organum
Americannoun
plural
organa, organums-
an organon.
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Music.
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the doubling, or simultaneous singing, of a melody at an interval of either a fourth, a fifth, or an octave.
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the second part in such singing.
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noun
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a form of polyphonic music originating in the ninth century, consisting of a plainsong melody with parts added at the fourth and fifth
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a variant of organon
Etymology
Origin of organum
From Latin, dating back to 1605–15; organ
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.
Brasser's son, Jim, added bass harmonies to the family tunes and so the distinctive Copper Family style began to emerge – carefully arranged and pitched with a tuning fork, reminiscent of a medieval organum.
From The Guardian • Aug. 5, 2011
And in an epilogue, he imagines where man stands in the novum organum: a puzzled inflection of star stuff, a mote of mind that glitters for a moment on the grand galactic stream.
From Time Magazine Archive
The oldest surviving manuscript of two-voice parallel organum in the world can be found in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, as part of a book called the Winchester Troper.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
As time went on, more adventurous musicians, such as the ninth-century Byzantine composer Kassia of Constantinople, began mixing the parallel organum style with the drone style.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
But the heady excitement of turning one tune into two at no extra cost had another spin-off: organum where one voice stood still instead.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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.
