music, musick, musicke, musik, musyk, musike

[Fr. musique, from Lat. music a, from Gr. mousikë ( techne )=any art over which the muses presided, espec. music; from mousikos = pertaining to the muses; mous a =amuse; Sp., Port. & Ital. music a.] sin, as; expect, Xenophon, exist. ph = f. The ancient signs for the elevation and depre ion of the voice in reading were called accents (not stre , but the raising and the dropping of the voice without adding to its force). These led to a system called neumes; these again led to signs called notes ( cantus mensurabilis ), the position of which on lines showed their pitch, and the shape of which determined their duration. The use of letters in various positions to represent definite sounds was an e ential element of ancient Greek music, which, however, was discarded at the revival of music in the early Christian church; but the system has, in an improved form, been revived in the modern tonic sol-fa system. The earliest crude attempts at the combination of vocal sounds were called or ganum or diaphony; these were succeeded by an arbitrary system of harmonization called descant, which in its turn was superseded by counterpoint, the laws of which to this day govern vocal part music, and are exhibited in their highest form in the vocal or instrumental fugue. The germ of the romantic style of music is to be found in the love songs of the troubadours and their collateral brethren; the use of music as a language of emotion in the present day has been gradually developed from this source. The highest form of unaccompanied music is to be found in madrigals and pure vocal ma es; the constant improvement of musical instruments led to an independent branch of pure instrumental music, which, pa ing through fantasias and concerti, has culminated in the modern symphony. The wedding of vocal and instrumental music has led to the production of the opera and oratorio. "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend the knotted oak." Congreve: Mourning Bride , i. 1. 2. A taste for harmony or melody. "The man that hath no music in himself Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils." .. Shakesp.: Merchant of Venice, v. 1. 3. The score, written or printed, of a musical composition. *4. A band of musicians. "Play, music, then." Shakesp.: Love's Labor's Lost , v. 2. Magic music: A game in which one of the com pany endeavors to find some article hidden during his absence from the room, being guided in his search by the music of some instrument, which is played fast as he approaches the place where the article is concealed, and slowly as he recedes from it.