chordless

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Lacking chords.

2. 2

   Not playing chords

   Not playing chords; silent or playing one note at a time.

   • But a profound melancholy had taken possession of Franz, the two hardly exchanged a word, the violin hung mute, chordless, full of dust, in its habitual place .
   • It is a chordless affair, because it is out of commission .
3. 3

   Without chords

   Without chords; involving one note at a time or dissonant combinations.

   • A boat slowly drifts under the bridge and out to sea, and someone inside it plays an untuned piano with a slow chordless melody.
   • Earlier work like the atonal music of pianist Sun Ra and bassist Charles Mingus as well as the chordless music of Coleman and Taylor foreshadowed free jazz.
4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      Without synergy or harmonious combinations

      Without synergy or harmonious combinations; One thing at a time.

      • Why the All-mover, Why the All-prover Ever urges on and measure out the chordless chime of things.
      • Hardy, though, considers it incapable of resolution: for him, nature as defined by physical science is simultaneously rhythmic and chordless, measurable and inexact, deterministic and unknowable.

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