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dis·cant 
Audio Help [n. dis-kant; v. dis-kant] Pronunciation Key
Audio Help [n. dis-kant; v. dis-kant] Pronunciation Key –noun
–verb (used without object)
| 1. | Also, dis·can·tus
Audio Help [dis-kan-tuhs] Pronunciation Key. Music. a 13th-century polyphonic style with strict mensural meter in all the voice parts, in contrast to the metrically free organum of the period. |
| 2. | descant. |
| 3. | descant. |
| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
Discant
To learn more about Discant visit Britannica.com
| © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |
| des·cant
Audio Help (děs'kānt') Pronunciation Key
n.
intr.v. (děs'kānt', dě-skānt') des·cant·ed, des·cant·ing, des·cants
[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman descaunt, from Medieval Latin discantus, a refrain : Latin dis-, dis- + Latin cantus, song, from past participle of canere, to sing; see kan- in Indo-European roots.] des'cant'er n. |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
| dis·cant
Audio Help (dĭs'kānt') Pronunciation Key
n. Variant of descant. v. (dĭs'kānt', dĭ-skānt') Variant of descant. |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
| discant | |
noun | |
| a decorative musical accompaniment (often improvised) added above a basic melody [syn: descant] |
| WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University. |
Discant
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.| Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. |
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