Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An instrumental or vocal composition with a tender melody in a moderately slow rhythm, suggestive of traditional shepherds' music and idyllic rural life.
  • noun A dramatic performance or opera, popular in the 1500s and 1600s, that was based on a rural theme or subject.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In music: A variety of opera or cantata in which idyllic or rustic scenes predominate, the dramatic interest usually being slight. The name is sometimes extended to an instrumental work of similar character.
  • noun A vocal or instrumental piece in triple rhythm, often with a drone-bass, in which a studied simplicity or an actual imitation of rustic sounds suggests pastoral life and its emotions.
  • noun Same as pastourelle.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mus.) A composition in a soft, rural style, generally in 6-8 or 12-8 time.
  • noun A kind of dance; a kind of figure used in a dance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a play or a musical product which has a pastoral subject
  • noun art that is suggestive of pastoral themes

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a musical composition that evokes rural life

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian, of herdsmen, pastorale, from Latin pāstōrālis; see pastoral.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pastorale.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.