plainsong
Americannoun
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the unisonous vocal music used in the Christian church from the earliest times.
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modal liturgical music; Gregorian chant.
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a cantus firmus or theme chosen for contrapuntal development.
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any simple and unadorned melody or air.
noun
Etymology
Origin of plainsong
1505–15; translation of Medieval Latin cantus plānus
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.
Church music, plainsong music, large choirs — all of that stuff is extremely beautiful, and I wanted to try and get some of that in this record.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2024
And at the appointed hour, just as their guidebook had promised, the transfiguring music of plainsong rose from the crypt below them, a few wide steps down from the main body of the church.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 10, 2018
I think of him in the lineage of bardic recitation and plainsong.
From Slate ● Aug. 12, 2016
He surrounds his loops of glimmering keyboard and guitar with cathedral-size reverberation, and he sings sustained melodies somewhere between plainsong and slow-motion Beach Boys.
From New York Times ● Sep. 30, 2011
These new layered sound effects, built on plainsong tunes, were edging very close to what today we would call ‘harmony’ - that is, the existence and exploitation of simultaneous clusters of notes.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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