descant
    n 1: a decorative musical accompaniment (often improvised) added
         above a basic melody [syn: descant, discant]
    v 1: sing in descant
    2: sing by changing register; sing by yodeling; "The Austrians
       were yodeling in the mountains" [syn: yodel, warble,
       descant]
    3: talk at great length about something of one's interest

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.
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                Twenty doctors expound one text twenty ways, as
                children make descant upon plain song.
                                                  --Tyndale.
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                She [the nightingale] all night long her amorous
                descant sung.                     --Milton.
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   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.
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   2. A discourse formed on its theme, like variations on a
      musical air; a comment or comments.
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            Upon that simplest of themes how magnificent a
            descant!                              --De Quincey.
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Descant \Des*cant"\ (d[e^]s*k[a^]nt"), v. i. [imp. & p. p.
   Descanted; p. pr. & vb. n. Descanting.] [From descant;
   n.; or directly fr. OF. descanter, deschanter; L. dis- +
   cantare to sing.]
   1. To sing a variation or accomplishment.
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   2. To comment freely; to discourse with fullness and
      particularity; to discourse at large.
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            A virtuous man should be pleased to find people
            descanting on his actions.            --Addison.
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Figurate \Fig"ur*ate\, a. [L. figuratus, p. p. of figurare. See
   Figure.]
   1. Of a definite form or figure.
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            Plants are all figurate and determinate, which
            inanimate bodies are not.             --Bacon.
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   2. Figurative; metaphorical. [Obs.] --Bale.
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   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.
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   Figurate counterpoint or Figurate 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 . . . . . . . . . . . .
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