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Containing, or producing, melody; musical; agreeable to the ear by a sweet succession of sounds; as, a melodious voice. "A melodious voice." "A melodious undertone." Longfellow. -- Me*lo"di*ous*ly, adv. -- Me*lo"di*ous*ness, n.

Formerly, a kind of drama having a musical accompaniment to intensify the effect of certain scenes. Now, a drama abounding in romantic sentiment and agonizing situations, with a musical accompaniment only in parts which are especially thrilling or pathetic. In opera, a passage in which the orchestra plays a somewhat de…

tones, ranging for the most part within a given key, and so related together as to form a musical whole, having the unity of what is technically called a musical thought, at once pleasing to the ear and characteristic in expression.

. They drank, and were merry with him. Gen. xliii. 34. I am never merry when I hear sweet music. Shak.

um with a sliding weight. It is set in motion by clockwork, and serves to measure time in music.

A love-singer; specifically, one of a class of German poets and musicians who flourished from about the middle of the twelfth to the middle of the fourteenth century. They were chiefly of noble birth, and made love and beauty the subjects of their verses.

An Asiatic bird (Gracula musica), allied to the starlings. It is black, with a white spot on the wings, and a pair of flat yellow wattles on the head. It is often tamed and taught to pronounce words.

In the Middle Ages, one of an order of men who subsisted by the arts of poetry and music, and sang verses to the accompaniment of a harp or other instrument; in modern times, a poet; a bard; a singer and harper; a musician. Chaucer.

Musical instruments. [Obs.] Chaucer.

A kind of musical toy into which one sings, hums, or speaks, producing a coarse, reedy sound.

A musical composition adapted to the 50th psalm. Where only the wind signs miserere. Lowell.

in it of the minor intervals; as, the Dorian mode, the Ionic mode, etc., of ancient Greek music.

To vary or inflect in a natural, customary, or musical manner; as, the organs of speech modulate the voice in reading or speaking. Could any person so modulate her voice as to deceive so many Broome.

A change of key, whether transient, or until the music becomes established in the new key; a shifting of the tonality of a piece, so that the harmonies all center upon a new keynote or tonic; the art of transition out of the original key into one nearly related, and so on, it may be, by successive changes, into a key q…

An instrument for experimenting upon the mathematical relations of musical sounds. It consists of a single string stretched between two bridges, one or both of which are movable, and which stand upon a graduated rule for the purpose of readily changing and measuring the length of the part of the string between them.…

Homophonic; -- applied to music in which the melody is confined to one part, instead of being shared by all the parts as in the style called polyphonic.

Manner; style; mode; logical form; musical style; manner of action or being. See Mode which is the preferable form).

The part of a musical or other instrument to which the mouth is applied in using it; as, the mouthpiece of a bugle, or of a tobacco pipe.

See Musicomania.

onal anthem, a popular song or hymn which has become by general acceptance the recognized musical expression of the patriotic sentiment of a nation; as, "God save the King" is called the national anthem of England. -- National bank, the official common name of a class of banking corporations established under the laws…