Descant \Des"cant\ (d[e^]s"k[a^]nt), n. [OF. descant, deschant,
F. d['e]chant, discant, LL. discantus, fr. L. dis + cantus
singing, melody, fr. canere to sing. See Chant, and cf.
Descant, v. i., Discant.]
1. (Mus.)
(a) Originally, a double song; a melody or counterpoint
sung above the plain song of the tenor; a variation of
an air; a variation by ornament of the main subject or
plain song.
(b) The upper voice in part music.
(c) The canto, cantus, or soprano voice; the treble.
--Grove.
Twenty doctors expound one text twenty ways, as
children make descant upon plain song.
--Tyndale.
She [the nightingale] all night long her amorous
descant sung. --Milton.
Note: The term has also been used synonymously with
counterpoint, or polyphony, which developed out of the
French d['e]chant, of the 12th century.
2. A discourse formed on its theme, like variations on a
musical air; a comment or comments.
Upon that simplest of themes how magnificent a
descant! --De Quincey.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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Figurate \Fig"ur*ate\, a. [L. figuratus, p. p. of figurare. See
Figure.]
1. Of a definite form or figure.
Plants are all figurate and determinate, which
inanimate bodies are not. --Bacon.
2. Figurative; metaphorical. [Obs.]
--Bale.
3. (Mus.) Florid; figurative; involving passing discords by
the freer melodic movement of one or more parts or voices
in the harmony; as, figurate counterpoint or descant.
Figurate counterpoint or descant (Mus.), that which is
not simple, or in which the parts do not move together
tone for tone, but in which freer movement of one or more
parts mingles passing discords with the harmony; -- called
also figural, figurative, and figured counterpoint
or descant (although the term figured is more commonly
applied to a bass with numerals written above or below to
indicate the other notes of the harmony).
Figurate numbers (Math.), numbers, or series of numbers,
formed from any arithmetical progression in which the
first term is a unit, and the difference a whole number,
by taking the first term, and the sums of the first two,
first three, first four, etc., as the successive terms of
a new series, from which another may be formed in the same
manner, and so on, the numbers in the resulting series
being such that points representing them are capable of
symmetrical arrangement in different geometrical figures,
as triangles, squares, pentagons, etc.
Note: In the following example, the two lower lines are
composed of figurate numbers, those in the second line
being triangular, and represented thus: -- . 1, 2, 3,
4, etc. . . . 1, 3, 6, 10, etc. . . . . . . . etc. 1,
4, 10, 20, etc . . . . . . . . . . . .
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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