cantilena
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of cantilena
1730–40; < Italian < Latin cantilēna refrain, perhaps by dissimilation from *cantilēla, derivative of cantus song; see cant 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
At one point, he and the dancers stop while a soprano, Joélle Harvey, in an upper balcony, sings a series of long cantilena lines very beautifully, though only some words can be distinguished.
From New York Times • Mar. 23, 2012
The soft neck and upper back, the eloquent épaulement, the cantilena phrasing – all were combined in a performance of ravishing individuality.
From The Guardian • May 29, 2010
Spinning out its delicately chromatic cantilena like the mistress of cantabile that she is, Soprano Caballe stopped the show for a full two minutes and 45 seconds.
From Time Magazine Archive
He would sing to her as she worked, a cantilena from / Puritani, a melody of Beethoven.
From Time Magazine Archive
Thus opera came into possession of a simple and sustained melody, patterned after the cantilena of the violin; and it was employed for marking the successive points of the dramatic action.
From The Masters and their Music A series of illustrative programs with biographical, esthetical, and critical annotations by Mathews, W. S. B. (William Smythe Babcock)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
