Crossword clues for monody
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Monody \Mon"o*dy\, n.; pl. Monodies. [L. monodia, Gr. ?, fr. ? singing alone; mo`nos single + ? song: cf. F. monodie. See Ode.] A species of poem of a mournful character, in which a single mourner expresses lamentation; a song for one voice.
Wiktionary
n. 1 An ode, as in Greek drama, for a single voice, often specifically a mournful song or dirge. 2 Any poem mourning the death of someone; an elegy. 3 A monotonous or mournful noise. 4 (context music English) A composition having a single melodic line.
WordNet
n. music consisting of a single vocal part (usually with accompaniment) [syn: monophony, monophonic music] [ant: polyphony, polyphony]
Wikipedia
In poetry, the term monody has become specialized to refer to a poem in which one person laments another's death. (In the context of ancient Greek literature, monody, could simply refer to lyric poetry sung by a single performer, rather than by a chorus.)
In music, monody refers to a solo vocal style distinguished by having a single melodic line and instrumental accompaniment. Although such music is found in various cultures throughout history, the term is specifically applied to Italian song of the early 17th century, particularly the period from about 1600 to 1640. The term is used both for the style and for individual songs (so one can speak both of monody as a whole as well as a particular monody). The term itself is a recent invention of scholars. No composer of the 17th century ever called a piece a monody. Compositions in monodic form might be called madrigals, motets, or even concertos (in the earlier sense of " concertato", meaning "with instruments").
In monody, which developed out of an attempt by the Florentine Camerata in the 1580s to restore ancient Greek ideas of melody and declamation (probably with little historical accuracy), one solo voice sings a melodic part, usually with considerable ornamentation, over a rhythmically independent bass line. Accompanying instruments could be lute, chitarrone, theorbo, harpsichord, organ, and even on occasion guitar. While some monodies were arrangements for smaller forces of the music for large ensembles which was common at the end of the 16th century, especially in the Venetian School, most monodies were composed independently. The development of monody was one of the defining characteristics of early Baroque practice, as opposed to late Renaissance style, in which groups of voices sang independently and with a greater balance between parts.
Other musical streams which came together in the monody were the madrigal and the motet, both of which developed into solo forms after 1600 and borrowed ideas from the monody.
Contrasting passages in monodies could be more melodic or more declamatory: these two styles of presentation eventually developed into the aria and the recitative, and the overall form merged with the cantata by about 1635.
The parallel development of solo song with accompaniment in France was called the air de cour: the term monody is not normally applied to these more conservative songs, however, which retained many musical characteristics of the Renaissance chanson.
An important early treatise on monody is contained in Giulio Caccini's song collection, Le nuove musiche (Florence, 1601).
Monody is a 3-member synthpop / EBM / Futurepop band. Monody is currently performing in the pacific northwest, USA.
Monody is the fourth album by Canadian artist Mantler ( Chris A. Cummings), released in 2010.
Described as "teeming with slow jams, a love for the '70s and an honesty that saves it from becoming retro-obsessed kitsch", Mantler features many guest stars, including Sandro Perri, Owen Pallett, Ben Gunning, Jeremy Greenspan and the string section of Ohbijou.
Usage examples of "monody".
For a time he half believed they had never been there at all, yet he had captured them, tucked them away into whirling little memory spheres and sent them on to the Office of Canon, with copies duly dispatched to the squat, cool fortress that housed the Monody of Science.
Here the downward pointing blade of the Trigon of Monody stabbed at walls stained with streaks of corrosion that in the somber light reminded Picardy of blood.
He heard the Prince of Barrow through, hummed a line of some obscure monody, his patched eyebrows scaling his brow, then disappeared without excuse.
The miracle of this uncomplicated monody with its minimal chordal accompaniment is not diminished by our hindsight knowledge that it had been there waiting, throughout recorded history, yet unnoticed by the bearded creaking practitioners of the complex.
Neferhotep had left a plot of ground in trust to the Necropolis, with the charge of administering its revenues for the payment of a minstrel, who every-year at the feast of the dead should sing the monody to the accompaniment of his lute.
Neferhotep is well preserved, and in it the inscription from which the monody is translated.
Such a monody, drumming into the ear and the spirit of a young man is not good for the soul, and Ronicky Doone finally dropped his head on his fist in a joyless study.
The monody and empyrical tonality of the ancients gave place to polyphony and harmonized melodies resting upon the relations of tones in key.
Celtic singers and harpers was one of the most important of all the forces operative in the transformation of the art from the monody of the ancients to the expressive melody and rich harmony of modern music.
For as there had been no monody, so there had been no solo singing, and as the operas of the first three-quarters of this century, in spite of the improvements of Monteverde, consisted mostly of recitative, there was still no singing in the modern acceptation of the term.
The hill, meet for such sublime repose, looks ever calmly on the humble, straggling homes of the Wallencampers below, and sees the lonely river winding near, and hears, by night and day, the monody of deeper waters.
Some years previously I published stanzas, or a monody, on the death of Lord Byron.
The sea monody melted in its turn into the waltz strains rippling from the piano standing in the old drawing-room at Kensington, and Bob pulled his wits together just in time to save himself from falling into the unconsciousness which had already mercifully enwrapped the old man.
Across the freestone obelisk at its head flit the shadows of giant gums, in whose leaves are gathered the wind-whispered monodies of centuries.
He affected some decent poetry just before he was hanged, and therefore the Saints took up his memory and wrote monodies on him.