part song

American  

noun

1. a song with parts for several voices, especially one meant to be sung without accompaniment.

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part song British  

noun

1. a song composed in harmonized parts

2. (in more technical usage) a piece of homophonic choral music in which the topmost part carries the melody

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Other Word Forms

• part singing
  noun

Etymology

Origin of part song

First recorded in 1590–1600

Example Sentences

There is a ten-minute-long “Amazing Grace,” part song, part sermon, that could come only from someone steeped in the tradition of her father’s Delta whooping.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 4, 2016

Back then "glee" referred to a specific form of unaccompanied English part song - singing with two or more voice parts, with one part carrying the melody - and were all male.

From BBC • Jan. 22, 2010

What we've got to do," said Lottie Lowman, "is to learn our part song, and practise it for all we're worth.

From The Girls of St. Cyprian's A Tale of School Life by Brazil, Angela

For the entertainment was set down the President’s “Inorgural”—the spelling was Langrish’s—address, a part song of the committee, and a public open-air debate or conservation on “Beauty.”

From Tom, Dick and Harry by Reed, Talbot Baines

She was not even asked to join in the part song, for Lottie, as choir-mistress, had the selection of the chorus.

From The Girls of St. Cyprian's A Tale of School Life by Brazil, Angela