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

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Etymology

Origin of part song

First recorded in 1590–1600

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

part song

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

He sat glowering at life, as if it were just endurable at dinner time, until four of his fellows began to sing, most unmelodiously, a part song.

From The Letters of Charles Dickens Vol. 2, 1857-1870 by Mamie Dickens

The three pieces of music required for this play are as follows: "The Sleep of the Child Jesus" part song for mixed voices by F.A.

From Why the Chimes Rang: A Play in One Act by Elizabeth Apthorp McFadden

There is a quaint illustration of ll. 1135-6, about the nightingale singing 'against a thorn' to keep her awake, in the words of a favourite old part song of King Henry VIII.,

From Shakespeare and Music With Illustrations from the Music of the 16th and 17th centuries by Edward W. (Edward Woodall) Naylor

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