part song

American  

noun

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

---

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

---

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

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 Naylor, Edward W. (Edward Woodall)

They were walking arm in arm, and their numbers were continually increased; for the girls were singing a three part song as they went along.

From Magnhild Dust by Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne

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