tenor (tenor)

and a. [Formerly also tenour, sometimes tennure; Along the cool, sequester'd vale of life They kept the noisele tenor of their way. Gray, Elegy. The chief event in the course of the summer which broke the even tenor of our lives was a first visit from our great neighbors, Lord and Lady Car lisle. Lady Holland, Sydney Smith, vii. The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: The Century dictionary tenor 2. General course or drift of a thought, saying, discourse, or the like; that course of thought or meaning which holds on or runs throught a whole discourse, treatise, statute, or the like; general purport; substance. Thenne he cryed so cler that kenne myzt alle; The trwe tenor of his teme he tolde on this wyse. Alliterative Poems (ed. Morris), iii. 358. Mark the tenor of my style, Which shall such trembling hearts unfold As seldom hath to-fore been told. B. Jonson, Case is Altered, i. 1. The tennure of this letter was That Robbin would submit. True Tale of Robin Hood (Child's Ballads, V. 366). Emigration to the new countries was encouraged by the liberal tenor of the royal ordinances pa ed from time to Pre scott, Ferd. and Isa., ii. 9. time. 3. In law : (a) True intent and meaning; pur- port and effect: as, the tenor of a deed or in- strument of any kind is its purport and effect, but not its actual words. (b) A transcript or copy. It implies that a correct copy is set out, and there- fore at common law, under an allegation according to the tenor, the instrument must be set out correctly. 4. Character; nature. All of a tenor was their after-life, No day discoloured with domestic strife. Dryden, Pal. and Arc., iii. 1148. 5. In music : (a) The highest variety of the ordinary adult male voice. Its compa usually extends about two octaves or le from the first C below middle C. Its quality is properly thin and penetrating, bearing much the same relation to ba that soprano does to alto. Its upper tones often much resemble the middle tones of alto. A tenor voice having somewhat of the breadth and sonority of a barytone is often called (in Italian) a tenore robusto , while a light, agile tenor is called a tenore leggiero . (b) A singer with such a voice, or a voice-part intended for or sung by such a voice. In ordinary part-writing the tenor is the third voice-part, intermediate between the alto and the ba . (c) An instrument playing a third part; specifically, the viola (which see). (d) In medieval music, also, (1) the hold or pause on a final tone of a piece; (2) the ambit us or compa of a mode; (3) the repercu ion of a mode. - Action of proving the tenor. See proving. - Middle tenor, Ma achusetts paper currency, 1737-40. See new tenor (b). - New tenor. (a) In the financial history of Ma achusetts and Rhode Island, a form of paper currency of the public i ues which began in 1737 in the former colony and in 1740 in the latter, and of which each bill bore a declaration that it should be equal in value to a stated amount of coined silver or of gold coin. (6) In Ma achusetts, a new form of such currency, i ued in accordance with an act of the year 1741 and subsequent years, and differing but slightly from that above described. The notes of this emi ion received the name of new tenor, which caused the preceding series, which had hitherto borne that name, to be thenceforth called middle tenor.- Old tenor, in the financial history of Ma achusetts and Rhode Island, a form of paper currency of the public i ues which preceded one of 1737 in the former colony and one of 1740 in the latter, and of which each bill bore a declaration that it should be in value equal to money. II. a. In music , of or pertaining to the tenor; adapted for singing or playing the tenor: as, a tenor voice; a tenor instrument; a tenor part. -Tenor ba oon, cornet, drum, horn, trombone, trumpet, etc., varieties of these several instruments whose size and compa make them intermediate between the alto and ba varieties. - Tenor bell, the chief bell in a set of bells.-Tenor C, in music , the next C below middle C.-Tenor clef, in musical notation , a C clef placed on the third line of a staff. Tenor violin. Same as viola .