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To change the position of; -- said of tones which form a chord, or parts which compose harmony.

ot relative; without mutual relations; unconnected. -- Ir*rel"a*tive*ly, adv. Irrelative chords (Mus.), those having no common tone. -- Irrelative repetition (Biol.), the multiplication of parts that serve for a common purpose, but have no mutual dependence or connection. Owen.

In the harpsichord, an intermediate piece communicating the action of the key to the quill; -- called also hopper.

on. (Mus.) (a) The correct sounding of notes or intervals; true pitch. (b) The giving all chords and intervals in their purity or their exact mathematical ratio, or without temperament; a process in which the number of notes and intervals required in the various keys is much greater than the twelve to the octave used i…

rst tone of the scale in which a piece or passage is written; the fundamental tone of the chord, to which all the modulations of the piece are referred; -- called also key tone.

and limbs are wanting, and the backbone is represented only by a simple, unsegmented notochord. See Amphioxus. [Written also Leptocardii.]

Not having the full complement of tones; -- said of a chord of only two tones, which requires a third tone to be sounded with them to make the combination pleasing to the ear; as, a naked fourth or fifth. Naked bed, a bed the occupant of which is naked, no night linen being worn in ancient times. Shak. -- Naked eye, t…

. See under Fat, Gas. etc. -- Natural Harmony (Mus.), the harmony of the triad or common chord. -- Natural history, in its broadest sense, a history or description of nature as a whole, incuding the sciences of botany, zoölogy, geology, mineralogy, paleontology, chemistry, and physics. In recent usage the term is oft…

A chord of the dominant seventh with the ninth added.

by side, of several parts, as bars, diagonals, a post, etc., on a pin at the bottom of a chord. Waddell. -- Packing box, a stuffing box. See under Stuffing. -- Packing press, a powerful press for baling cotton, wool, hay, etc. -- Packing ring. See Packing, 2 (c), and Illust. of Piston. -- Packing sheet. (a) A larg…

micircle and two inverted quadrants, and equal in area to the square ABCD inclosed by the chords of the four quadrants. [Written also pelicoid.] Math. Dict.

nd satisfactory close in harmony, as upon the tonic preceded by the dominant. -- Perfect chord (Mus.), a concord or union of sounds which is perfectly coalescent and agreeable to the ear, as the unison, octave, fifth, and fourth; a perfect consonance; a common chord in its original position of keynote, third, fifth, a…

or measuring slight variations of the sun's diameter by photography, utilizing the common chord of two overlapping images.

A well-known musical instrument somewhat resembling the harpsichord, and consisting of a sreies of wires of graduated length, thickness, and tension, struck by hammers moved by keys. Dumb piano. See Digitorium. -- Grand piano. See under Grand. -- Square piano, one with a horizontal frame and an oblong case. -- Uprig…

tic, which ran from the tonic to its octave. Plagal cadence, a cadence in which the final chord on the tonic is preceded by the chord on the subdominant.

r. poly`s, many; as, polygon, a figure of many angles; polyatomic, having many atoms; polychord, polyconic.

The holding over of a note from one chord into the next chord, where it forms a temporary discord, until resolved in the chord that follows; the anticipation of a discordant note in the preceding concord, so that the ear is prepared for the shock. See Suspension.

reference to a second set or system, to which they are afterward referred. -- Primitive chord (Mus.), that chord, the lowest note of which is of the same literal denomination as the fundamental base of the harmony; -- opposed to derivative. Moore (Encyc. of Music). -- Primitive circle (Spherical Projection), the cir…

(Geom.), three planes each of which is at right angles to the other two, and bisects all chords of the quadric perpendicular to the plane, as in an ellipsoid. -- Principal point (Persp.), the projection of the point of sight upon the plane of projection. -- Principal ray (Persp.), the line drawn through the point of…

A regular succession of tones or chords; the movement of the parts in harmony; the order of the modulations in a piece from key to key. Arithmetical progression, a progression in which the terms increase or decrease by equal differences, as the numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 1010, 8, 6, 4, 2 -- Geometrical progression, a progress…