diapason Hear it!

diapason Definition

dia·pa·son (dī′ə pā′zən, -sən)

noun

    1. the entire range of a musical instrument or voice
    2. the entire range of some activity, emotion, etc.
  2. one of the principal stops of an organ, covering the instrument's complete range and producing its characteristic tone quality
  3. a swelling burst of harmony
  4. a standard of musical pitch
  5. a tuning fork
  6. Obsolete the interval of an octave
  7. Obsolete complete harmony

Etymology: ME diapasoun < L diapason < Gr diapasōn, contr. < hē dia pasōn chordōn symphōnia, concord through all of the notes < dia, through + pasōn, gen. pl. of pas, all

diapason Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • stop: Stopped diapason: Don't even think about it.

Adjective modifier

  • open: The great organ contains ten stops the open diapason of very superior quality, stop ditto, principal, 12th.
  • great: The flue chorus makes an excellent dialog with the Great diapasons for the classical repertoire.
  • large: The large open diapason is the old pedal ' cello, which was of diapason scale and tone.
  • 8ft.: There are 17 8ft. diapasons, including duplexes and extensions.
  • soft: The Dulciana is a soft diapason with no trace of string tone.
  • gentle: The Dulciana is unexpectedly lovely, a silvery, gentle diapason.

Modifies a noun

  • chorus: The Great diapason chorus rang through the building with scarcely any attenuation in the farthest corner.
  • tone: No amount of blowing with the mouth would make the bass pipes speak, but the treble pipes gave a hard diapason tone.
  • work: The Great - The beauty of the diapason work has been previously commented upon.
  • pipe: All of which shows how sensitive a diapason pipe is to slight changes of pressure.
  • family: A great cannot be considered wholly complete unless it be equipped with a diapason family consisting of 16ft.
  • rank: The scaling constant for this diapason rank was therefore revealed without having measured the diameter of a single pipe!

Noun used with modifier

  • unison: For example, consider the case where two unison diapasons are drawn.
  • organ: Sumner wrote: The great organ diapason chorus is as near an approach to a Schulze chorus as it was possible to achieve.
  • metal: The pipes at the front are the 16ft open metal diapasons.
  • foot: A private benefactor, possibly one of the musical Swinburne brothers, had the 16 foot diapason added in 1896.