cantus
Americannoun
plural
cantusnoun
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a medieval form of church singing; chant
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Also called: canto. the highest part in a piece of choral music
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(in 15th- or 16th-century music) a piece of choral music, usually secular, in polyphonic style
Etymology
Origin of cantus
From Latin, dating back to 1580–90; see origin at canto
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.
Each section is built on a simple cantus firmus — a brief, unharmonized chant — around which a rich, involving six-part harmonic fabric is woven.
From New York Times • Apr. 3, 2011
The album of folk-inspired Christmas music, a welcome change from today's homogenized carols, ranges from a 12th century Latin tune, Ad cantus leticie, to a rousing Gloucestershire Wassail from modern Britain.
From Time Magazine Archive
By descant in the foregoing account, reference is made to the practice of extemporaneous singing of an ornamental part to the plain song or a secular cantus fermus.
From A Popular History of the Art of Music From the Earliest Times Until the Present by Mathews, W. S. B. (William Smythe Babcock)
To cantus firmus a write third species in one part, as previously directed.
From A Treatise on Simple Counterpoint in Forty Lessons by Lehmann, Friedrich Johann
Counterpoint is the art of adding one or more parts or melodies to a given melody, the latter being known as the "cantus firmus," or subject.
From Music Notation and Terminology by Gehrkens, Karl Wilson
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.
