Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The seventh tone of a diatonic scale, immediately below the tonic.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In music, the next tone below the upper tonic of a scale; the leading-tone or seventh, as E in the scale of F. Also called
subsemitone .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Phonetics) Applied to, or distinguishing, a speech element consisting of tone, or proper vocal sound, not pure as in the vowels, but dimmed and otherwise modified by some kind of obstruction in the oral or the nasal passage, and in some cases with a mixture of breath sound; -- a term introduced by Dr. James Rush in 1833. See
Guide to Pronunciation , §§155, 199-202. - noun (Phonetics) A subtonic sound or element; a vocal consonant, as b, d, g, n, etc.; a subvocal.
- noun (Mus.) The seventh tone of the scale, or that immediately below the tonic; -- called also
subsemitone .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective phonetics, dated Of or pertaining to
imperfectly articulated sounds orutterances that areinaudible orbarely audible, as characterized by Dr. James Rush (Guide to Pronunciation, 1833). - noun music The
note immediately below the upper note of amusical scale . - noun phonetics, dated An
imperfectly articulated sound orutterance , as characterized by Dr. James Rush (Guide to Pronunciation, 1833).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (music) the seventh note of the diatonic scale
Etymologies
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Examples
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I'm reminded of the problem that physicists have when they're looking at subtonic particles.
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= Indefinite Syllables = are capable of almost indefinite prolongation; they are those which terminate in a tonic, or any subtonic except one of the three abrupt subtonics, _b_, _d_, _g_; for example, _awe_, _fudge_,
The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 Ontario. Ministry of Education
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If the terminal sound is a tonic, or a flowing subtonic, the implication consists of a gentle murmuring prolongation of the terminal element coalescing with the initial element of the next word; if the terminal element is a flowing atonic the prolongation will not be accompanied by a murmur; but in either case the vocal organs, while prolonging the sound of one word, prepare, as it were, to begin the next.
The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 Ontario. Ministry of Education
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Some syllables that so end, by virtue of tonic or subtonic elements which they may contain, are capable of _some_ prolongation; for example, _warp_, _dart_, _block_, _grab_, _dread_,
The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 Ontario. Ministry of Education
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Be careful not to convert the subtonic into a tonic.
The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 Ontario. Ministry of Education
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-- Utter the word _bud_ slowly, and detach from the rest of the word the obscure murmur heard in pronouncing the first letter: this is the _subtonic_ represented by _b_.
The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 Ontario. Ministry of Education
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But the correct and distinct pronunciation of the subtonic, and especially of the atonic, elements, when they occur, as is so frequent in English words, in combination, is not so easily accomplished; and orthoepy, in this respect, as a _habit_, cannot be secured without great care and incessant practice.
The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 Ontario. Ministry of Education
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"The Green Man [his nickname at the time] always played his arpeggios back to front, and in the subtonic key, which forced the listener to rethink his assumptions about where a solo should go," recalls Parnell, who played bass with Miles Davis, Art Tatum, and Thelonious Monk.
unknown title 2009
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"The Green Man [his nickname at the time] always played his arpeggios back to front, and in the subtonic key, which forced the listener to rethink his assumptions about where a solo should go," recalls Parnell, who played bass with Miles Davis, Art Tatum, and Thelonious Monk.
unknown title 2009
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