part song

American  

noun

1. a song with parts for several voices, especially one meant to be sung without accompaniment.

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part song British  

noun

1. a song composed in harmonized parts

2. (in more technical usage) a piece of homophonic choral music in which the topmost part carries the melody

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Other Word Forms

• part singing noun

Etymology

Origin of part song

First recorded in 1590–1600

Example Sentences

There is a ten-minute-long “Amazing Grace,” part song, part sermon, that could come only from someone steeped in the tradition of her father’s Delta whooping.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 4, 2016

Back then "glee" referred to a specific form of unaccompanied English part song - singing with two or more voice parts, with one part carrying the melody - and were all male.

From BBC • Jan. 22, 2010

We decided that each school is to learn the part song, 'Now Cheerful Spring Returns', and to sing it one after another.

From The Girls of St. Cyprian's A Tale of School Life by Brazil, Angela

Sir John Hawkins credited him with the part song “In going to my lonely bed”; the words are certainly his, and probably the music.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 1 "Edwardes" to "Ehrenbreitstein" by Various

A light part song, or madrigal, with a fa la burden or chorus, Ð most common with the Elizabethan madrigal composers.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah