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song

song

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2008 | Copyright

song relatively brief, simple vocal composition, usually a setting of a poetic text, often strophic, for accompanied solo voice . The song literature of Western music embodies two broad classifications— folk song and art song.

Apart from the recently discovered cuneiform tablet containing a song from the Middle East of the 2d millennium BC, now thought to be the oldest notated music known, and apart from ancient Greek song (see Greek music ), the manuscripts of which are lost, the first outstanding examples of art song before the baroque period are those of the troubadours , trouvères , minnesingers , and meistersingers . The refined, lyrical air de cour of late 16th-century France, for one or more voices with lute accompaniment, provided the inspiration for the ayre composed by the early 17th-century English lutenists, among whom were John Dowland, Thomas Campion, and Thomas Morley.

The Italians centered their principal attention upon the development of the opera . The principle of accompanied monody, which originated in Italy and is inseparable from the early development of opera, also marked the beginning of modern accompanied song, although the speech rhythms of recitative and the elaborateness of most opera arias are usually thought of as being beyond the realm of song. A direct influence is shown in the German lied of the 17th cent., a monodic song with a basso continuo accompaniment. Outstanding among earlier examples are the Arien of Heinrich Albert (1604-51) and those of Adam Krieger (1634-66).

The German romantic lieder of the 19th cent., in which the vocal line and the piano accompaniment are of equal musical significance, are considered to be among the finest of all art songs. The lied style was articulated by Schubert and developed further by Schumann, Brahms, and Hugo Wolf. Among the poets whose lyrics they used were Goethe, Chamisso, Eichendorff, Rückert, Wilhelm Müller, Heine, and Mörike. Among modern German songs those of Hindemith and of Schoenberg are outstanding. Some of these require the technique of Sprechstimme, a pitched declamation that is a hybrid of song and speech.

In France a renewed interest in song composition began in the 19th cent. with Berlioz and was continued in the works of Franck, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, and Poulenc. The foremost Russian composers of the genre include Glinka, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Gretchaninov, and Glière. The dramatic songs of Moussorgsky are particularly significant. In the United States the songs of Stephen Foster had such national appeal as to become incorporated into the folk tradition. Charles Ives brought a striking originality to the modern American art song.

See ballad ; carol ; chantey ; hymn ; plainsong ; rock music ; and spiritual . See also birdsong .

Bibliography: See P. Warlock, The English Ayre (1926); E. Schumann, German Song (1948); S. Kagen, Music for the Voice (1949); D. Ivey, Song: Anatomy, Imagery, and Styles (1970); D. Stevens, ed., A History of Song (1960, rev. 1970); H. T. Finck, Songs and Song Writers (1900, repr. 1973); J. Hall, Art Song (1974); M. Booth, The Experience of Songs (1981); S. S. Prawer, The Penguin Book of Lieder (1987); R. Lissauer, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1991, rev. ed. 1996).

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song

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music | 1996 | | Copyright

song. Short vocal comp., acc. or solo. Song is the natural human means of mus. self-expression (as it is for most birds). There are various types of song—the individual folk-song, the part-song for a group of vv., the art-song for the trained performer. Today a ‘song recital’ generally means an evening of Eng. songs (mus. settings of poems), Ger. Lieder, or Fr. mélodies. In opera the term aria or air is preferred to ‘song’ for a solo vocal item. Many composers— Berlioz, Mahler, Strauss, Elgar, Britten, Shostakovich, etc.—have written songs with orch., and the term is sometimes applied to a large-scale piece, e.g. Song of the Earth ( Mahler) and Song of Destiny ( Brahms).

Probably prehistoric man uttered some sort of song, and the origins of folk-songs are beyond discovery (though not beyond speculation!). Synagogue and church were among the official institutions where song developed, through chants and hymns, some of the latter being adaptations of folk and popular songs. With 12th-cent. minstrels and troubadours, the love-song and ballad developed, to be followed in the 14th and 15th cents. by songs of the Ger. Minnesinger and Meistersinger. By the end of the 15th cent., following the revolution of ars nova, song colls., many of them polyphonic settings, were pubd. in several countries. In Eng. in the 16th and 17th cents. the lute-songs, exemplified by Dowland and the madrigals of Weelkes and Byrd, in Sp. the lute-songs of Milán, and in It. the madrigals of Monteverdi and others all played a significant role in the growth of elaborate song-writing. Ger. developed the Lied, beginning with Hassler and Abert, and continuing through Mozart and Beethoven to the great flowering of Schubert, who more than any composer made the song a mus. form into which as much emotional and dramatic expression could be poured as into a sym. Some of his songs are strophic, i.e. repeating the tune in successive stanzas, others are ‘through-composed’ (durchkomponiert), i.e. developing freely from start to finish. Schubert was followed by Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Loewe, Marx, Mahler, Strauss, Pfitzner, and others. In Fr., Duparc, Debussy, and especially Fauré developed the mélodie in as distinctive and complex a fashion as the great Germans developed the Lied. Indeed, in the 19th and 20th cents., composers in Eng., Sp., USA, Russia, Hungary, etc. have added masterpieces to the world's treasury of song. Nor should the immense world of ‘popular song’, from 19th-cent. mus.-hall songs to today's ‘pop’ songs, be forgotten, ignored, or under-rated. Brave the man who will make a didactic value-judgement between Dives and Lazarus, Gretchen am Spinnrade, and Smoke gets in your eyes.
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MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "song." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "song." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-song.html

MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "song." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-song.html

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song

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | 2006 | | Copyright

song often taken as the type of something very cheap and inexpensive, as in for a song; perhaps originally a reference to old ballads being sold cheaply at fairs.
a song in one's heart a feeling of joy or pleasure; originally with allusion to Lorenz Hart ‘With a Song in my Heart’, 1930 song.
Song of Roland the medieval chanson which tells of the death of the paladin Roland at Roncesvalles.
Song of Songs a book of the Bible containing an anthology of Hebrew love poems traditionally ascribed to Solomon but in fact dating from a much later period. Jewish and Christian writers have interpreted the book allegorically as representing God's relationship with his people, or with the soul.
Song of the Three Holy Children a book of the Apocrypha, an addition to the book of Daniel, telling of three Hebrew exiles, Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, thrown (with Daniel) into a furnace by Nebuchadnezzar; protected by God from the flames, they sang the words which in the Anglican service of matins is the canticle of the Benedicite. (See also burning fiery furnace.)
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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "song." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "song." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-song.html

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song

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | Copyright

song / sông/ • n. a short poem or other set of words set to music or meant to be sung. ∎  singing or vocal music: the young airmen broke into song. ∎  a musical composition suggestive of a song. ∎  the musical phrases uttered by some birds, whales, and insects, typically forming a recognizable and repeated sequence and used chiefly for territorial defense or for attracting mates. ∎  a poem, esp. one in rhymed stanzas: The Song of Hiawatha. ∎ archaic poetry. PHRASES: for a song inf. very cheaply: the place was going for a song. on song Brit., inf. performing well: when he is on song, no one can stop him. a song and dance inf. a long explanation that is pointless or deliberately evasive: Don't give me a song and dance, Sandy. Yes or no? ∎ chiefly Brit. a fuss or commotion: she would be sure to make a song and dance about her aching feet.

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Song

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | Copyright

Song (960–1279) (Sung) Chinese imperial dynasty (960–1279). The period divides into the Northern (960–1126) and, after the Jurchen tribes overran the n, the Southern (1127–1279) Song. After the initial conquests of Zhao Kuang-ying, the Song dynasty was notable for a deliberate reduction in military might. The Song established a powerful civil service. The Mongols conquered the Southern Song, including its capital Hangzhou.
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song

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | | Copyright

song OE. sang (song) = OS. sang (Du. zang). OHG. sanc (G. sang), ON. sǫngr, Goth. saggws :- Gmc. *saŋʒwaz, f. *saŋʒw- SING.
Hence songster singer. OE. sangestre; whence songstress (XVIII; see -ESS1).
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T. F. HOAD. "song." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

T. F. HOAD. "song." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-song.html

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Song

A Dictionary of World History | 2000 | Copyright

Song (or Sung) A dynasty of Chinese emperors ruling from 960 to 1279, between the Tang and Yuan periods. During the Song Dynasty art and literature flourished and paper money was invented.
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song

A Dictionary of Zoology | 1999 | | Copyright

song A complex pattern of sound that is produced by means of specialized organs. Such organs are used by many animals in communication.
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MICHAEL ALLABY. "song." A Dictionary of Zoology. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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song

A Dictionary of Ecology | 2004 | | Copyright

song A complex pattern of sound that is produced by means of specialized organs, which are used by many animals in communication.
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MICHAEL ALLABY. "song." A Dictionary of Ecology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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Song

A Dictionary of First Names | 2006 | | Copyright

Song ♀ (Chinese) ‘Pine tree’. See Mei.
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PATRICK HANKS, KATE HARDCASTLE, and FLAVIA HODGES. "Song." A Dictionary of First Names. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

PATRICK HANKS, KATE HARDCASTLE, and FLAVIA HODGES. "Song." A Dictionary of First Names. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O41-Song.html

PATRICK HANKS, KATE HARDCASTLE, and FLAVIA HODGES. "Song." A Dictionary of First Names. 2006. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O41-Song.html

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Song

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | Copyright

Song variant spelling of Sung.

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song

Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes | 2007 | Copyright

song •along, belong, bong, chaise longue, dong, Geelong, gong, Guangdong, Haiphong, Heilong, Hong Kong, Jong, King Kong, long, mah-jong, Mao Zedong, Mekong, nong, pong, prolong, prong, sarong, Shillong, song, souchong, strong, thong, throng, tong, Vietcong, wrong •billabong • dingdong • Wollongong •Chittagong • headlong • livelong •sidelong • lifelong • oblong • oolong •singalong • furlong • pingpong •Armstrong • headstrong • part song •plainsong • evensong • singsong •swansong • birdsong • biltong •diphthong

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