Song

(song.) [A.S sang.] (Poetry and Mus.) A short poem adapted to a vocal melody. The word is generally applied to the poetical and musical composition in union, but sometimes to one or other separately. The poem generally turns on some single thought or feeling, and is divided into portions of returning measure. The term song, properly implying an air of a simple kind, is often, though not very correctly, applied to the elaborate aria of the opera, or the solemn air of the oratorio. A song generally implies an air for a single voice-airs for more than one voice being, however, sometimes called part-songs. [s. 838]