▪ I. descant, n.
(ˈdɛskænt)
Forms: 4–5 deschaunt, 5–6 dyscant, 6–9 dis-, 6– descant.
[a. OF. deschant (13th c. and in Cotgr.), also ONF. descaunt, descant, rarely dis-, mod.F. déchant, = Pr. deschans, Sp. discante, Pg. descante, ad. med.L. discant-us part-song, refrain, descant, f. L. dis- asunder, apart + cantus singing, song. The form directly from OF. was used by Wyclif; a form in dis- immediately from L. occurs from the 15th c., and would be normal for English (see dis-).]
I. Music. Now only Hist., or poet.
1. A melodious accompaniment to a simple musical theme (the plainsong), sung or played, and often merely extemporized, above it, and thus forming an air to its bass: the earliest form of counterpoint.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 77 Grete crying of song as deschaunt, contre note and orgene. ? c 1475 Sqr. lowe Degre 790 Your quere nor organ songe shall wante, With countre note, and dyscant. 1501 Douglas Pal. Hon. i. xlii, I play and sing, Fabourdoun, pricksang, discant, countering. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. i. ii. 94 You are too flat, And marre the concord, with too harsh a descant. 1595 Spenser Epithal. v, The merry Larke hir mattins sings aloft; The Thrush replyes; the Mavis descant playes. 1683 Chalkhill Thealma & Cl. 100 Sweet lays Wrought with such curious descant as would raise Attention in a stone. 1762 Churchill Poems, Proph. Famine, The youth..skill'd in rustic lays, Fast by her side his am'rous descant plays. 1881 Macfarren Counterp. i. 1 Descant seems to have been the art of improvising a melodic accompaniment to a fixed song. |
| fig. 1641 Wither in R. Palmer Bk. of Praise xxvii. 28 To this Concert when we sing Whistling winds your descants bring. 1659 Rowbotham Gate Lang. Unl. Pref. (1664) E vij, The descant of meeter hath often corrupted the plain⁓song of truth. 1865 F. G. Lee Direct. Angl. §116. 110 Canticles (a descant of praise on the Lessons). |
† b. base descant, binding descant: see quots. double descant: double counterpoint. plain descant: plain or simple counterpoint. Obs.
| 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 76 Two plainesong notes for one in the descant..is commonlie called binding descant. Ibid. 86 Base descant..is that kinde of descanting, where your sight of taking and vsing your cordes must be vnder the plainsong. Ibid. 105 Double descant..is verie neere the nature of a Canon..which being sung after diuers sortes, by changing the partes, maketh diuers manners of harmonie. |
2. The soprano or highest part of the score in part-singing.
| 1569 J. Sandford tr. Agrippa's Van. Artes 30 While the children braie the Discante. 1609 Douland Ornithop. Microl. 83 Discantus is the vppermost part of each Song. 1644 Sir E. Dering Prop. Sacr. C iij, Children neigh forth the descant. 1882–3 Schaff Encycl. Relig. Knowl. III. 2025 Composed for three voices—descant, tenor, and bass. |
3. gen. A warbled song, a melodious strain.
| 1576 Gascoigne Philomene 6 To heare the descant of the Nightingale. 1615 Wither Sheph. Hunt. i. Juvenilia (1633) 393 The cage doth some birds good, And..Will teach them sweeter descants than the wood. 1742 Gray Sonnet on Death of West 3 The birds in vain their amorous descant join. 1877 Bryant Poems, Waiting by Gate ii, I hear the wood-thrush piping one mellow descant more. |
4. The art of singing or writing music in parts; musical composition, harmony; also, a harmonized composition.
| 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus, Asymphonia, discord in descant. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 93 If thou haddest learned..the first noat of Descant thou wouldest have kept thy Sol. Fa. to thyselfe. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. Annot., The word descant signifieth, in our toung the forme of setting together of sundry voices or concords for producing of harmony..But in this signification it is seldome vsed. 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. i. iv. 42 The whole chorus joined in descant and sang a hymn. 1674 T. Campion (title), The Art of Descant, or composing Musick in Parts. 1795 Mason Ch. Mus. ii. 100 A descant of thirtie-eight proportions of sondry kind. 1825 Southey Tale of Paraguay iii. xxxix, Into a descant of her own Hath blended all their notes. 1871 Q. Rev. No. 261. 158 The notion of playing two different notes in successive harmony to one of longer duration, or the art of descant, had not yet occurred to any one. 1882 Rockstro in Grove Dict. Music III. 269 [Counterpoint] was..evolved by slow degrees, from Diaphonia, Discant, and Organum. |
5. An instrumental prelude, consisting of variations on a given theme.
| 1644 Milton Educ., Exercise, While the skilful Organist plies his grave and fancied descant in lofty Fugues. 1795 Mason Ch. Mus. i. 58 foot-n., By Discant, the Musicians of Milton's time meant preluding on a given ground. 1813 Scott Rokeby v. xii, And then a low sad descant rung, As prelude to the lay he sung. 1882 Shorthouse J. Inglesant II. 378 Mr. Inglesant being pressed to oblige the company, played a descant upon a ground bass in the Italian manner. |
| fig. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) xviii. 204 That peculiar species of prelusive flourish, or descant, with which Reviewers are accustomed to usher in the Performance under immediate examination. |
II. Transferred uses: often with distinct reference to the plainsong or ground, and in the phrases run descant or sing descant.
† 6. Variation from that which is typical or customary; an instance of this. shift of descant: a change of ‘tune’, i.e. of argumentative position.
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1684) III. 621 Whereas you say, they eat it spiritually, that is but a blind shift of descant. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 119 Osorius lacketh not a shift of descante here, thinkyng thereby to craze the force of veritie. 1633 P. Fletcher Purple Isl. viii. xliv. 117 Runnes nimble descant on the plainest vices. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. xiii. 184 Running, Leaping, and Dancing, the descants on the plain song of walking. a 1661 ― Worthies (1840) I. 224 Their [basket] making is daily improved with much descant of art. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 543 ¶4 Providence has shewn..Wisdom..in the multiplicity of Descants which it has made on every Original Species. |
7. Varied comment on a theme, amplification of a subject; a comment, criticism, observation, remark; † occas. censorious criticism, carping (obs.).
| 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iii. vii. 49 On that ground Ile make a holy Descant. 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe (1871) 36 The wantoner sort of them sing descant on their mistress's glove. 1630 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlem. (1641) 320 Let not calumny runne descant on your tongue. 1639 Fuller Holy War ii. xlvi. (1840) 114 Roger Hoveden's witty descant on the time. 1642 Rogers Naaman 209 If thy Religion should cost thee some disgrace, scorne and descant. 1654 H. L'Estrange Chas. I (1655) 7 It doth..render King Charles obnoxious to untoward and sinister descants. a 1677 Barrow Serm. Wks. 1716 I. 29 Neither shall I make any descant or reflection thereon. 1710 Moderation & Loyalty of the Dissenters Exemplify'd 3 Rendering Things worse than they were by Partiallity and Discant. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 77 With merry descants on a nation's woes. 1820 Shelley Let. to Maria Gisborne Poet. Wks. (1891) 373/1 There are themes enough for many a bout Of thought-entangled descant. |
b. A disquisition, dissertation, discourse.
| 1622 Donne Serm. xvi. 162 The fathers have infinitely delighted themselves in this Descant, the blessed effect of holy teares. 1667 Waterhouse Fire Lond. 177 O remember the Prophetical descant of glorious King James. 1713 Addison Guardian No. 102 After this short descant on the uncertainty of our English weather. 1791 Paine Rights of Man (ed. 4) 46, I have now to follow Mr. Burke through..a sort of descant upon governments. 1841 D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 196 He instructed the world by ethical descants. |
III. 8. attrib. and Comb. descant-clef, the soprano or treble clef; descant-viol, the treble viol. or violin, which plays the air or soprano part.
| 1728 North Mem. of Musick (1846) 67 No wonder..that organs..with the descant manner, at last entered the churches. |
▪ II. descant, v.
(dɪˈskænt)
Also 6–9 dis- (6–7 dys-).
[a. OF. deschanter, descanter, = Pr. deschantar, Sp. discantar, Pg. descantar, in med.L. discantāre (des-, dē-), f. the n.: see prec.]
1. Music. a. intr. To play or sing an air in harmony with a fixed theme; gen. to warble, sing harmoniously; also in phr. to descant it.
| 1538 [see descanter]. 1597 Morley Mus. 76 In descanting you must..seeke true cordes. 1607 Topsell Serpents (1653) 772 They will..sing so sweetly, and withall descant it so finely and tunably. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Contre, To..sing the Plainesong whereon another descants. 1879 Parry in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 670 This new mode of descanting. 1887 Bowen Virg. Eclogue vi. 8, I with a meadow reed upon sylvan themes will descant. |
† b. trans. To sing in ‘descant’ (words, etc.).
| 1538 Starkey England i. iv. 134 The wordys [of Church music] be so straunge and so dyuersely descantyd. |
2. intr. To make remarks, comments, or observations; to comment (on, upon, † of a text, theme, etc.).
| c 1510 More Picus Wks. 15/1 The company of the court..descanted therof to his rebuke. 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. ii. 7 They have curiously descanted upon theis woords. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, i. i. 27 To see my Shadow in the Sunne, And descant on mine own Deformity. 1598 J. Dickenson Green in Conc. (1878) 160 Nor presumptuously descant of the vnknowen proceedings of the almighty. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia i. 13 Many began strangely to discant of those crosse beginnings. 1649 Milton Eikon. B, To descant on the misfortunes of a Person fall'n from dignity is not commendable. 1738 Warburton Div. Legat. I. Ded. 23 To descant upon their very Hats and Habits. 1791 Boswell Johnson 5 Aug. an. 1763, He used to descant critically on the dishes which had been at table. 1850 Kingsley Alt. Locke vi, He ran on descanting coarsely on beauties. |
b. To discourse at large, enlarge (upon, on a theme). Also with indirect pass.
| a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) I. 68 The friar rather descanted than commented. a 1782 Kames in M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 73 The young champion..discants upon his address in catching the animal. 1791 Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) I. 353 Abbé Syeyès..descants with much self-sufficiency on government. 1836 Johnsoniana 362 Johnson never accustomed himself to descant on the ingratitude of mankind. 1878 Gladstone Prim. Homer 9 It was the bard's duty to descant upon the freshest and most interesting subjects. |
† 3. trans. To comment on, discourse about, discuss; occas. to criticize, carp at. Obs.
| 1627 F. E. Hist. Edw. II (1680) 53 Where they might descant their griefs. 1642 Rogers Naaman 376 Such secrets as these must be..adored, not descanted. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 31 But who can descant right your grave aspects? |
† 4. intr. To work with intricate variation on; to fashion with artistic skill. Obs. rare.
| a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) I. 397 Lace, costing nothing save a little thread descanted on by art and industry. Ibid. III. 90 The God of nature is pleased to descant on a plain hollowness with such wonderful contrivances. |