neuro

en-noun

neuro (countable and uncountable, plural neuros)

(uncountable, music, informal) Clipping of neurofunk.


hydraulophone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


power ballad

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


miskin

Now would I tune my Miskins on this Greene,

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


ECMA

East Coast Music Association
w:East Coast Music Association

(music) Acronym of East Coast Music Association.

East Coast Music Awards
w:East Coast Music Awards

(music) Acronym of East Coast Music Awards.


orchestrion

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


ambitus

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

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


pitchless

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


unpitched

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

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


countertheme

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


tentpole

His [James Rolfe's] reasoning dances around the simple fact that has set this innocuous-seeming movie apart from its fellow blockbusters this summer—that it’s a tentpole genre film starring women.

2016 May 18, David Sims, “The Outcry Against the All-Female ‘Ghostbusters’ Remake Gets Louder”, in The Atlantic

(US, attributive, figurative, film, television, theater) A large-scale entertainment production that is a major source of revenue for its studio, television network, or investors.


stylophone

(music) A small synthesizer operated using a stylus.


cantaro

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

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


mediant

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

(music) The third degree of the diatonic scale.


auto-tune

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

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


auto-tune

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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


progger

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

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


chordless

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

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

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

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

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

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

2007, Jason Murk, Tokharian Tales, page 96

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

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

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

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


timepoint

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


staffless

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


cimbasso

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


chacha

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

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

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


chop up

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

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

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

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


veena

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

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

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

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

2017, Sunil Khilnani, Incarnations, Penguin, page 375

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


post horn

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


clairon

(music) the second register of a clarinet.


buisine

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

Coordinate term: buccina

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

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

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

1860, John Hewitt, The fourteenth century, page 310

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


ASM

en-noun

ASM (countable and uncountable, plural ASMs)

assistant stage manager
assistant stage manager#English

(theater) Initialism of assistant stage manager.


stagewear

The only viable alternative, one that my daughter favored, was an item called boyshorts, a low-riding pair of short shorts loosely, or should I say tightly, based on Britney's stagewear.

2003 October 6, Claudia Wallis, “The thing about thongs”, in Time

(theater) Clothing designed to be worn while performing on stage.

(theater) Clothing worn by backstage crew.


meller

A shortening of melodrama + -er (“Variety -er”)

It pulls together first-rate pseudo-science and high-grade detective meller of the Spillane school (but entirely clean) and the result is fine read-and-forget entertainment.

1952 November 30, Groff Conklin, Galaxy Science Fiction, page 122, column 1


jor

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

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


angelot

Borrowed from French angelot, Late Latin angelotus.

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


white soul

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

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

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

白人靈魂樂

rhythm and blues or soul music performed by white artists


eurythmic

en-adj

eurythmic (comparative more eurythmic, superlative most eurythmic)

more eurythmic (comparative)
most eurythmic (superlative)


simple quadruple time

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


crotchet rest

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


race music

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

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

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

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


bit player

(theater, film) An actor who has a minor role in a production.


nebel

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

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

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


hocket

en-noun

hocket (countable and uncountable, plural hockets)

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

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

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


requinto

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


biordinal

(mathematics, music) Of the second order


conservatorium

conservatorium (plural conservatoriums or conservatoria)

conservatoriums (plural)
conservatoria (plural)

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

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


capeador

capeador (plural capeadors or capeadores)

(bullfighting) A person who aids a bullfighter by distracting the bull with his cape.


tarogato

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

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

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

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

(music) a reed instrument originating from Hungary


vihuela

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

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


(countable, music) The TB-303 synthesizer.


bichromatic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


chipmusic

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

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

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

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

(music) The musical genre made up of chiptunes.


soundcheck

soundcheck (countable and uncountable, plural soundchecks)

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

2012 November 15, Tom Lamont, The Daily Telegraph

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

hangpróba

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


clivis

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

(music) A neume representing two notes descending.


clausula

(music) The conclusion of a passage; cadence.


æquison

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

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

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

(rare, music) Archaic spelling of equison.


white label

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

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

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


folk rock

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


space rock

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

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

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


studio album

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

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


intra-octaval

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


octaval

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


live album

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


allegro ma non troppo

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

(music) A tempo mark lively but not too much

allegro ma non troppo

passage played allegro, but not too much so


allegro ma non troppo

(music) Describing a passage having this mark.


countrylike

en-adj

countrylike (comparative more countrylike, superlative most countrylike)

more countrylike (comparative)
most countrylike (superlative)


concent

en-noun

concent (countable and uncountable, plural concents)

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


concentus

Coordinate term: accentus

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


C-pop

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

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

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

(music) Chinese pop music influenced by western genres.


Mandopop

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


K-pop

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

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

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

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


falling action

(literature, drama) The events of a drama after the climax (or crisis) but before the denouement (or resolution).


chinrest

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


diple

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

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

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

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


Sturm und Drang

/ˈʃtəɹm ʊnt ˈdɹaŋ/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

狂飆突進運動

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


tamburitza

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

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

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


alto clef

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


superparticular

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


virgula

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

der

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

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


arsis

en-noun

arsis (countable and uncountable, plural arses)

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

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

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


noodly

en-adj

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2005, Paul Ford, Gary Benchley, Rock Star, Plume, page 290

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(music, informal) Involving improvisation.


reblock

en-verb

reblock (third-person singular simple present reblocks, present participle reblocking, simple past and past participle reblocked)

reblocks (present singular third-person)
reblocking (participle present)
reblocked (participle past)
reblocked (past)

In less than five hours the actors will perform the ballroom scene, rewritten and reblocked.

2013, Susan Letzler Cole, Playwrights in Rehearsal: The Seduction of Company, page 81

(transitive, theater) To block, or specify the position of, (actors on the stage) again.


through-composed

strophic

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

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


pantonal

en-adj

pantonal (comparative more pantonal, superlative most pantonal)

more pantonal (comparative)
most pantonal (superlative)

(music) Pertaining to, or exhibiting, pantonality.


pandiatonic

pandiatonic (comparative more pandiatonic, superlative most pandiatonic)

more pandiatonic (comparative)
most pandiatonic (superlative)

From pan- + diatonic, coined by Nicolas Slonimsky.

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


hyperbass flute

en-noun

hyperbass flute (plural hyperbass flutes)

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

flauto iperbasso

lowest pitched instrument in the flute family


demisharp

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


demiflat

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


Tristan chord

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

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


piano accordion

piano accordion (plural piano accordions)

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


augmented fourth

augmented fourth (plural augmented fourths)

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

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


diminished fifth

diminished fifth (plural diminished fifths)

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

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


augmented fifth

augmented fifth (plural augmented fifths)

An augmented fifth on C
1

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


irrelative

en-adj

irrelative (comparative more irrelative, superlative most irrelative)

more irrelative (comparative)
most irrelative (superlative)

Irrelative chords in music are those having no common tone.

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


heterophonic

(music) Exhibiting, or pertaining to, heterophony.


diminished fourth

en-noun

diminished fourth (plural diminished fourths)

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


crossfade

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


crossfade

en-verb

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

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

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


minor sixth

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


minor seventh

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

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


diminished octave

en-noun

diminished octave (plural diminished octaves)

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


diminished seventh

diminished seventh (plural diminished sevenths)

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


major sixth

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


major seventh

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


augmented octave

augmented octave (plural augmented octaves)

compound minor second
compound minor second

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


minor ninth

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


perfect octave

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


Christian metal

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


shurangiz

bor

Persian شورانگیز

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

شورانگیز

a member of the lute musical instrument family


riq

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


diastaltic

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


slowcore

Near-synonym: sadcore

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

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

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

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

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


nagara

Ultimately from Arabic نَقَّارَة (naqqāra). Doublet of nacre

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


sinfonietta

en-noun

sinfonietta (plural sinfoniettas or sinfoniette)

sinfoniettas (plural)
sinfoniette (plural)

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

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


taqwacore

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

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


flanger

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


counterline

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


noisecore

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


hyperinstrument

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


phin

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


Tejano

Tejano (countable and uncountable, plural Tejanos)

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

Coordinate term: norteño

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

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

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


aulos

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


tailpiece

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


invitatory

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


zygon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


mandore

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


harmolodics

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


tiple

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


cornett

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

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


percenter

From percent + -er (measurement suffix) or -er (informal entertainment suffix); the sense of "agent" relates to a percentage of profits being charged as a fee.

If you are an agent, and you have been or are being approached by the American Guild of Variety Artists to help form a percenter organization in your city, you could do worse than use the Artists Representatives' Association for your model.

(slang, entertainment, including sports) An agent.


cassingle

Blend of cassette + single; originally a trademark.

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


showband

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


shantyman

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


semidemisemiquaver

(music) hemidemisemiquaver (a 64th note)


sesquialtera

sesquialtera (countable and uncountable, plural sesquialteras)

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

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


yoik

yoik (countable and uncountable, plural yoiks)

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

(music, countable) A song in this tradition.


conductus

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


pentachord

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


gospeler

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


pedal stool

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

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

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

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

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


abruptio

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


pickguard

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


preclassical

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


pulsatory

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


aftertime

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


stompbox

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


power pop

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

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

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

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

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


trance music

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


produceorial

en-adj

produceorial (comparative more produceorial, superlative most produceorial)

more produceorial (comparative)
most produceorial (superlative)

I'm always just trying to get direct access to an audience, without having to go through the media hoops, or even theproduceorial hoops

2003, Kathleen Gallagher, “A dialogue with Ann-Marie MacDonald”, in How theatre educates: convergences and counterpoints with artists, scholars and advocates, University of Toronto Press, page 251

(film, theater) Of or pertaining to a producer; concerned with production


rebetiko

en-noun

rebetiko (countable and uncountable, plural rebetika)

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

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

1994, Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli's Mandolin

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

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

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

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


jug band

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

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

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

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

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

2004, Adam Copeland, Adam Copeland on Edge

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


mellotron

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


noisemonger

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

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

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


antimusical

en-adj

antimusical (comparative more antimusical, superlative most antimusical)

more antimusical (comparative)
most antimusical (superlative)

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

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


qanun

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

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

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

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


minorish

minorish (comparative more minorish, superlative most minorish)

more minorish (comparative)
most minorish (superlative)

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

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


partitur

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

uder

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

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

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


cantoris

/kænˈtɔːɹɪs/

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

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

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

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

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


tintinnabuli

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

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


whoops, there go my trousers

/ˈʍʊps ðɛː ˈɡəʊ maɪ ˈtɹaʊzəz/

/ˈwʊps ðɛɚ ˈɡoʊ maɪ ˈtɹaʊzɚz/

A reference to a gag in slapstick comedy theatre plays where a character’s trousers fall to the ground, exposing his underwear, to elicit laughs from the audience.

Four Rooms is the latest attempt to combine multiple directors' skits into one film. It is also an attempt to mix "whoops!-there-go-my-trousers" farce with the slick kitsch pop-art comedy.

1995 December 29, Chris Wright, “Four Rooms [TV review]”, in The Boston Phoenix, Boston, Mass.: Boston Phoenix, →OCLC, section 3, page 19

But what's this? A play about a Carry On film by Terry "Whoops, There Go My Trousers" Johnson, the man responsible for the National's revival of The London Cuckolds, an 18th-century version of Run For Your Wife?

1998 June 13, “Carry on up the National”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, weekend edition, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10, column 1

The bolts have to be opened and closed in the right combination to avoid scenes worthy of a French farce. But I feel less a character in ‘Whoops! There go my trousers’, and more like something miserable by [Samuel] Beckett or [Franz] Kafka about the meaningless of life, and the fatuity of communication.

2002, Simon Calder, No Frills: The Truth Behind the Low-cost Revolution in the Skies, London: Virgin Books, page 45

Instead this relies on the supposedly comical misunderstandings that have been a feature of sitcoms since the 1950s. [...] The children are smart arses, the laughter is canned, the parents befuddled and every line delivered as if they're on stage starring in "Whoops, There Go My Trousers".

2009 January 9, Andrea Mullaney, “TV Review: The Life of Riley, The Green Green Grass, Dexter”, in The Scotsman, Edinburgh: Scotsman Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2009-02-16

(comedy, theater) Used to describe a genre of farcical theatre plays.


CSM

Cantiga de Santa Maria
w:Cantigas de Santa Maria

(music) Initialism of Cantiga de Santa Maria.


biniou

Borrowed from Breton binioù, plural of béni.

(music) A set of traditional Breton bagpipes.


happy hardcore

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


deathcore

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

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

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


inversus

(music) The inverted part of a composition.


come stà

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

bor

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


descrescendo

en-noun

descrescendo (plural descrescendos or decrescendi)

descrescendos (plural)
decrescendi (plural)

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

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

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


sudser

From suds + -er (“Variety -er”), with an allusion to soap in soap opera.


indietronica

Coordinate term: indie rock

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

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

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


spooktacular

Ghostbusters: A Live Action Spooktacular features a breathtaking set as well as impressive stunt work and laser and ghost effects, but the show has yet to be fine-tuned.

1990 June 29, “New Universal Studios Is Getting Its Act Together”, in Orlando Sentinel, archived from the original on 2012-10-03

The annual Halloween Spooktacular was held for the Tri-town community where over 300 young children come to the high school to enjoy a fun-filled evening that is presented by a large variety of King Philip clubs and organizations.

2010, Plainville, Massachusetts annual reports, page 110

At the end of each October, Cal State Long Beach hosts its annual Spooktacular where people from every field and department dress to the nines with fake blood and every gory fake body part imaginable.

(entertainment, informal) A Halloween-themed event or episode.


Liszt

en-proper noun

Liszt (countable and uncountable, plural Liszts)

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


modulin

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


kissar

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


porrectus

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

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


off vocal

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


RMI

Rocky Mount Instruments
w:Rocky Mount Instruments

(music) Abbreviation of Rocky Mount Instruments.


superius

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


soft pedal

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

hiljennyspedaali

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


intervallic

en-adj

intervallic (comparative more intervallic, superlative most intervallic)

more intervallic (comparative)
most intervallic (superlative)

The two Integrations of 1967 are the most intervallic of the selections here, emphasizing minor ninths and “minor” fifths (13 quarter tones), and, in the second Integration, setting up simultaneous “rotations” of descending and ascending “minor” fifths.

1979, Joel Flegler, Fanfare, volume 3, numbers 1-3, self-published, page 161

(chiefly music) Of, or pertaining to, intervals.


scabellum

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


tooner

From toon (“cartoon”) + -er (“Variety -er”).

In Hollywood, director Chris Columbus is still high on making Marvel's Fantastic Four for summer of 98 - the same target for German tooners

A 1986 animated movie was based on the original "Transformers" television show, which was based, of course, on the popular multiform robot toy line. It didn't go over well at the boxoffice. (That tooner, incidentally, was set in 2005.)

2007 June 29, “Transformers an exciting thrill ride”, in Reuters

A dozen or more 3-D films, five of which hail from Europe, hit Cannes' market. At least 20 3-D indie pics, including pioneering Euro 3-D tooners "Holy Night!" from Spain's Dygra, and Pascal Herold's "Cinderella," are now in production.

2009 June 12, John Hopewell, “3-D reaches a tipping point in Europe”, in Variety

Disney's 3D tooner "Toy Story 3" grossed $6.8 million in fourth place on Friday

2010 October 14, Carl DiOrio, “'Despicable Me' tops Friday with $21.7 mil”, in Hollywood Reporter

(entertainment industry, informal) An animated film or TV show.


dubby

dubby (comparative more dubby, superlative most dubby)

more dubby (comparative)
most dubby (superlative)

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

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

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

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

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


Stroh violin

Named after its German designer, Johannes Matthias Augustus Stroh.

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


Classical period

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


Romantic period

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


Galant

Borrowed from French galant (“gallant”).

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


bhajan

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

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

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

(music) A type of Indian devotional song.


offcast

en-verb

offcast (third-person singular simple present offcasts, present participle offcasting, simple past and past participle offcast)

offcasts (present singular third-person)
offcasting (participle present)
offcast (participle past)
offcast (past)

From Middle English ofcasten, equivalent to off- + cast. Cognate with Danish afkaste (“to shed”), Swedish avkasta (“to crop, throw off, yield”).
The noun is possibly derived from Middle English ofcast (“the refuse of plants”).

inh

The experiment to offcast Davis began in 1937 with That Certain Woman; "She's a lady," we are told.

1985, Tino Balio, The American film industry

[...] and Paramount was not inclined to offcast its stars, the story was dropped.

White actresses were able to maintain a more multidimensional star persona than actresses of color, thanks in large part to their ability to off-cast themselves in challenging roles and control their off-screen image through publicity.

(transitive, theater, television) to remove from the cast of a production.


flautino

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


diaphony

en-noun

diaphony (countable and uncountable, plural diaphonies)

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

der

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


nondiegetic

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


didgeridooer

(music) Someone who plays the didgeridoo


semihemidemisemiquaver

(music, principally UK) quasihemidemisemiquaver.


sharp-and-a-half

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


neutral clef

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


C clef

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


lead single

(music) The first single released from an album


steal the show

en-verb

steal the show (third-person singular simple present steals the show, present participle stealing the show, simple past stole the show, past participle stolen the show)

steals the show (present singular third-person)
stealing the show (participle present)
stole the show (past)
stolen the show (participle past)

And it was Lampard who stole the show with a vintage performance to silence some of his recent critics.

2011 October 2, Jonathan Jurejko, “Bolton 1 - 5 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport

(idiomatic, intransitive, entertainment) To be the best performer during a performance.

teatr jednego aktora

used as a noun phrase that describes an actor


sing up

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

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

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


compunctis

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


underhold

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

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

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


stride piano

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


novillo

(bullfighting) A young bull (fought by a novillero).


clown car

From a comedy routine first invented by the Cole Brothers Circus during the 1950s.

Kids of all ages have been applauding the clown car trick for more than 60 years, ever since it was first introduced in 1950 by master clown Otto Griebling at the Cole Brothers Circus.

2012, Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Vroom!

It looked as if around fifty people got out and it reminded me of a clown car at a circus.

2014, Allen Laycock, Hereditary Decision, page 9

Sometimes clowns do a trick called “clown car,” where a bunch of clowns squeeze into a car and come out, one by one. ... If you go to a circus with a clown car, you'll see they have suitcases, beach balls, and other items to make it funnier.

2016, Stephanie Faris, Piper Morgan Joins the Circus

(comedy) A circus clown routine in which an implausibly large number of clowns climb into or out of a small car.


jazz band

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


dal segno

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


neutral third

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


cut time

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


quarter rest

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


raggamuffin

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

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

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

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


arpeggiator

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

arpejador

effect that plays an arpeggio from an input chord


echoplex

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


echoplex

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

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

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


high note

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

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


endpin

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

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

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


spatialize

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

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

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

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

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


sarod

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

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

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


armónico

Borrowed from Spanish armónico (“harmonic”).

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


ryo

Coordinate term: ritsu

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


ragtimey

en-adj

ragtimey (comparative more ragtimey, superlative most ragtimey)

more ragtimey (comparative)
most ragtimey (superlative)

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

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

(informal, music) Resembling ragtime music.


boula

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

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


charanga

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

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

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

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

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


ritsu

Coordinate term: ryo

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


trimba

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

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

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


ukelin

Originally a trademark. Blend of ukelele + violin.

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

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

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


superband

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

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


stoner rock

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

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

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


ABG

en-noun

ABG (countable and uncountable, plural ABGs)

acoustic bass guitar
acoustic bass guitar#English

(music) Initialism of acoustic bass guitar.


hocketed

en-adj

hocketed (comparative more hocketed, superlative most hocketed)

more hocketed (comparative)
most hocketed (superlative)

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

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


dream pop

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


steel guitar

en-noun

steel guitar (countable and uncountable, plural steel guitars)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


by-play

by-play (countable and uncountable, plural by-plays)

(theater) Action carried on aside, commonly in dumb show, while the main action proceeds; action not intended to be observed by some of the persons present.


ground bass

ground bass (countable and uncountable, plural ground basses)

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


quintole

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


art rock

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


sub-bass

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

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


number three

(theater) A small town where theatrical performances are unlikely to meet with much success.


onbeat

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


forebeat

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


afterbeat

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

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

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

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

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


quinible

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


noncuple

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

uder

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

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


sirvente

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

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


Aristophanic

en-adj

Aristophanic (comparative more Aristophanic, superlative most Aristophanic)

more Aristophanic (comparative)
most Aristophanic (superlative)


l'istesso tempo

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

der

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


pre-hook

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


sixteenth note

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


sixteenth rest

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


eighth rest

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


shepherd's pipe

en-noun

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

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


thirty-second note

thirty-second note (plural thirty-second notes)

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


32nd note

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


alla breve

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

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


alla breve

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


octavated

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

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

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


harmonic minor scale

harmonic minor scale (plural harmonic minor scales)

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

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


melodic minor scale

melodic minor scale (plural melodic minor scales)

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

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

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


natural minor scale

natural minor scale (plural natural minor scales)

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

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

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

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


up bow

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


down bow

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


tenor clef

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


octavation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


octavate

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(music) To sound one octave higher or lower.

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

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

He varies and octavates, leaving Bach listeners thunderstruck.

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

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

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

1999, Jon Chappell, The Recording Guitarist, page 133

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


octavating

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

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

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

Ob 1 = flute 1 (= octavating violin 1)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


C major

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

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


multimovement

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

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


flyman

(theater) Someone who operates a fly system in a theatre.


una corda pedal

en-noun

una corda pedal (plural una corda pedals)


D-flat major

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

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

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


D-flat major

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


F major

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

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

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


E major

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

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

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


D major

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

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

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


G major

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

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

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


postserial

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

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


melos

(music) The melody in Ancient Greek music.


ghatam

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

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

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


gyil

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

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

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


hamfatter

US, a. 1880. Possibly from a minstrel show song called The Ham-Fat Man (1863).

(US slang, acting) A low-grade actor; a ham.


C-clef

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


alt-country

alternative country
alternative country#English

(music) Clipping of alternative country.


sound hole

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

ääniaukko

an opening in a stringed musical instrument


chart-topping

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


double whole note

double whole note (plural double whole notes)

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

倍全音符

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


champeta

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

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

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


pochade

In despair, he finally painted a pochade of people leaving the church of Saint-François, in the village of the same name.

2004, David Karel, André Biéler: at the Crossroads of Canadian Painting, page 115

This painting was very small, not even a study but a pochade — no more than a first idea jotted down in paint.

2008, Martin Gayford, The Yellow House, page 116


scale degree

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


Mixolydian mode

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

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

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

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


Dorian mode

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

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

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

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


Phrygian mode

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

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

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

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


Ionian mode

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

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

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

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


Lydian mode

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

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

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

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


Aeolian mode

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

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

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

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


double sharp

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

dubbelkruis

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


double flat

Coordinate term: double sharp

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

dubbelmol

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


octatonic scale

octatonic scale (plural octatonic scales)

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


hemitonic pentatonic scale

hemitonic pentatonic scale (plural hemitonic pentatonic scales)

(music) A pentatonic scale that contains half steps.


augmented second

augmented second (plural augmented seconds)

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


anhemitonic pentatonic scale

anhemitonic pentatonic scale (plural anhemitonic pentatonic scales)

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


sixty-fourth note

sixty-fourth note (plural sixty-fourth notes)

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


leading tone

(music) scale degree seven when the first scale degree is one half step higher than the seventh scale degree


in the round

There is another sense in which we can say that theatre begins in the round. Teachers in schools frequently observe that the dramatic play of children and their early attempts at theatre frequently take a natural in-the-round shape.

1982, Jack Mitchley, Peter Spalding, Five Thousand Years of Theatre, Batsford Academic and Educational

By staging national identity “in the round,” Arena opens up multifaceted perspectives of who comprises the nation and under what circumstances. Finchandler observed: “Since it has no back, front or sides, the arena becomes a highly democratic form for the audience, […].”

2019, Donatella Galella, America in the Round: Capital, Race, and Nation at Washington D.C.'s Arena Stage, University of Iowa Press, page 15

Down in the arena, though, it was business as semi-normal with the band members making their traditional promenade through the crowd to a small in-the-round stage with a colourful player piano taking up most of the room.

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

(theater) Having a stage completely surrounded by an audience.


yé-yé

yé-yé (countable and uncountable, plural yé-yés)

From French yéyé, from English yeah-yeah.

[…] she (Françoise Hardy) is so today, so white boots and yé-yé, that she can make anyone over 25 (me) feel prehistoric, raccoon coat and rah-rah.

1966 December 18, Joan Barthel, “Francoise from France: White Boots and Ye-Ye”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(uncountable, music) A genre of pop music of the early 1960s in Europe.


funkabilly

(music) A subgenre of popular music that blends rockabilly with funk.


jazzcore

Their new jazzcore outing is everything the men in furs are not: chaotic, uncontrolled, sloppy, and low-fi.

1997, CMJ New Music Monthly, number 41, page 46

(music) An aggressive style of jazz with hardcore punk elements.


cuddlecore

[…]the syrupy cuddlecore of bands like cub and Shonen Knife.

(music, informal) A twee, childlike style of alternative rock.


Frenchcore

(music) A French style of rave or gabber music.


darkcore

From dark + -core, perhaps from the 1993 track Darkcore by Two Dark Troopers, released on Basement Records.

Of course, even amid the beeps and beats good old guitar music never went away, and there are plenty of indie, punk and alternative bands gigging to appreciative audiences, as well as the resolutely grim Gothic and darkcore fringe.

2002, Andrea Schulte-Peevers, Berlin, page 36

(music) A subgenre of jungle music with morbid, horror-based themes.


mathcore

While all that herky-jerky mathcore in your collection might not fit the bill, put some Portishead on your Pod and the attached OhMiBod will respond rhythmically in kind.

(music) A rhythmically complex and dissonant style of metalcore music.


funkcore

Five songs of spunky funkcore. Bouncy, peppy stuff with annoying tempo changes and whiny singing.

And even if you really want to, you can always buy your suit on the cheap from Overstock.com, hope nobody notices, and use the $500 you saved to buy studio time for your new indie-funkcore-folk band.

2006, New Zealand Centre for Independent Studies, Policy, volume 22

(music) An aggressive style of funk music influenced by rock or metal.


skacore

TVT's Buck-O-Nine will deliver more San Diego skacore on "Libido" in September.

1998, Billboard, volume 110, number 34, page 59

Cut for cut, Pay Attention is another step in songwriting evolution for the once-plaid-clad architects of the fusion of punk rock and Afro-Caribbean dance music known as skacore.

2000, CMJ New Music Monthly, number 81, page 47

(music) A genre that blends ska music with hardcore punk.