cantus
Americannoun
noun
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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
Other Word Forms
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
Here it means the cantus firmus, the melody around which the old composers wove their contrapuntal ornamentation.
From Luther and the Reformation: The Life-Springs of Our Liberties by Seiss, Joseph A.
For an account of the chant or cantus firmus of the Roman Church see Plain-Song.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 7 "Cerargyrite" to "Charing Cross" by Various
Write each three times, setting the cantus firmus in a different part in each solution.
From A Treatise on Simple Counterpoint in Forty Lessons by Lehmann, Friedrich Johann
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.
