LEADING a.
ading motive Etym: [a translation of G. leitmotif] (Mus.), a guiding theme; in the modern music drama of Wagner, a marked melodic phrase or short passage which always accompanies the reappearance of a certain person, situation, abstract idea, or allusion in the course of the play; a sort of musical label. -- Leading n…
LYDIAN a.
ence, soft; effeminate; -- said especially of one of the ancient Greek modes or keys, the music in which was of a soft, pathetic, or voluptuous character. Softly sweet in Lydian measures, Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures. Dryden. Lydian stone, a flint slate used by the ancients to try gold and silver; a touchstone…