monody
/ˈmɒnədi
/noun (plural monodies)
1An ode sung by a single actor in a Greek tragedy.I've mentioned the Easter monodies glowingly sung by Catherine King....
- Many times, and particularly when combined with texts, the melodies are presented as extended monodies, carefully controlled so that Messiaen's words can be clearly heard.
- Its regretful, transfiguring ending, built out of a wonderfully orchestral monody, is remarkable, and the clarity of the textures is quite startling.
2A poem lamenting a person’s death.
3 [mass noun] Music with only one melodic line: the Italian masters of monody...
- Percussion and even the early harp played no part in the great development from monody to polyphony.
- For me, one of its most interesting quotations was when he was introducing monody and the transition into the baroque.
- Among the different vocal and instrumental styles that characterise the medieval period, monody plays an essential part.
Derivatives
monodic
/ adjective ...- Tuesday's performance is part of the group's desire to live a musical adventure ‘within the framework of a country which has a great monodic tradition’.
- His secular vocal music, monodic and polyphonic, is mainly contained in five volumes of Musiche, and ten volumes of madrigals and villanellas.
- The musical treatment ranges from monodic to polyphonic; there are antiphonal passages, most notably when high and low voices alternate in the Christe eleison section.
monodist
/ nounOrigin
Early 17th century: via late Latin from Greek monōdia, from monōdos 'singing alone'.