call-and-response

[ kawl-uhn-ri-spons ]

adjective

1. noting or pertaining to a style of singing in which a melody sung by one singer is responded to or echoed by one or more singers.
2. noting or pertaining to rapid, spontaneous verbal and nonverbal interaction between speaker and listener, in which all statements are punctuated by expressions from the listener.

noun

1. call-and-response singing.
2. call-and-response interaction between speaker and listener.

call-and-response

noun

1. a form of interaction between a speaker and one or more listeners, in which every utterance of the speaker elicits a verbal or non-verbal response from the listener or listeners

Word History and Origins

Origin of call-and-response¹

First recorded in 1820–30

Example Sentences

One musical number even outlines seizure first aid tips, and leads the audience in repeating back the safety steps via a call-and-response gospel song.

From Los Angeles Times

After Charlize Theron read his name as the victor, Foxx hugged Corinne and took to the stage, keeping the energy going by getting the audience to do Charles’ signature call-and-response of “oooh!” and “aaah!”

From Los Angeles Times

She didn’t have any formal music training, instead drawing on what was around her growing up: gospel music and call-and-response folk traditions.

From Los Angeles Times

The Library of Congress, which added “You’ll Sing a Song” to the National Registry in 2007, said the work is important “both for its enduring popularity and as an expression of Jenkins’s hallmark methodology of nurturing children’s musicality through ‘call-and-response rhythmic group singing.’

From Los Angeles Times

I think of her mobile, legible face as a satisfying call-and-response to Trump’s lifelong preference for female adulation and Botox.

From Slate