scenarise

en-verb

scenarise (third-person singular simple present scenarises, present participle scenarising, simple past and past participle scenarised)

scenarises (present singular third-person)
scenarising (participle present)
scenarised (participle past)
scenarised (past)

On the basis of an exceptionally interesting story, skilfully scenarised by Eliot Stannard, Frank Crane has built a photo-play in which humour, tragedy, and romance blend exquisitely.

1922, Motion Picture Studio - Volume 1, Issues 31-52, page 21

Directed by Joseph de Grasse from a Harvey Gates story scenarised by Ida May Park (Mrs. de Grasse), Hell Morgan's Girl presented Chaney in the role of Sleter Noble, a tough but sexy politician gang leader of San Francisco's Barbary Coast.

1976, DeWitt Bodeen, From Hollywood: The Careers of 15 Great American Stars, page 212

In fact, Spencer Williams was maligned by the studios, forcing the Pittsburgh Courier to express it's disapproval of such practices by stating, 'Spencer Williams is said to have lost a golden opportunity at Christie Studios by kicking too soon for screen credit for pictures he claims to have helped scenarise. He is said to have forgotten that we have to abide our time.'

(film, theater) To create the physical set and staging for a film or play.


rock opera

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


hip hopera

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


micromelody

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


sordono

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


compound time

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


raboday

(music) A genre of drum music from Haiti


combolin

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

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


tear-mouth

You grow rich, do you, and purchase, you twopenny tear-mouth?

1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster, act 3, scene 1

How would you, or how do you think I should, relish being the object of such a letter as Kean wrote t'other day to a poor author, who, though a pedantic blockhead, had at least the right to be treated as a gentleman by a copper-laced two-penny tearmouth, rendered mad by conceit and success?

1819 April 30, Sir Walter Scott, [Letter to Robert Southey]


saroh

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


expression stop

en-noun

expression stop (plural expression stops)

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


makeup call

The director scheduled the makeup call for 30 minutes before the play started.

The model had to rush to get to her 8:30 makeup call.

(acting, modeling) A verbal or written request, or a scheduled time, for actors or models to be available for the application of cosmetics, hairstyling, etc. prior to a performance or photography session.


syntonic comma

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


comma of Didymus

comma of Didymus (plural commas of Didymus)

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


hardcore techno

electronic dance music
electronic dance music

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


passing note

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


wind chime

(music, percussion) A singular tubular bell.


symphonion

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


problem play

(theater) A form of drama that emerged in the 19th century as part of realism, dealing with contentious social issues through debates between the characters on stage, who typically represent conflicting points of view within a realistic social context.


shepherd's flute

(music) A flageolet or similar instrument.


panmelodion

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


splice edit

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


trigonon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(music, historical) A small triangular harp.


yes and

en-verb

yes and (third-person singular simple present yes ands, present participle yes anding, simple past and past participle yes anded)

yes ands (present singular third-person)
yes anding (participle present)
yes anded (participle past)
yes anded (past)

From a well-known rule in improv acting, wherein improvised lines must (figuratively) be answered with yes and... in order to continue the scene.

If Lord Buckley made standup courageous, then Lenny Bruce “yes anded” that and ushered in standup for a new age

2011, Margaret Hicks, Chicago Comedy: A Fairly Serious History

(acting) To go along with what is offered, especially in a performative context, and to accept and expand upon it; to go with the flow; to take it in stride.


dubdown

en-noun

dubdown (countable and uncountable, plural dubdowns)

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

1971, Exclusively Yours - Volume 24, page 59

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

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

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

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

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

2012, Todd Van Buskirk, Purple Chick, page 272


combination pedal

combination pedal (plural combination pedals)

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


downpicking

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

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

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

2009, The Ghosts of Harlem: Sessions with Jazz Legends

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

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

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


downpick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


downpick

en-verb

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

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

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

1992, Musician - Issues 165-170, page 100

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

1999, Old Time Herald - Volume 7, page 52

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


downpicked

en-adj

downpicked (comparative more downpicked, superlative most downpicked)

more downpicked (comparative)
most downpicked (superlative)

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

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

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

2005, Review of Contemporary Fiction, page 141

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

2013, Martin Popoff, Metallica: The Complete Illustrated History


echoi

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

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


rondoletto

en-noun

rondoletto (plural rondolettos or rondoletti)

rondolettos (plural)
rondoletti (plural)


synthetist

(music) A musician that plays the synthesizer.


millennial whoop

millennial whoop (plural millennial whoops)

Coined in 2016 by the musician Patrick Metzger.

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


polyphant

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


penorcon

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


Kafir harp

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


head

Father Charles goes down and ends battle

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


guarania

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

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


wobble bass

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


sourdeline

(music, historical) A kind of small bagpipe.


violining

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


sidegirl

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

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

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

The sidegirls paraded into their place beside the gangplank;

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

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


coordinome

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


sesquitertia

en-noun

sesquitertia (countable and uncountable, plural sesquitertias)

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


bisonoric

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


unisonoric

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


psychill

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


psybient

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


madrigalistic

en-adj

madrigalistic (comparative more madrigalistic, superlative most madrigalistic)

more madrigalistic (comparative)
most madrigalistic (superlative)

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

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


twoprov

After realizing on their first date that they were both comedians, Alissa and Juliette immediately formed a twoprov team together.

I know you do twoprov with your EmotiStyle partner, Molly Austin.

2014 February 20, Brittani Nichols, “Comedy Crush: EmotiStyle's Shamikah Martinez”, in Autostraddle, archived from the original on 2017-07-10

Opening the night was We Know Each Other, a fitting name for a married couple. We Know Each Other is a twoprov group that blends silliness, emotionality, and quirky characters in each scene.

2016 June 25, Aly, “Twin Cities Improv Festival X”, in Say Entirely, archived from the original on 2016-07-16

The solo improv parts are very entertaining and the twoprov parts are very fun because they really play off each others comedy very very well.

2018 July 17, Holly, “Funny At The Fringe – REVIEW – Christian Adore and Eaton Messe DragProv Revue, Edinburgh Fringe Preview”, in Phoenix Remix, archived from the original on 2018-07-19

improvisational comedy
improvisational comedy#English

(comedy) Improv (usually improvisational comedy) performed by a duo.


monoscene

Her team once did a six-hour monoscene without any breaks!

This process of bringing up new things to talk about is key to making monoscenes interesting. A common problem I see in a monoscene are characters who are so focused on one and only one thing.

2015 March 21, Kevin Mullaney, KevinMullaney.com, archived from the original on 2016-11-04

Justin Peters and Kelly Buttermore present their experimental improv show, a unique monoscene that is almost entirely silent.

2016 December 1, Elise Czajkowski, “Comedy Listings for Dec. 2-8”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2018-02-11

Longform improv sets typically run between 20 and 25 minutes, and Big Baby performs a style known as a "bunker monoscene" in which the entire show is a single scene in a single location.

2017 December 6, Robert J. Moore, “3 Things Improv Comedy Taught Me About Starting a Business”, in Entrepreneur, archived from the original on 2018-07-26

(comedy) A specific form of improvisational comedy in which scenes are performed without edits.


pantaleon

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


BTS

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


blackster

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

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

2001, The Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press

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

2006, Nikki 666, Special Friend, page 37

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


tridecimal

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


groovebox

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

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


organ harmonium

en-noun

organ harmonium (plural organ harmoniums)

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


circle pit

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

From circle + pit, modelled after mosh pit.

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

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

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


freak folk

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

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

psychedelic folk
psychedelic folk#English


reciting note

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


headjoint

(music) The joint of a flute containing the mouthpiece


stockhorn

(music) An old musical instrument, the pibgorn.


reed knife

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


bullerengue

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

blend

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


MPC

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

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

Music Production Center
w:Music Production Center

(music) Initialism of Music Production Center.


power electronics

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


non-transposing

Violin is a non-transposing instrument

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


tenor trombone

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


pitchpipe

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


Nachschlag

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


inner voice

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


dugazon

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


string organ

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


pops orchestra

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


ondist

(music) A person who played a ondes martenot


ondes martenot

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

named-after

Coordinate term: theremin

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

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

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

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

(music) An early electric keyboard instrument.


open tuning

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


organ-point

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


a battuta

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


cross-cast

en-verb

cross-cast (third-person singular simple present cross-casts, present participle cross-casting, simple past and past participle cross-cast)

cross-casts (present singular third-person)
cross-casting (participle present)
cross-cast (participle past)
cross-cast (past)

(theater) To cast an actor of the opposite gender to play a part.


breve rest

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


well firmed

en-adj

well firmed (comparative more well firmed, superlative most well firmed)

more well firmed (comparative)
most well firmed (superlative)

(theater, dated) Well prepared, having thoroughly memorized one's part.


jeune premier

en-noun

jeune premier (plural jeunes premiers or jeune premiers)

jeunes premiers (plural)
jeune premiers (plural)

Unadapted borrowing from French jeune premier; first used in the early 1800s.

ubor

(theater) actor who plays young hero/lover roles


precompositionally

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


precomposition

en-noun

precomposition (countable and uncountable, plural precompositions)

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


skramz

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

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

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


sublow

(music) Grime music with very low bass frequencies.


BACH

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


holy unblack metal

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

calque

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


underpoint

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

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

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

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

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

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


kosmische musik

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

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

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

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

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

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


double-stop

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


double-stop

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

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

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

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

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

2014, Michael John Sanchez, Fiddle For Dummies

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


three-quarter time

en-noun

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

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


hip-pocket client

hip-pocket client (plural hip-pocket clients)

As a hip-pocket client, you'll receive a short burst of attention and your script will probably be sent out to a few places. If the script doesn't generate heat, the agency will quickly write you off.

2013, Mary Johnson, The New Scriptwriter's Journal, page 289

(entertainment industry) A person who is being provisionally represented by an agent but is not yet signed by the agency.


Chapman stick

From the surname of its inventor, Emmett Chapman.

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


post-metal

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


chamber pop

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

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

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


Macbeth trap

Named after Shakespeare's play Macbeth, in which such a contrivance could be used to bring the ghost of Banquo onto the stage.

(theater) A kind of stage trapdoor rigged to drop below floor level and slide to one side.


Macready pause

Named after William Macready (1793–1873), English actor.

(theater) A brief pause during the delivery of a speech in a play, to make the speaking seem more natural.


plugg

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

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


versette

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


NWOBHM

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

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


soprillo

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


pickup cover

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

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


trap-pop

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

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


Novachord

(music, historical) An early electronic polyphonic synthesizer.


polytimbral

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


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


power trio

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


counterphrase

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


unacoustic

en-adj

unacoustic (comparative more unacoustic, superlative most unacoustic)

more unacoustic (comparative)
most unacoustic (superlative)

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

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

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

2014, The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia On A Budget

(music) Not acoustic; electronically generated or amplified.


easycore

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


untexted

(music) without accompanying words or text.


unnotated

(music) Not recorded in musical notation


cross-tune

en-verb

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

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

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


cross-tuning

en-noun

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

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


accorgan

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


string plate

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


cowboy chord

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


solidbody

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


kernei

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


intabulation

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


chromagram

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


wavefolding

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


Eurorack

(music) A kind of customizable modular audio synthesizer.


deep cut

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

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

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

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

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

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


requiem mass

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


cue-to-cue

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


suboscillator

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


sight sing

en-verb

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

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

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

laulaa nuoteista

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


stagger breathe

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

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

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


stagger breathing

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


undecet

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

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


hundred twenty-eighth note

en-noun

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

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

quintuple croche

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


two hundred fifty-sixth note

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

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

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

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


256th note

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

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


128th note

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

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


make an entrance

en-verb

make an entrance (third-person singular simple present makes an entrance, present participle making an entrance, simple past and past participle made an entrance)

makes an entrance (present singular third-person)
making an entrance (participle present)
made an entrance (participle past)
made an entrance (past)


crunkcore

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


prechorus

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


DLP

(theater) Initialism of dead letter-perfect: having learned one's lines with perfect accuracy.


matched grip

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


traditional grip

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


saringda

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

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


quadreble

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

1959, The Musical quarterly - Volume 45, page xlvi

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

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

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

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

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


bugle scale

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


whirly tube

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


stagger-through

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

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

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

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

2016, Don Harmon, Producing in Theater, page 45

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


triple harp

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


pick slide

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


four-waller

With their audience's desires carefully measured and films made to match those desires, four-wallers then saturated local television markets with advertisements for their movies […]

2009, Joshua Blu Buhs, Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend, page 155

(film, theater) A company that rents a cinema or theater under a four-wall arrangement.


halldorophone

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

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

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

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

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

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

2018, Andrew Hugill, The Digital Musician, Routledge

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

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

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

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

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


regie-book

From German Regiebuch, from Regie (“direction (of theatrical work)”) + Buch (“book”).

The director's action plot, prompt-book or regie-book — whichever he calls it — shows diagrammatically the relative positions and movements of the performers throughout the play.

1938, Theatre Arts Monthly, volume 22, page 513

[…] he writes in the margins and blank pages all important statements made by the director about motivations and characterizations, about the cutting or adding of words or lines, the actors' comment on characters and dialogue — in short, the regie-book is a complete picture of what happened at rehearsals.

(theater) A director's notebook detailing the development of a production.


Beyhive

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


top note

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


dress the house

dress the house (third-person singular simple present dresses the house, present participle dressing the house, simple past and past participle dressed the house)

dresses the house (present singular third-person)
dressing the house (participle present)
dressed the house (participle past)
dressed the house (past)

[…] to pay this tax through inviting a certain class of the public, who are always invited, to theatres of standing to dress the house.

1917, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), page cccxlvi

[…] we critics were not his fellow-guests, but simply deadheads whose business it was to "dress the house" and write puffs.

1931, Bernard Shaw, Our Theatre in the Nineties, volume 24, page 246

The box office in a reserved seat house and the ushers in a non-reserved situation are responsible for dressing the house—that is, seating the audience so as to elicit the maximum response, […]

1979, Lawrence Stern, School and Community Theater Management: A Handbook for Survival

(theater) To position oneself, or others, so as to make the auditorium appear fuller than it really is.


Boston version

If a routine was on the blue side — unsuitable for families — performers might want to develop a Boston version so they could play the Sunday school circuit.

2005, Rosemarie Ostler, Dewdroppers, Waldos, and Slackers

Some theaters put on censored “Boston versions” of shows. The Watch and Ward Society successfully stamped out what it considered indecency in Boston's public life. But this movement had unintended results.

2010, Christine Zuchora-Walske, Internet Censorship: Protecting Citizens or Trampling Freedom?

(theater) A bowdlerized version of a play to appeal to puritanical sensibilities.


death whistle

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


low fidelity

en-adj

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

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

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


citronella circuit

Coinage attributed to the actress Tallulah Bankhead. Citronella is an insect repellent that one might expect to use outdoors in summer.

They either starve, take up smuggling or invade the citronella circuit in a beat-up revival.

1951, LIFE, volume 30, number 26, page 94

We don't mean just the usual fare of summer stock offerings, although it is certainly pleasant to see a recent Broadway hit or view a tryout for the Big Time on the so-called citronella circuit.

(theater, informal) The round of summer stock theater performances.


coffee and cakes

Most of our actors are working on the cooperative basis. Do you know what that means? It means you get part of it if it comes in, and in a lot of cases that means coffee and cakes.

1932, United States. Congress. Senate. Finance Committee, Revenue Act of 1932, Hearings

Past jobs on air have paid coffee and cakes here.


Dylanology

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

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


Dylanologist

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

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


soloprov

I think performing soloprov would give me even more stagefright than I usually get doing improv with my team.

She mentioned a 15-minute set of "soloprov" where De La Bruere played all of the characters.

2017 March 16, Brent Hallenbeck, “Check out these up-and-coming comics”, in Burlington Free Press, archived from the original on 2020-03-31

How do you rehearse for a soloprov show? Do you have any rituals?

2018 July 9, Holly, “Funny at the Fringe – Interview – Peter Marino – Show Up”, in Phoenix Remix, archived from the original on 2020-03-31

I've also been using that time to put up soloprov showcases, where we have really great rotating lineups of both new and experienced solo improvisers.

2020 January 25, Alex Finch, “Interview: Michelle Drozdick”, in Comedy to Watch, archived from the original on 2020-03-31

(comedy) Improv (usually improvisational comedy) performed by a single improviser.


groundrow

(theater) A low, narrow flat used to suggest the presence of a building, fence, hedge, etc.


skycloth

(theater) A backcloth depicting the sky.


basset clarinet

en-noun

basset clarinet (plural basset clarinets)

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


Zamrock

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


Caribbean dance music

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


microlabel

(music) A very small-scale record label.


scène à faire

(theater, literary criticism) A scene which is demanded by the progression of the plot so far; an indispensable culminating scene.


mainpiece

A typical evening at the principal Dublin theatres could extend over five or six hours and consisted of a mainpiece, frequently with a prologue and epilogue, followed by one, and occasionally two, afterpieces.

1993, John C Greene, Gladys LH Clark, The Dublin Stage, 1720–1745, page 72

Drury Lane and Covent Garden put on mainly spoken plays; the all-sung operas staged there were usually afterpieces in English, though operas with spoken dialogue also appeared among the mainpieces in various guises, including ballad opera and burletta.

2007, Michael Burden, edited by Moody & O'Quinn, British Theatre 1730-1830, page 205

(theater) The primary play or other work performed at an evening's entertainment at the theatre, as opposed to smaller introductory or additional works.


return piece

(theater) Synonym of jog (“type of flat”)


meloplast

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


Abbaesque

en-adj

Abbaesque (comparative more Abbaesque, superlative most Abbaesque)

more Abbaesque (comparative)
most Abbaesque (superlative)

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

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

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

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

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


at liberty

(euphemistic, theater) Unemployed; out of work.


flicker wheel

(theater) A rotating perforated disc that gives a flickery effect to light coming from behind it.


COF

circle of fifths
circle of fifths#English

circle of fourths
circle of fourths#English

(music) Initialism of circle of fourths.


morache

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


vib.

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

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


poison at the box office

(film, theater) An unappealing play or film that sells very few tickets.


German flute

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

(music, now chiefly historical) A transverse flute.


in one

(theater) Performed downstage between the frontmost pieces of scenery.


park and bark

(theater, slang) Denoting a performer who speaks or sings while stationary, without moving or dancing.


ghost character

en-noun

ghost character (plural ghost characters)

Beside this detailed information which Hall provides about Matthew Gough, Shakespeare's Gough is a ghost character. There is, indeed, no way in which an audience could pick up who he is when he appears only to be killed immediately.

2003, Catherine M. S. Alexander, The Cambridge Shakespeare Library, Cambridge University Press, page 231

A ‘ghost’ character is one who is marked as present on stage, but given no lines to speak: many editors consider the inclusion of these characters to be an oversight on the part of the writer or printer, and so remove them from modern stage directions; […]

2010, David Coleman, John Webster, Renaissance Dramatist, Edinburgh University Press, page 68

Joseph A. Porter's discussion of the ‘ghost character’ of Valentine in Romeo and Juliet is also illuminating: Porter describes Valentine as a ‘symptom or by-product of Mercutio's transformation’ from rival lover (in Shakespeare's source) to friend […]

2014, Lena Cowen Orlin, Othello, A&C Black, page 277

(drama, literature) A character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who does not do anything, and who seems to have no purpose.


tropical rock

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


drum fill

(music) An extended riff played on the drums


muselar

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


sus chord

(music, informal) Short for suspended chord.


paraphone

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


paraphony

paraphony (countable and uncountable, plural paraphonies)

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


quenacho

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


neck joint

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

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


cak

(music) A type of string instrument from Indonesia.


trumpophone

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


zeuhl

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

coin

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


(music) A meter of nine quavers per measure.


octocontrabass

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

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


bedroom pop

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


mumble rap

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

coinage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Welsh harp

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


monzo

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


triccaballacca

(music) A Neapolitan percussion instrument


V-pop

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


banjeaurine

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


diazoma

From Ancient Greek δῐάζωμᾰ (diázōma, “girdle”).

der

(theater, Ancient Greece) A corridor that divided sections of an Ancient Greek theatre.


tableau curtain

en-noun

tableau curtain (plural tableau curtains)

(theater, chiefly in the plural) A stage curtain of a kind that rises diagonally, not revealing the entire stage.


Apache fiddle

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


cough and a spit

Ray Wise managed his back-to-black-hair role before joining Tim Robbins in Bob Roberts and James Marshall squeezed in his cough and a spit between Gladiator and joining the big boys (Nicholson, Cruise) in A Few Good Men […]

Everybody gargling madly and mugging up their lines as though Shakespeare himself was out front. Don't know why I bothered, I only had a cough and a spit.

1998, Ken Whitmore, Alfred Bradley, The Final Twist: A Play, page 20


chop chord

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


proto-prog

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


Death Trail

(US, theater, derogatory) A grueling and often unprofitable tour of small theaters from Chicago to the West Coast.


acidcore

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


overdamper

Coordinate term: underdamper

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


underdamper

Coordinate term: overdamper

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


jazz-hop

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


con amore

/ˌkɒn aˈmɔːɹeɪ/

/ˌkɑn əˈmɔɹeɪ/

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


go to Cain's

en-verb

go to Cain's (third-person singular simple present goes to Cain's, present participle going to Cain's, simple past went to Cain's, past participle gone to Cain's)

goes to Cain's (present singular third-person)
going to Cain's (participle present)
went to Cain's (past)
gone to Cain's (participle past)

From the name of a company in New York City that rented out props and costumes.

[…] Norma Terris (who, so far as we had known, was born in Show Boat and went to Cain's with it) […]

1934, Stage, volume 11, numbers 7-12, page 7

(US, theater, slang, dated) To close a show.


signature song

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

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

chanson phare

the song a performer is primarily associated with


Schrammelmusik

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

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

Johann Schrammel
Josef Schrammel
Schrammelmusik


SKSK

Reduplication of SK (literally “stop keying”).

reduplication

Scary Kids Scaring Kids
w:Scary Kids Scaring Kids

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


thrust stage

(theater) A stage that extends into the audience on three sides and is connected to the backstage area by its upstage end.


metronomize

en-verb

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

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

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


slash chord

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

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


Melbourne shuffle

en-noun

Melbourne shuffle (plural Melbourne shuffles)

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


CAGED

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


Regietheater

Borrowed from German Regietheater (“director's theater”).

bor

If nothing he [Patrice Chéreau] did for the screen had the genre-shaking impact of his stage work — his 1976 “Ring” cycle at Bayreuth helped usher in an era of Regietheater, or director’s theater — he did raise eyebrows with the sexually explicit “Intimacy” (2001), starring all of Mark Rylance, the corseted Olivia in the “Twelfth Night” that just ended its Broadway run.

2014 February 28, Rachel Saltz, “It Takes a Funeral: So Much Angst”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(theater) The modern practice of allowing a director freedom to diverge from the original intentions of the playwright or operatist, for example by changing the geographical and chronological setting, or by adapting the work to highlight issues of race and gender.


sidefill

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


downtune

en-verb

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

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

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

He downtuned his guitar to play along with the recording.

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


11 o'clock number

en-noun

11 o'clock number (plural 11 o'clock numbers)

So called because, in the days when musical performances began at 8:30 p.m., such a song would occur around 11 p.m.

(theater) A showstopping song that occurs late in the second act of a two-act musical, often signifying a moment of revelation or change of heart of a lead character.


koauau

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

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

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


three-sheet

en-verb

three-sheet (third-person singular simple present three-sheets, present participle three-sheeting, simple past and past participle three-sheeted)

three-sheets (present singular third-person)
three-sheeting (participle present)
three-sheeted (participle past)
three-sheeted (past)

Now I don't think a man ought to be a spendthrift in order to be a good fellow, but a ball player getting four thousand a year shouldn't three-sheet himself every time he lets go of a quarter.

1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post

The Ballet Theatre surprised everybody. This top-heavy art trust, three-sheeted as “the greatest collaboration in ballet history,” functioned prodigiously through a long three weeks' sprint.

1939, Modern Music, volumes 17-18, page 187

The leading man often wore a blond wig in some parts, and his entrance through the center door was a studied art, surpassed only by his "three-sheeting" ability in front of the post office at mail time.

1972, William L. Slout, Theatre in a Tent

[…] where he could afford the best seats in the theater, and where the stories thrilled him to the core, and the sentiments of the characters could be understood and approved by every true-born Englishman, where the actors tore their lungs and three-sheeted their passions for his exclusive benefit.

1973, N. Allardyce, British Drama, page 277

(theater) To exaggerate, hype up, or show off.


rhythm and grime

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


cancrizans

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

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


blackout skit

(theater) A skit after which all the lights are extinguished.


capriccietto

en-noun

capriccietto (plural capricciettos or capriccietti)

capricciettos (plural)
capriccietti (plural)


carillonic

(music) Relating to, or characteristic of a carillon


chimesmaster

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


chromaticization

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


chromaticize

en-verb

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

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

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


chromatist

(music) A person whose speciality is chromatics.


citharoedic

(music) Relating to a cithara or a citharist


clavicymbal

(music, historical) An early form of harpsichord.


exeunt omnes

From Latin exeunt omnēs (“they all exit; exit all”).

bor

(theater) In plays, an instruction that all actors should leave the stage.

mind el

in plays, an instruction that all actors should leave the stage


MCM

en-noun

MCM (countable and uncountable, plural MCMs)

modern classical music
w:contemporary classical music

(music) Initialism of modern classical music.


capriccetto

capriccetto (plural capriccettos or capriccetti)

capriccettos (plural)
capriccetti (plural)

(music) Alternative form of capriccietto


bassanello

/ˌbæsəˈnɛləʊ/

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

(music) A Renaissance double-reed woodwind instrument.


rhesis

Such speeches (like the rheses) have the distinction of length, often exceeding one hundred lines; they give the impression that for a time dramatic effect is suspended, and, as a substitute, the recognised features of Epic Poetry supply a new interest.

1890, Richard Green Moulton, The Ancient Classical Drama: A Study in Literary Evolution, page 145

The chorus or chorus-coryphaeus is followed by a rhesis of the actor, followed in its turn by a stichic dialogue A/actor which usually culminates in a stichomythia.

1975, Francisco Rodríguez Adrados, Festival, Comedy and Tragedy: The Greek Origins of Theatre, page 147

A scheme that includes tetrameter sets off the rhesis from dialogue even more starkly , but it considerably enhances the potential of actor-chorus dialogue to be an effective balance to the long speech.

1982, Ann N. Michelini, Tradition and Dramatic Form in "The Persians" of Aeschylus, page 60

(theater, Ancient Greece) A passage of text in a play.


pianofortist

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

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

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

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

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

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

(music) A person who plays the pianoforte.


acocotl

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


decadation

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


rackboard

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


polymetre

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


polymeter

polymeter (countable and uncountable, plural polymeters)


polyphonal

From Ancient Greek πολύφωνος (polúphōnos) + -al.


polytonalist

(music) A person who composes or plays polytonal music


hexatone

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


heptadecad

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


misfinger

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2001, Teresa DesJardien, The Marriage Masquerade, page 49

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

2009, Stanley Crouch, Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz

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


dodecuplet

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


szopelka

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


viola d'amore

en-noun

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

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

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

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


omnitonic

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


quinton

(music) A type of violin that had five strings


luminaphone

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


khyal

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

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


whamola

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


dolewave

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


countercross

(theater) The crossing of the stage by two actors going in opposite directions.


countercross

en-verb

countercross (third-person singular simple present countercrosses, present participle countercrossing, simple past and past participle countercrossed)

countercrosses (present singular third-person)
countercrossing (participle present)
countercrossed (participle past)
countercrossed (past)

(theater) To cross the stage in opposite directions.


slide trumpet

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


word painting

en-noun

word painting (countable and uncountable, plural word paintings)

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


glassophone

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


dog town

He's rehearsing his first-born for a dog-town opening next week.

1917, W. J. Thorold, Arthur Hornblow, Perriton Maxwell, Theatre Magazine, volume 25, page 42

And speaking of Mr. Sloan, I note that he believes Chicago is taking New Haven's place as a dog-town.

(theater, colloquial) A town at which a play is performed for a less important audience to gauge the likelihood of general success.


bitcrush

en-verb

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

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

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


Bitcrusher

(music) Alternative spelling of bit crusher.


Chitlin' Circuit

(historical, theater) A collection of venues throughout the eastern, southern, and upper Midwest areas of the United States where African-American performers were accepted despite racial segregation.


bald-headed row

en-noun

bald-headed row (plural bald-headed rows)

(theater, slang) The front row of a theatre, traditionally occupied by elderly men and playboys.


proppy

en-adj

proppy (comparative proppier, superlative proppiest)

proppier (comparative)
proppiest (superlative)

Because Magnolias is such a proppy show, speedy changes are a challenge.

On the other hand, 'Othello was very proppy,' recalls Donnellan, 'with teacups and glasses and furniture.

1991, Simon Reade, Cheek by Jowl: Ten Years of Celebration, Oberon Books

It's a very proppy show with thirty chairs, pots and pans to set, paintbrushes, and glasses which need to be washed and cleaned for the café scene.


space work

(acting) The skill of handling imaginary objects and locations as part of a performance, especially in improv acting.


pentatonicism

(music) The condition of being pentatonic


pentatonically

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


fluff one's lines

en-verb

fluff one's lines (third-person singular simple present fluffs one's lines, present participle fluffing one's lines, simple past and past participle fluffed one's lines)

fluffs one's lines (present singular third-person)
fluffing one's lines (participle present)
fluffed one's lines (participle past)
fluffed one's lines (past)

(drama) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: To stumble over or otherwise misspeak one's lines.


A/derived terms

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


multikeyboard

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


keraulophon

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

der+

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


boat truck

(theater) A low wheeled platform used to move scenery.


drawknob

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


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


cutting contest

en-noun

cutting contest (plural cutting contests)

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


tone painting

tone painting (countable and uncountable, plural tone paintings)

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


text painting

text painting (countable and uncountable, plural text paintings)


water drum

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


aeolsklavier

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


preaching band

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

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


producer tag

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


front curtain

(theater) The curtain or curtains at the very front of the stage, separating it from the house.


main rag

(theater, slang) Synonym of front curtain


proscenium curtain

proscenium curtain (plural proscenium curtains)


sonizance

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


octavina

(music) A Filipino musical instrument resembling the guitar.


tone hole

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


progressive house

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


ravanahatha

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


Brill Building

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


fourth wall joke

fourth wall joke (plural fourth wall jokes)

(theater, film, television) A joke that intentionally draws attention to the illusion of separation between the audience and the fiction itself.


bocedization

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

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


demisemihemidemisemiquaver

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

prefix

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

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


sophisti-pop

Blend of sophisticated + pop, coined retrospectively.

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

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

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


relative pitch

en-noun

relative pitch (plural relative pitches)

Coordinate term: absolute pitch

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

relativní sluch

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

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


logie

Said to be from the name of the inventor, David Logie.

This is most probably imitated by a bit of hollowed out pewter, polished in various concavities, and called, in the terms of theatrical jewelry, a Logie.

1847, Albert Smith, The Natural History of the Ballet-girl, page 14

(theater, archaic) A piece of fake jewellery, typically made from zinc.


jubilus

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


vamphorn

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

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

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


surpeti

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

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


JMT

Journal of Music Theory
w:Journal of Music Theory

(music) Initialism of Journal of Music Theory.


amarevole

/ˌɑːməˈɹɛvəleɪ/


politicore

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

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

1990, Profane Existence, number 3, unnumbered page

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

1991, Jersey Beat, number 41, unnumbered page

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

1997, Punk Planet, number 20, unnumbered page

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

Austin politicore thrasher Beyond Gods and Empires

2013 August 9, The Austin Chronicle, page 60

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


fluviol

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

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

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

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

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


neoperreo

Probably borrowed from Spanish neoperreo.


First New England School

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


New England Classicists

Second New England School
Second New England School#English

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


Yankee tunesmith

Yankee tunesmith (plural Yankee tunesmiths)

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


Boston Six

Second New England School
Second New England School

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


trve

en-adj

trve (comparative more trve, superlative most trve)

more trve (comparative)
most trve (superlative)

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


Second New England School

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


xenochronous

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

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

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

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

(music, uncommon) Recorded or processed using xenochrony.


xenochrony

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

af

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


tongue drum

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


harsh noise

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


home key

(music) The tonic or keynote of a piece.


hold the book

en-verb

hold the book (third-person singular simple present holds the book, present participle holding the book, simple past and past participle held the book)

holds the book (present singular third-person)
holding the book (participle present)
held the book (participle past)
held the book (past)

In a little time, and you'll cease to hold the book to men and women; no, you'll have to prompt nothing but earthquakes, and give the word to nobody but dragons and flying fish.

1860, Douglas Jerrold, Blanchard Jerrold, The Brownrigg Papers, page 133

Here we are! now then," he said, as they entered the theatre, "clear the stage, all ready for the first piece. Who'll hold the book? Here, Puzzleton, you've nothing to do, just prompt will you, like a good fellow?

1869, Hawley Smart, Breezie Langton, volume 1, page 190


on the book

That was the “set-up” in the Venner Repertory Company, and I must state that they needed very few prompts, even on the first nights of which we had two a week! I was “on the book” , gave all the “lighting and effects signals” […]

1954, Harald Melvill, Theatrecraft: The A to Z of Show Business, page 103

I was on the book in the prompt corner on stage right.

2004, Michael Hallifax, Let Me Set the Scene, page 340


bitcrusher

(music) Alternative spelling of bit crusher


keep the book

keep the book (third-person singular simple present keeps the book, present participle keeping the book, simple past and past participle kept the book)

keeps the book (present singular third-person)
keeping the book (participle present)
kept the book (participle past)
kept the book (past)

[…] or people with very specific responsibilities such as keeping the book or prompting (as in opera).

2018, Peter Maccoy, Essentials of Stage Management

(theater) Synonym of hold the book (“to act as prompter”)


bro-country

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

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

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

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

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


pocket symphony

en-noun

pocket symphony (plural pocket symphonies)

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

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

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

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


Cher effect

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

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


kengirge

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

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