cantusn.
/ˈkantəs/ Music.
a. A song or melody, especially ecclesiastical melody; also, the principal voice. Also attributive.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > melody or succession of sounds > [noun] > a melody
notec1300
warblec1374
moteta1382
tunea1387
measurea1393
modulationa1398
prolation?a1425
gammec1425
proportion?a1505
laya1529
stroke1540
diapason?1553
strain1579
cantus1590
stripe1590
diapase1591
air1597
pawson1606
spirit1608
melody1609
aria1742
refrain1795
toon1901
sounds1955
klangfarbenmelodie1959
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > harmony or sounds in combination > [noun] > part in harmony or counterpoint > melody or ground
plainsonga1450
ground1592
melody1728
cantilena1740
canto1782
canto fermo1789
air1813
cantus firmus1847
cantus1887
musica plana1940
1481 W. Caxton tr. Hist. Reynard Fox (1970) 59 What was it, prose or ryme, metre or verse..I trowe it was cantum, for I herde you synge.]
1590 T. Whythorne (title) Cantus. (Bassus.) Of Duos, or Songs for two voices... Of the which, some be playne and easie to be sung, or played on Musicall Instruments.
1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke 20 In this Cantus there is no difficultie if you sing your Semibreefes three Minyms a peece.
1662 T. Davidson (title) Cantus, Songs and Fancies, To Three, Four, or Five Parts, both apt for Voices or Viols, With a brief Introduction to Musick.
1887 Athenæum 25 June 842/1 The work is written for cantus, altus, and tenor—a rather unusual combination of voices.
1965 Eng. Stud. 46 269 The only extant cantus part in Hanover.
b. cantus firmus n. see canto fermo n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > harmony or sounds in combination > [noun] > part in harmony or counterpoint > melody or ground
plainsonga1450
ground1592
melody1728
cantilena1740
canto1782
canto fermo1789
air1813
cantus firmus1847
cantus1887
musica plana1940
1847 A. L. Phillips Little Gradual p. xiv The choir be directed by persons well skilled in the ecclesiastical chant (which is called Cantus Planus or Firmus).
1956 A. Huxley Adonis & Alphabet 234 Those composers who wrote their masses around a cantus firmus—a melody borrowed, almost invariably, from the closed, symmetrical music of popular songs.
1962 Listener 12 Apr. 652/2 The cantus firmus of Palestrina's early Mass, ‘Ecce sacerdos magnus’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1590