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musical, a. (and n.)|ˈmjuːzɪkəl|
[a. F. musical (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. med.L. mūsicālis (Albertus Magnus c 1250), f. L. mūsica music n.]
A. adj.
1. Of or belonging to music.
musical instrument: see instrument n. 3. musical ear: see ear n.1 5.
c1420Lydg. Thebes (E.E.T.S.) 222 The musycal, the lusty instrument, I mene the harpe most melodious, yove to this kynge be Mercurius. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 7 b, Whiche..passeth all y⊇ armony of this worlde, bothe musycall instrumentes & voyce of man. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 324 Marsyas roamed with her, who after, being ouercome in a Musicall contention of Apollo, was flayed quicke. 1726Swift Gulliver iii. ii, He gave me the names and descriptions of all their musical instruments. 1790Sheridan Let. in T. Moore Life R. B. Sheridan (1825) 468 We had a very pleasant musical party last night at Lord Erskine's. 1791F. Burney Jrnl. Dec. (1972) I. 95 We have spent a charming Musical Evening at Mr. Burney's. 1814J. Mayne Jrnl. 7 Nov. (1909) x. 183 Countess Cardelli, who has agreeable musical parties at her house every Sunday evening. 1841Elphinstone Hist. Ind. I. 297 Musical science is said to have declined like all others. 1885List of Subscribers, Classified (United Telephone Co.) (ed. 6) 157 Musical instrument makers..Chappell & Co. 1892Law Times, Weekly Notes 188/1 The defendant had a musical evening regularly once a week. 1926Punch 10 Nov. p. iii (Advt.), Recreation for yourself—Dance Parties—Musical Evenings. 1964W. L. Goodman Hist. Woodworking Tools 92 These small block planes were very useful to violin and other musical-instrument makers.
2. Having the nature or characteristics of music; tuneful, melodious, harmonious; pleasing in sound, euphonious. Of sounds: Such as are used in music; having the nature of ‘tones’, as distinguished from mere ‘noises’.
c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 157 The unycorn, by musical swetnesse, Atween too maydenys is take and hath a fal. 1509Hawes Past. Pleas xvi. (Percy Soc.) 76 The lytle byrdes swetely dyd syng With tunes musicall in the fayre mornyng. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. iv. i. 115 Marke the musicall confusion Of hounds and eccho in coniunction. a1668Davenant Entertainm. Rutland Ho. Poems (1672) 344 Would he not have you Cough but..with a musical concordance to the rest that have taken cold? 1720J. Welwood in Rowe Lucan Pref. 43 The Versification [is] both musical and adapted to the subject. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-Bks. (1871) II. 310 The murmur of their voices took a musical tone. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 43 A murmur which began as a soft, gentle, blowing sound..may..increase to a loud musical bruit in the course of a single week. 1873Browning Red. Cott. Nt.-cap 402 What is this..makes The musicalest buzzing at my ear?
fig.1643Prynne Sov. Power Parl. App. 77 Out of which things, the moderate and musicall state of the Commonweale which we enjoy, is moulded and made up. 1818Byron Ch. Har. iv. clvi, Vastness which grows—but grows to harmonise—All musical in its immensities. 1892Symonds Michel Angelo (1899) II. 5 No edifice..is..more musical in linear proportion than the Church of S. Andrea at Mantua.
3. Fond of or skilled in music.
c1420Lydg. Assembly of Gods 401 And as a poet musykall made he melody. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. i. 237 Hotsp. Now I perceiue the Deuill vnderstands Welsh,..Byrlady hee's a good Musitian. Lady. Then would you be nothing but Musicall, For you are altogether gouerned by humors. 1685Dryden Alb. & Alban. Pref. 6 The English I confess, are not altogether so Musical as the French. 1832Jekyll Corr. (1894) 294 At night we had four musical artistes. 1896Mrs. Caffyn Quaker Grandmother 67 What! Do you take me for a musical person?
†4. Math. = harmonic a. 5 a. Obs.
1594Blundevil Exerc. i. xxii. (1597) 23 Of Musicall proportion called in Latine Harmoniaca proportio. 1806Hutton Course Math. I. 119 Musical Proportion is when, of three numbers, the first has the same proportion to the third, as the difference between the first and second, has to the difference between the second and third. Ibid., When numbers are in musical progression, their reciprocals are in arithmetical progression.
†5. Of or pertaining to the muses. Obs.
1490Caxton Eneydos 4 He hath redde the ix. muses, and vnderstande theyr musicalle scyences.
6. Set to or accompanied by music.
1685Dryden Alb. & Alban. Pref. 2 The Italians..have not only invented, but brought to perfection, this sort of Dramatique Musical Entertainment. 1697Motteux Loves of Mars & Venus Pref., This Musical Play or Masque. 1791H. Walpole Let. to Miss Mary Berry 28 June, Frank North..has a musical comedy at the Little Haymarket, and coldly received. 1904Mrs. A. Tweedie Behind Footlights xvi. 292 For some forthcoming musical comedy.
7. slang. Applied to a horse with defective respiration; that is a ‘roarer’.
1900Hayes Among Horses in Russia Introd. 8 His skewbald Joseph, who was a beautifully shaped hunter,..though musical.
8. U.S. Amusing; ridiculous. Cf. music n. 10.
1816Pickering Vocab. Words Amer. 135 They would say of a man of humour, He is very musical. 1859Bartlett Dict. Amer., Musical, amusing. New England.
9. Comb., as musical-headed adj.
1587Harrison England ii. vi. (1877), The nobilitie..whose cookes are for the most part musicall-headed Frenchmen.
10. Special collocations: musical appreciation, informed response to music; musical arms, a modification of the game of musical chairs (see quot.); musical box, a mechanical musical instrument consisting of a revolving toothed cylinder working upon a resonant comb-like metal plate; also transf. and fig.; musical bumps, a game similar to musical chairs, in which the competitors sit down on the floor or ground when the music stops and the last person to sit is out of the game; also fig.; musical chairs, a competitive parlour game in which a number of persons walk to music round a smaller number of chairs and each tries to secure a seat when the music stops, or an outdoor game on the same principle played on horseback; also attrib. and fig.; musical chime, a set of bells arranged to play a tune, a carillon; musical clock, a clock which produces short tunes at regular intervals; musical comedy, a light dramatic piece, on stage or in a cinema, consisting of dialogue, songs, and dancing, connected by a slight plot; also fig.; musical director, the conductor of the orchestra of a theatre, either for opera or for plays; musical dramatist, a composer of music-dramas (see music n. 13 c); musical drive, an exhibition of horsemanship by a military unit in which the horses pull along the military equipment to the accompaniment of music; musical festival = festival n. 1 b; musical fright = musical chairs; musical glasses = harmonica 1 a; musical ride (see quot.); musical saw, a hand-saw held between the knees and ‘played’ with a violin bow; musical shell = music-shell; musical snuff-box, a snuff-box containing a small musical instrument worked by machinery; musical watch, a watch which incorporates a comb and cylinder mechanism to produce a tune at specified times.
1929Jrnl. Abnormal Psychol. XXIV. 75 It is possible..in the teaching of ‘*musical appreciation’ to inculcate dogmas about what is symbolized by certain musical combinations. 1947C. Gray Contingencies & Other Essays i. 20 The recognition of the truth..has brought about in recent years the development of an activity known as ‘musical appreciation’, which aims at fostering a love of music among the populace by means of broadcast lectures, evening classes, elementary handbooks and textbooks, educational gramophone records, and so forth; by teaching music, in a word, in very much the same way as one would teach any other subject in the educational curriculum. 1955P. Vincent in H. van Thal Fanfare for Ernest Newman 174 The courses of musical appreciation that have been taught in schools these last twenty years or so. 1962M. Sargent Outline of Music p. v, I believe this ‘Outline’ to be more thorough than many popular books on musical appreciation.
1924D. C. Minter Children's Parties x. 137 *Musical arms. This game is played in the same way as Musical Chairs, without, however, using chairs.
[1821M. Wilmot Let. 16 Apr. (1935) 105 The musical bonbon box, and other trifles to amuse the children.] 1829A. Royall Pennsylvania I. 10 A small wooden *musical box..by mechanical invention produced the name of any capital town you called for. 1840Hood Kilmansegg, Misery v, Toy, and trinket, and musical box. 1878Statham in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 311 The ‘musical-box’ toy, which is in fact a carillon on a minute scale, playing on vibrating tongues. 1925T. E. Lawrence Let. 3 Nov. (1938) 486 Our hut now has a little musical box. 1925E. Sitwell Poetry & Criticism 21 No time for darkness there, excepting in the cubes of their musical-box brains.
1932S. G. Hedges Indoor & Community Games vi. 76 *Musical Bumps... All march round in single file, while the pianist plays... When the music stops everyone must flop down on the floor—and the one who ‘bumps’ last falls out of the game. 1967E. Grierson Crime of One's Own xi. 92 He..went a few paces and stopped abruptly—the technique one used at the piano to defeat too proficient children at a game of Musical Bumps. 1974Listener 18 July 85/3 England may not be the world champions at soccer, but we are definitely past-masters at musical bumps.
1877Cassell's Family Mag. Dec. 41/1 When there is a piano, ‘*Musical Chairs’ played in the usual way..is quite as interesting. 1916‘Peter’ Trench Yarns 25 We had to get the men through the danger zone by a sort of musical-chairs rush. They came slowly up to the entrance, and then dashed in and round the corner into safety behind the bricks. 1933A. Blewitt Ponies & Children viii. 121 Musical Chairs—the posts are stuck in a small circle, one less than the number of competitors, who have to canter in a wide circle, led by a grown-up on horseback. 1939R. S. Summerhays Riding for All xiv. 87 The almost inevitable event at all gymkhanas is musical chairs. 1950G. Brenan Face of Spain x. 202 The Spanish economic system is like a game of musical chairs, in which there are only half as many seats as there are performers. 1973E. Page Fortnight by Sea v. 52 How rapidly the years slipped by, with what speed the game of musical chairs was played, how swiftly one was forced out of one role and into another. 1974Times 16 Jan. 12/3 President Bourguiba..was still in the mood of playing musical chairs with his Prime Ministers.
1798Cruttwell Univ. Gazetteer (1808) s.v. Birmingham, In each steeple is a set of *musical chimes.
1747H. Walpole Let. To Mann 10 Nov., Don't you see that *musical clock? 1939S. Spender tr. E. Toller's Pastor Hall i. 54 Even the *musical clock is afraid of being denounced.
1765R. Cumberland (title) The summer's tale: a *musical comedy of three acts. 1791,1904Musical comedy [see sense 6]. 1910‘Saki’ in Bystander 7 Dec. 484/1 Noted lights of the musical-comedy stage. 1923A. Huxley Antic Hay iii. 35 He looked..positively soldierly in his black jacket and his musical comedy trousers. 1957New Yorker 12 Jan. 34/1 It was her favorite kind of film, a musical comedy in full color. 1967Listener 3 Aug. 138/1, I thought I'd start in musical comedy,..carry on training as a dancer and singer.
1829H. Foote Compan. to Theatres 147 Covent Garden—Season 1828–9... *Musical Director and Composer—Mr H. R. Bishop. 1902W. H. Chantrey Theatre Accounts 73 All reasonable requirements from time to time made by the Manager, and the directors of the Musical Director or Stage Manager.
1885G. B. Shaw How to become Mus. Critic (1960) 73 The most subtle and profound of all *musical dramatists. 1963Listener 3 Jan. 45/1 Compared with the microcosm created by the greatest musical dramatists his [sc. Puccini's] world is limited in subject-matter.
1930Times Educ. Suppl. 31 May 1/3 The *musical drive by ‘J’ Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, was carried out at the gallop.
1852Dickens Our Bore in Househ. Words 9 Oct. 75/1 He was at the Norwich *musical festival.
1879‘L. Hoffmann’ Drawing-room Amusements 24 *Musical Fright.
1766Goldsm. Vic. W. ix, They would talk of nothing but..pictures, taste, Shakespeare, and the *musical glasses. 1876Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms, Musical glasses, a series of goblets of graduated sizes fixed in a case. The tone is produced by the friction of the fingers of the player on the edge of the glass.
1886C. E. Pascoe London of To-day xviii. (ed. 3) 180 An exhibition of equestrian skill of the Life or Horse Guards, known as a *Musical Ride. This ‘Musical Ride’ is a kind of equestrian dance executed with extraordinary precision. 1960C. Day Lewis Buried Day v. 93, I seen this regiment..performing their intricate ‘musical ride’, with guns and limbers, at the Naval and Military Tournament.
1927Melody Maker Aug. 773/2 In the combination are two performers on *musical saw, which novelty, says Mr. Haggleton, always goes down well with his audience. 1946R. Blesh Shining Trumpets (1949) v. 104 Exotic instruments may be utilized as well, such as harmonica, kazoo, jug, washboard, wood blocks and musical saw. 1957W. C. Handy Father of Blues x. 139 The technique..was similar to that used in playing musical saws. 1958A. Jacobs New Dict. Mus. 231 Mayuzumi..has written..music..including..‘Tonepleromas 55’ for wind and percussion instruments and musical saw. 1973J. Wainwright Devil you Don't 22 Rawlings will have you warbling La Traviata, backwards..with musical saw accompaniment.
1666J. Davies Hist. Caribby Isles 125 It may be called the *Musical-shell, because on the out-side of it there are blackish lines, full of notes.
1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 66 Pocket Organ, or *Musical Snuff-box.
1899F. J. Britten Old Clocks & Watches 148 *Musical watches of large size with moving figures were a favourite conceit among French makers during the latter part of the eighteenth century. 1952T. P. C. Cuss Watches xi. 145 On earlier musical watches—at the end of the eighteenth century—a pinned cylinder took the place of the disc. 1954Grove's Dict. Mus. (ed. 5) V. 1018/2 Musical watches..were made, usually in Switzerland, at the beginning of the 19th century... There might be one tune..or, more rarely, an air and variation. 1973Watches in Usher Coll. 12 Musical watch with tiny cylinder playing on 13 teeth.
B. n.
†1.
a. pl. Musical instruments.
b. A musical performance. Obs.
c1500in Grose Antiq. Rep. (1809) IV. 408 All theys musycalls well handilled and orderide in ther kynde Gevithe soundes of swetnes. 1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. May 28 Tho to the greene Wood they speeden hem all, To fetchen home May with their musicall.
2. a. A musical party. b. A musical person.
1823D'Israeli Cur. Lit. Ser. ii. I. 401 Such fashionable cant terms as ‘theatricals’, and ‘musicals’, invented by the flippant Topham. 1861Sat. Rev. 21 Sept. 297 A luminous constellation of musicals has risen over Hereford. 1887Cornh. Mag. June 632 Dull dinners and afternoon musicals completed the list of outside amusements.
3. A film or a theatrical piece (not opera or operetta) of which music is an essential element.
1938Chatelaine Jan. 50/2 You can guess what it's about without my telling you—it's a musical. 1940Illustr. London News CXCVI. 464/1 Some of these ‘musicals’ have proved extremely popular. 1944[see cover-girl]. 1954T. S. Eliot Confidential Clerk ii. 47 Lucasta:..But what about taking me to a concert? Colby: Only the other day I invited you... Lucasta: To go to see that American Musical! 1959Listener 13 Aug. 259/1 A Novello musical. 1973Ibid. 14 June 815/2 Musicals..exist in a far from splendid isolation, endlessly repeating the tricks which once worked. |