Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The unisonous vocal music which has been used in the Christian church from its earliest centuries.
- noun A cantus firmus or theme chosen for contrapuntal treatment: so called because often an actual fragment of plain-song.
- noun The simple notes of an air, without ornament or variation; hence, a plain, unexaggerated statement.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun music The
unisonous vocal music which has been used in the Christian church from its earliest centuries. - noun music A cantus firmus or theme chosen for
contrapuntal treatment ; so called because often an actual fragment of plain-song. - noun music The simple
notes of anair , withoutornament orvariation ; hence, a plain,unexaggerated statement .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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The plain-song is most just: for humours do abound:
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Pray thee, corporal, stay: the knocks are too hot; and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives: the humour of it is too hot, that is the very plain-song of it.
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This plain-song of love, to use the pretty expression of our forefathers, seemed almost criminal to the devout young girl who went to confession every fortnight.
Father Goriot 2003
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Beauty combines the many with the one: and plain-song and the _Missa Papae Marcelli_ show us only a few, a very few, of its manifestations.
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Plains of Abraham, an elevated plain just beyond Quebec to the southwest; the scene of the battle of Quebec. plain-song, a short, comprehensive prayer, adapted to a particular day or occasion, recited in one tone.
Elson Grammar School Literature v4 William H. Elson
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The only emotion he ever betrayed was caused by the organ music accompanying the hymnal plain-song, and by the pomp of religious ceremony.
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Out of the selfsame book, with the hymns of the church and the plain-song.
Elson Grammar School Literature v4 William H. Elson
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Your pre-Reformation lark sang from "a full stomach," and thanked God it had a constitution to carry it off without affectation: and your nineteenth century lark applying the same code of life, his plain-song is mere happy everyday prose, and not poetry at all as we try to make it out to be.
An Englishwoman's Love-Letters Anonymous
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Neume notation was used mostly in connection with the "plain-song melodies" of the Church, and since the words of these chants were sung as they would be pronounced in reading, the deficiency of the neume system in not expressing definite duration values was not felt.
Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928
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This plain-song of love, to use the pretty expression of our forefathers, seemed almost criminal to the devout young girl who went to confession every fortnight.
Paras. 900–999 1917
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