(n.) The setting of note against note in harmony; the adding of one or more parts to a given canto fermo or melody
(n.) The art of polyphony, or composite melody, i. e., melody not single, but moving attended by one or more related melodies.
(n.) Music in parts; part writing; harmony; polyphonic music. See Polyphony.
(n.) A coverlet; a cover for a bed, often stitched or broken into squares; a counterpane. See 1st Counterpane.
Example Sentences:
(1) The corporation said it counterpointed the KKK spokesman's comments with a US academic critical of the organisation.
(2) Nokia's share was lower than HTC's, according to Counterpoint, suggesting that it sold fewer than 400,000 phones in the US during September.
(3) This angelic whirling is a perfect counterpoint to the earthly chanting.
(4) The harmonious counterpoint of this septet of currents explains most of the electrical excitability properties of these cells.
(5) Not only did this life-affirming piece of mischief make the perfect counterpoint to the self-harming entrepreneurial initiative of the emaciated illusionist, it also enabled a TV audience of millions to get a taste of music they might not otherwise have heard, as Jus' a Rascal was beamed around the world as the unofficial soundtrack to the much sought after news footage of the end of Blaine's 44-day fast.
(6) "The counterpoint to the ongoing wars of aggression and the drumbeat heralding a 'clash of civilisations' is the desire of ordinary people in the west and in the Arab world to engage with each other," the Egyptian author Ahdaf Soueif said at the time.
(7) Ilves was dressed in his trademark tweeds and bow tie, a counterpoint to his mission to make Estonia the most digitally progressive country in Europe .
(8) Paul Ryan’s policies are so vague that he must bolster them by nightmarish counterpoint.
(9) He adds that they sometimes get letters from children enamoured with his "hard-right stance", so they introduced a democratic movement as a counterpoint.
(10) I was doing an interview for one of those pop keyboard magazines, and the guy said to me ‘What do you think of The Orb?’ And I said ‘What’s The Orb?’ And he said ‘You don’t know?’ And I said ‘No I don’t know,’ and he said ‘You should know,’ and he handed me the CD and I took it home there was Electric Counterpoint.
(11) That’s a skill.” Jakielka said Hodgson’s approach was a refreshing counterpoint to the authoritarian Capello but conceded England would have to deliver in France to keep him in his job.
(12) Rubio himself referred to two such examples – China and Vietnam – in a Wednesday op-ed in the New York Times , but to make a counterpoint: that despite the opening up of economic pathways, both China and Vietnam remain notorious violators of basic human rights.
(13) In his vast orchestral canvas St Thomas Wake (1968) his target is the foxtrot, which appears grotesquely parodied alongside plainchant and counterpoint, ordered with the help of “magic squares” (assemblages of numbers whose rows and columns and long diagonals yield the same total).
(14) For Rubin, the Benghazi attack offers the perfect counterpoint to Chris Christie’s Bridgegate ; an opening born of human tragedy.
(15) Without getting the counterpoint, I was drawn more and more to the conservative side.
(16) For the quarter, Counterpoint's data suggests that Nokia sold fewer than 1.5m phones in the US.
(17) The marriage between the parents is just one union serving as a counterpoint to the love match that all the daughters so ardently, subversively desire.
(18) Curriculum vitae Age 59 Education Dartmouth College, New Hampshire (history); University College, Oxford (PPE) Career 1970 writer, Rolling Stone magazine 1973 presenter, Radio 1 1974 presenter, Radio 4 arts show Kaleidoscope 1983 founder member, TV-am 1992 launch team, Classic FM 1995 Radio 3 1996 Radio Academy's Outstanding Contribution to Music Radio award 1998 presenter, Classic FM 2005 inducted into Radio Academy Hall of Fame 2008 host, Counterpoint music quiz, Radio 4
(19) Worse still, it concluded, if Europe failed to surmount its economic crisis the prize would be a “risible memory, or worse, an epitaph for what Europe could have been, should have been.” 11.33am BST Aid donations My colleague Mark Tran, the Guardian's Global Development correspondent, has sent this as a counterpoint to the detractors: Something positive to say about the EU.
(20) The chancellor, George Osborne, coined the phrase two years ago, saying he wanted to join together the cities of the north as a counterpoint to the dominance of London and south-east England.
Descant
Definition:
(v. i.) 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.
(v. i.) The upper voice in part music.
(v. i.) The canto, cantus, or soprano voice; the treble.
(v. i.) A discourse formed on its theme, like variations on a musical air; a comment or comments.
(v. i.) To sing a variation or accomplishment.
(v. i.) To comment freely; to discourse with fullness and particularity; to discourse at large.
Example Sentences:
(1) Tony Blair added his characteristic descant, adding " We have imbibed deeply of the Olympic spirit … in throwing timidity to the winds we have rediscovered a spirit that is our own ".
(2) In a group of cases in which the symptoms had lasted a few months only a displacement towards high frequencies ("descant" displacement) was revealed.
(3) Hyperbolic”, sings George, while his friend David does descant, and the massed bands of Fleet Street march into battle.
(4) Yet Ukip – from the very beginning – played a racist descant on top of this tune of justifiable grievances.
(5) And yet there's a descant in Perth to the major-key optimism that has marked every SNP conference in the last few years.
(6) It will certainly bring the contest to succeed Mr Cameron closer – that is the loud descant to everything that is happening among the Tories at Westminster at the moment, as Mr Johnson’s antics demonstrate.
(7) Vocal chords will be lubricated with mulled wine and those attempting the dog-whistle Ding Dong descant would do well to consult the pub’s superior malt whisky collection in advance.
(8) Unnoticed by anyone, he maintains a gloomy descant ("A dollar is still a lot of money"; "I've suffered from depression all my life"; "I am dubious") to their falsely cheerful exchanges.
(9) That's why the opening of the Hockney show has been taking place to a not particularly subtle descant of propaganda and provocation from the great man himself.
(10) Indeed, Rona Fairhead, the current chair and once a favoured contributor to George Osborne’s Treasury deliberations, seems as miffed as anyone, while Sir Christopher Bland and Sir Michael Lyons sing transparency’s descant at the back of the chorus.