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Music in parts; part writing; harmony; polyphonic music. See Polyphony. Counterpoint, an invention equivalent to a new creation of music. Whewell.

A piece of music in triple time; also, a lively dance; a coranto.

gradually increasing strength and fullness of tone; -- a direction for the performance of music, indicated by the mark, or by writing the word on the score.

An orthopterous insect of the genus Gryllus, and allied genera. The males make chirping, musical notes by rubbing together the basal parts of the veins of the front wings.

A Turkish musical instrument.

To play music in measured time. [Obs.] Donne.

Marked or measured by crotchets; having musical notation. Harmar (1587).

An ancient instrument of music with six strings; a kind of violin, being the oldest known stringed instrument played with a bow. [Written also croud, crowth, cruth, and crwth.] A lackey that . . . can warble upon a crowd a little. B. Jonson.

An ancient musical instrument. See 4th Crowd.

A musical instrument used by the ancients. It is supposed to have been similar to the modern kettle drum, though perhaps smaller.

To move with measured steps, or to a musical accompaniment; to go through, either alone or in company with others, with a regulated succession of movements, (commonly) to the sound of music; to trip or leap rhytmically. Jack shall pipe and Gill shall dance. Wiher. Good shepherd, what fair swain is this Which dances wit…

ain of cars, or a variable pressure, as of wind. -- Dead march (Mus.), a piece of solemn music intended to be played as an accompaniment to a funeral procession. -- Dead nettle (Bot.), a harmless plant with leaves like a nettle (Lamium album). -- Dead oil (Chem.), the heavy oil obtained in the distillation of coal t…

An ancient Greek musical instrument of ten strings, resembling the harp.

Funereal. [Obs.] "Defunctive music." Shak.

ptive; refinedly critical; sensitive; exquisite; as, a delicate taste; a delicate ear for music.

erned on the theories of François Delsarte (1811 -- 71), a French teacher of dramatic and musical expression.

The upper voice in part music.

The elaboration of a theme or subject; the unfolding of a musical idea; the evolution of a whole piece or movement from a leading theme or motive. Development theory (Biol.), the doctrine that animals and plants possess the power of passing by slow and successive stages from a lower to a higher state of organization, a…

Concord, as of notes an octave apart; harmony. The fair music that all creatures made . . . In perfect diapason. Milton.

Disjoining two fourths; as, the diazeutic tone, which, like that from F to G in modern music, lay between two fourths, and, being joined to either, made a fifth. [Obs.]