English edit

Noun edit

machicotage (uncountable)

  1. (rare, archaic) A style of singing, especially of sacred music, cultivated from the late Middle Ages until the 19th century, centered on Paris, and derived from the Gallican ritual; in this style vocal lines are decorated with improvised ornamentation, and differentiated from each other in a polyphonic composition also by tone color.
    • 1995, Peter Jeffery, Re-Envisioning Past Musical Cultures: Ethnomusicology in the Study of Gregorian Chant:
      A similar practice in French cathedrals, called machicotage, is documented from 1391 through at least the eighteenth century.

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