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

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

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

At the same time the popularity of part song was established in Italy and music of this type was employed even for the most convivial occasions.

From Some Forerunners of Italian Opera by Henderson, W. J. (William James)

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 Dickens, Mamie