Lloyd Miller, Music and Song in Persia (RLE Iran B): The Art of Avaz, page 109

(music) a type of vocal ornamentation; especially the variant used in the Near and Middle East


alt-rocker

Echoing the rhapsodic prog-rock vibes of Pink Floyd circa ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’, the new track marks an ambitious step into uncharted territory for Coldplay, though not eschewing too far from the alt-rockers’ standard fare.

2021 July 23, Ellie Robinson, “Coldplay shoot for the stars with their cinematic new track ‘Coloratura’”, in NME

(music, informal) A performer of alternative rock music.


viola pomposa

(music) An 18th-century five-stringed form of viola


gambang

(music) A xylophone-like instrument with wooden bars, used in Indonesian gamelan and kulintang music.


alamoth

Borrowed from Hebrew עֲלָמוֹת (‘ălāmōṯ, “women of childbearing age”), feminine plural of עֶלֶם (èlem, “man of marriageable age”).

bor

1 Chronicles 15:20 Zechariah, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah and Benaiah were to play the lyres according to alamoth ...

(biblical, music) soprano or, possibly, virgin


schalmei

From German Schalmei, from Middle High German schalmīe, from Old French chalemie. Compare Middle English shalemye.

Viols, bassoons, schalmeis (ancestors of the clarinet), horns, trumpets, kettle-drums, and other instruments afterward used in the orchestra were known in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, but there were no organizations of them.

In 1689 it was ordered in Chemnitz that schalmeis were to be played only by town musicians.

1980, Journal, International Double Reed Society, page 4

This instrument, also called the pommer, is a forerunner of the oboe. it has a narrow, conical bore and a double reed that is held between the lips of the player, as in older schalmeis that had no wind-cap.

2003, Bert Oling, Heinz Wallisch, The Complete Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments, Chartwell Books, page 97


barococo

Blend of baroque + rococo, coined by musicologist H.C. Robbins-Landon.

(music, derogatory) Of or relating to a style of easy listening music that originated in the Baroque and pre-Classic periods, associated with the emergence of LP records and the ability to listen repeatedly to recordings without paying attention to structure etc.


co-sounding

(music, acoustics, physics) sounding together


coresonant

(music, acoustics, physics) resounding or echoing together


hair metal

Referring to the typically long hair of the performers.

(informal, derogatory, music) Glam metal.


claviharp

(music) A 19th-century musical instrument combining a harp with a keyboard.

Klavierharfe

A musical instrument combining a harp with a keyboard


subdominance

(music) The quality or state of being subdominant.


semi-harmonic

(guitar) A barely thumb-muted pinch harmonic that does not completely deaden the fundamental note.


hypermese

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ὑπερμέση (hupermésē, “lying over the μέση (mésē) string”).

lying over the <i class="Polyt mention" lang="grc">μέση</i> (mésē) string


Baryton

(music) A reed stop on an organ of 16' or 8' that is imitative of a baryton.


unitemporal

(music) Having a single tempo throughout.


unimetric

(music) Having a single metre throughout.


jazz rap

(music) A fusion subgenre of hip-hop and jazz music, developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.


paraphonia

From Ancient Greek παραφωνία (paraphōnía).

(music) In Byzantine music, a melodic progression by consonances (fourths and fifths).


bambuco

(music) A traditional music genre from Colombia, formed in the 19th and 20th centuries as a blend of Basque folk music and the European waltz.


witch house

Inspired by early rave and dream-pop, witch house also takes its cue from the "chopped and screwed" remix technique so prevalent in early 90s hip-hop.

2010 September 25, Tim Jonze, “Witch house and the musicians taking us back to the future”, in The Guardian

(music, neologism) A style of music characterized by chopped and screwed hip-hop soundscapes, industrial and noise experimentation, and the use of synthesizers, drum machines, obscure samples, droning repetition and heavily altered, ethereal, indiscernible vocals.


scrumpy and western

(UK, humorous, music) A genre of comical folk songs from England's West Country.


Italo house

(music) A fusion genre of house music and Italo disco.


topshur

Borrowing from Russian топшу́р (topšúr), from Southern Altai топшуур (topšuur).

Favorite instruments of the Mongolians of Xinjiang are the matouqin, the sihu, the sanxian or three-stringed lute and the topshur.

1989, Ping Cheng, Xinjiang: The Land and the People, page 127

In these services, traditional instruments like the komus (mouth harp) and topshur (a two-stringed instrument), as well as well-established throat singing techniques, are often used.

2009, L. Broz, “Conversion to Religion? Negotiating Continuity and Discontinuity in Contemporary Altai.”, in Conversion after Socialism: Disruptions, Modernisms and Technologies of Faith in the Former Soviet Union

(music) A plucked two-string lute traditionally used by the Altai people.


cloud rap

(music) A subgenre of hip-hop music characterised by airy or atmospheric production.


gatra

(music) A unit of melody in Javanese gamelan music, analogous to a measure.


dichord

This in turn may lead to splitting the final note of the song into a dichord without the necessary existence of overlapping, but the dichord may be an interval of any kind, since it is melodically formed.

1981, Robert Fink, The Origin of Music: A Theory of the Universal Development of Music


home note

(music) The first note of a diatonic scale.


non troppo

andante non troppo: slow, but not too slow


reed organ

(music) A keyboard musical instrument of which the harmonium and the American organ are the principal types.


trance gate

(music) A sequencer effect that breaks up a continuous sound according to a programmed rhythm.


stutter edit

(music) An audio manipulation in which fragments of sound are repeated at rhythmic intervals, used for example in trance music.


bow grip

I need a re-hair and a new bow grip but I can't afford either.

(music, lutherie) The small section of a stringed instrument's bow near the heel having grippy material such as goatskin leather or snakeskin wrapped tightly around the bow stick between the lapping and the frog, so as to facilitate it being held and to protect the stick.

Improving your bow grip is one of the most challenging aspects of learning to play the violin.

(music) The refined and precise manner of holding the bow of a bowed string instrument.


rehair

en-verb

rehair (third-person singular simple present rehairs, present participle rehairing, simple past and past participle rehaired)

rehairs (present singular third-person)
rehairing (participle present)
rehaired (participle past)
rehaired (past)

Could you rehair my bow by tomorrow?

(music, lutherie, bowmaking) To renew the hair of the bow of a bowed string instrument.


rehair

I've heard he does excellent rehairs.

(music, lutherie, bowmaking) An instance of re-hairing.


underslide

(music, lutherie, bowmaking) The metal slide attached to the frog and sitting between the frog and the stick of a bow.


glee-beam

Calque of Old English glēobēam (“harp”, literally “joy-wood”), equivalent to glee + beam.

calque

"[…] So we do him service gladly, thronging round our noble king,

1895, Mary Louisa Georgina Petrie Carus-Wilson, Tokiwa and Other Poems, page 120

While the glee-beams at the banquet with the Scêfing's praises ring."

The king's scop or earl's gleeman, was the favourite of the court; the one indispensable guest at every banquet and every courtly gathering; whose skill with the glee-beam or harp spread joy throughout the festive hall, and whose memory was stored with soul-stirring tales of great deeds, the recital of which could not fail to fire the hearts and quicken the pulses of young and old alike.

1896, Stephen Humphreys Villiers Gurteen, The Epic of the Fall of Man

That man may sing and declare many things. A marvel of wisdom is hidden in his heart. Another with his fingers may loudly strike the harp, stir the glee-beam for the joy of his companions.

1919, The Wellesley Alumnae Quarterly, volume 4, page 166

Then there will we abide. Long have we wayfared, and wearied am I by the journey. Though the priests may not hearken to song, or story, or glee-beam, yet will they shelter us for the night.

1923, Lucy Foster Madison, A Maid at King Alfred's Court

(Anglo-Saxon, historical, kenning, music) A harp.

Anglo-Saxon; kenning; Anglo-Saxon; kenning


daxophone

From German Dachs (“badger”) (since it can generate animal sounds) and saxophone.

(music) An electric wooden experimental musical instrument, a kind of friction idiophone.


truck driver's gear change

(music, slang, derogatory) The practice of extending a composition by repeating an earlier section but transposed to a higher pitch.


buzzie

The brilliant qualities of the Diritto and the Curvo seem to lend themselves to use with sackbutts or large mixed ensembles composed of "buzzies" such as shawms, racketts, and crumhorns.

1976, International Trumpet Guild, ITG Journal - Volumes 1-5, page 32

...a large family of capped reeds, often referred to collectively and affectionately as buzzies, which contains many straight, cylindrical bore instruments such as Cornemusen (a term sometimes applied in general to the family), Schreierpfeiffen, and a modern generic reproduction known as the Glastonbury Pipe, to be discussed in more detail further on.

1991, Suzanne Eve Hirschman, Digital waveguide modeling and simulation of reed woodwind instruments

The “buzzies,” capped double-reed instruments like the crumhorn, the dulcian, the rankett (or “rackett”), provide a change of sonority, and sometimes an outburst of hilarity, when one of them is used or a consort is played together.

2011, Thomas Forrest Kelly, Early Music: A Very Short Introduction, page 47

(music) A capped double-reed instrument.


rondalla

(music) An ensemble of stringed instruments played with the plectrum or pick, originating in medieval Spain.


sundari

(music) A double-reed wind instrument with seven to nine holes, related to the shehnai.


lyrical dissonance

en-noun

lyrical dissonance (plural lyrical dissonances)

(music) A mismatch between the emotions of the lyrics and the music of a song


churchical

en-adj

churchical (comparative more churchical, superlative most churchical)

more churchical (comparative)
most churchical (superlative)

/ˈt͡ʃɜːt͡ʃɪk(ə)l/

/ˈt͡ʃɝt͡ʃɪk(ə)l/

To sum up, Rastafarian music has developed from the traditional chanting and drumming of predominantly "churchical" type to more "secular kind of projection of philosophy, not just confined to chanting but to popular, vernacular, more funky style … and of more general awareness of what is happening in different kinds of relationships."

1984, Yoshiko S. Nagashima, Rastafarian Music in Contemporary Jamaica: A Study of Socioreligious Music of the Rastafarian Movement in Jamaica (Performance in Culture; no. 3), Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia & Africa, →OCLC, page 94

In Rasta music there is the churchical (religious music) and the earthical (music for entertainment). In chants and churchical songs, the accent of the lifeline ridim is on the first and third beat, while in earthical songs the accent is on the second and fourth beat.

2000, Stephen Foehr, Jamaican Warriors: Reggae, Roots & Culture, London: Sanctuary Publ., page 95

In the mid-'90s, the murder of his [Buju Banton's] running mate Panhead [i.e., Pan Head, pseudonym of Anthony Johnson] forced him to question the gun talk and controversy that made him famous; the change of heart audible in the slower, churchical rhythms of his third LP 'Til Shiloh broke the mold a second time, in a sense making peace with [Bob] Marley's restless ghost.

2006, The Fader, New York, N.Y.: Fader, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 164

The chants and "churchical" beats of traditional Nyabhingi drumming played a vital role in Rastafarian Grounations, communal celebrations notable for their ital feasts, ganja smoking, and mystical theologizing.

2011, Erik Davis, Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica, Portland, Or.: YETI Books, Verse Chorus Press, page 245

(chiefly Jamaica, music) Belonging to a style of Reggae music that reflects a spiritual sensibility.


aulochrome

(music) A modern woodwind instrument consisting of two soprano saxophones that can be played either separately or together.


heartical

heartical (comparative more heartical, superlative most heartical)

more heartical (comparative)
most heartical (superlative)

Rasta music is sometimes played for what the brethren term "heartical" reasons (strictly for pleasure).

1998, Nathaniel Samuel Murrell, William David Spencer, Adrian Anthony McFarlane, Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader, page 242

The other type of music is called “heartical” and refers to songs which carry social commentary.

2003, Dick Hebdige, Cut `n' Mix: Culture, Identity and Caribbean Music, page 40

Churchical adopts the reggae beat to all hymns; heartical is the regular dance music. The latter form is used by the Twelve Tribes of Israel in their dance sessions.

2010, Leonard Barrett, The Rastafarians, page 267

(music) Pertaining to Rastafarian music that is secular in nature, intended for dancing or political commentary.


band camp

(education, music) An intensive program organised for primary, secondary or tertiary students of instrumental music, typically lasting a number of weeks and integrating rehearsals with social activities.


blockflute

From the fipple plug ("block") that constricts the mount of the instrument + flute. Corresponds to German Blockflöte, Dutch blokfluit, Danish blokfløjte, Swedish blockflöjt, Icelandic blokkflauta, Norwegian blokkfløyte.

(music) A musical instrument of the woodwind family constructed using a fipple plug; a recorder.


string quintet

(music) a group of five musicians playing string instruments, usually adding a second viola or cello to the string quartet's formation.

(music) a musical composition for such a group


neoprogressive

(music) Being or relating to a form of progressive rock that was briefly popular in the 1980s, characterized by deeply emotional content, often delivered via dramatic lyrics and on-stage theatricality.


township music

(music) Any of various music genres created by Bantu peoples living in poor, racially-segregated urban areas of South Africa ("townships") during the 20th century.


quadruple whole note

en-noun

quadruple whole note (plural quadruple whole notes)

(US, music) A note with twice or thrice the value of a double whole note.


ghungroo

Every dancer cherishes her ghungroos, and no wonder. From the time she first learnt to use her feet in step, they have been with her in ever-increasing numbers, and now, at the height of her artistic maturity, two-hundred or more adorn her ankles where once there had been only ten or twenty.

2021, “On the Ghungroos: Ankle-bells of Servitude, and Mastery”, in Donovan Roebert, editor, Essays on Classical Indian Dance, CRC Press

His other meagre finds include a lone ghungroo—a tiny silver orb that once belonged on an anklet—and what might have once been a copper nose pin.

2023, Radhika Iyengar, Fire on the Ganges, Fourth Estate, page 158

(music) A small metallic bell, usually part of a set strung together and worn on an anklet, especially by classical Indian dancers.


rhythmogram

(music) A graphical representation of the changing rhythms of a piece of music.


scandicus

(music) A neume representing an ascending set of three tones.


bipunctum

(music) a neume denoting either a single tone, either elongated or rearticulated.


torculus

From Latin torculus, from torqueō (“I twist, wind”).

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


Wagner tuba

The instrument was originally created for Richard Wagner's operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.

(music) A brass instrument that combines tonal elements of the French horn and the trombone.


mesteso

From Spanish mestizo. Doublet of mestizo.

(music) A genre of Spanish music that features a blend of contemporary and classical sounds


art pop

(music, pop) A genre of popular music influenced by pop art's integration of high and low culture.


Epi

The reviews I read to day were just product brochures. I'd like to know how that $4,000 Gibby is different and better than a $1,200 Gibby and a $400 Epi. Teach me something!

2006 October 22, Mark Nahra, “Re: Most magazine guitar reviews suck”, in alt.guitar (Usenet)


big room house

(music) A subgenre of house music consisting of minimal synthesizer drops and percussion with bass heavy kicks, one of the most popular electronic dance genres since the mid-2010s.


Epiphone

(music) A guitar manufactured by Epiphone, now a subsidiary of Gibson.


vude

Fiji's homespun reggae acts tour the region, while domestic audiences also devour the vude genre, which emerged in the 1980s and combines the regionally popular guitar/ukulele string-band style with disco and country elements.

2006 November 25, Christie Eliezer, “Islands of Sound: Foundation Plots Sea Change for Inventive Indigenous Music”, in Billboard, volume 118, number 47, page 15

(music) A musical genre emerged in Fiji in the 1980s, combining island music with disco and country elements.


submotif

(music) A motif forming part of a larger motif.


Istrian scale

(music) A distinctive six-tone scale used in Istrian and Kvarnerian folk music.