Word of the week: It's an instrument that brings to mind the soaring condor and mountainous Andes – a haunting, beautiful sound emanating from this simple, traditional wooden flute
Read moreWord of the week: quena
A selection of quena flutes
Word of the week: rebec
Rebecs
Word of the week: Most popular in the 13th-16th centuries, then largely replaced by the viol and violin, yet this beautiful wooden gut- and nylon-stringed instrument has a distinctive sound and still appears in some music today
Read moreWord of the week: ukeke
Ukeke maker and player Mahi La Pierre
Word of the week: Unlike the ukelele, which was introduced by European sailors, this is the only true indigenous Hawaiian stringed instrument, evolving from hunting bow into one with plucked strings that becomes a mouth harp
Read moreWord of the week: xylorimba
The xylorimba has a bigger range than either the xylophone or marimba
Word of the week: This week’s strikingly unusual instrument combines the higher range of the four-octave xylophone and lower notes of marimba, using similar wooden bars set out like a piano keyboard that resonate when hit
Read moreWord of the week: zambomba
A typical zambomba, cuíca or friction drum
Word of the week: The evocative Spanish name for a friction drum, similar to Brazilian samba’s cuíca, it is used around the world in ceremonious or celebratory music, working as a sound box via rubbing with stick, hand or wet cloth
Read moreWord of the week: bombast, bombastic, bombastry
Bombast, ironic and otherwise, comes in this album by The Fall
Word of the Week: It describes high-sounding, pretentious, showy language with little meaning used to impress people, and explodes enjoyably when pronounced, but how it is used in lyrics, and does it affect the natures of the song itself?
Read moreWord of the week: craic (St. Patrick's Day special)
What’s the craic?
Word of the week: To celebrate St Patrick’s Day, here’s to that popular term for gossip, chat, fun banter, and entertainment, most commonly used in Ireland but also across the British Isles. But where does it come up in song lyrics?
Read moreWord of the week: donnybrook
Fighting at Donnybrook Fair
Word of the Week: It means an uproarious drunken brawl, a scene of heated argument and fighting, and an Irish jig, but takes its name from a longstanding fair in a district of Dublin. So where does this word appear in lyrics?
Read moreWord of the week: egret
Egrets? We have a few …
Word of the week: They are from the heron family of water-fishing birds, various in size and colour but mostly white, elegant, angular and thin, and are beautiful to watch, but how is this unusual word used in song lyrics?
Read moreWord of the week: flimflam
Flim flam isn’t only what people might say, it’s also a font
Word of the week: It means pseudo-intellectual nonsense, insincerity or a confidence trick perpetrated by elected officials, so while antiquated, always current and relevant, and with a lovely musicality where has it been used in lyrics?
Read moreWord of the week: gabardine
Typical gabardine coats (centre and left)
Word of the week: Let’s extend the lyrical wardrobe. It’s a smooth, durable, twill-woven worsted, rayon or cotton cloth material and also the name of coat, but is a also beautifully sounding, musical word, perfectly suited to sung words
Read moreWord of the week: lux
The days are getting longer …
Word of the week: It’s not all doom and gloom right now. With the winter solstice just gone by, days will slowly lengthen, allowing us to perceive more lux, that unit of illuminance and luminous flux. It’s a beautiful word, but where does it appear in lyrics?
Read moreWord of the week: nebula, nebulous, nebulist, nebbich
The Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant of the constellation of Taurus
Word of the week: It’s a cloudy cluster of related words as we play with lovely sounding space dust, a haziness or vagueness and more, but where can it be found song lyrics?
Read moreWord of the week: rhapsody
Scaramooche, scaramooche …
Word of the week: With an appropriately flamboyant sound and rhythm it’s a word best known for the title of Freddie Mercury’s epic Bohemian Queen song, and several major classical works, but where is it used in song lyrics?
Read moreWord of the week: Tesla
Sparky: ArcAttack perform with a massive Tesla coil
Word of the Week: It sizzles off the tongue, it’s the name of a great inventor, and after him, a unit of magnetic flux density, and it’s also a car, and in slang recreational drug, but where does it appear in song lyrics?
Read moreWord of the week: umbrella … umbracious ... umbraculum
Any umbrellas? Should we focus on Rihanna for some shelter?
Word of the Week: It’s a word with a beautiful sound formed from the Latin word, umbra, for shade, is not merely an expanding accessory to shelter from the rain, also a general term of protection or a thing made of many parts
Read moreWord of the week: vesper, vespertine, vespertilian …
Vesper cocktail, but that’s just one of many evening meanings …
Word of the Week: It’s a famous Bjork album, but where does it come up in lyrics? The root of this word relates to the evening and its tolling bell, but also bats, Venus, a cocktail, and in slang – a kind, smart, cool girl
Read moreWord of the week: whippet
A famous whippet frisbee-catching champion?
Word of the Week: It’s a slim, fast dog, the name of a car, a ship, a tank and a light aircraft, and also slang for recreational use of nitrous oxide from small metal containers, but where does it appear in song?
Read moreWord of the week: yellowback or yellow-back
Yellowback books from 19th century
Word of the week: Following on from zephyr last week, we work backwards to a colour term that can pertain to cheap books, a fish, a mussel, insect, a certificate for gold, and in urban slang, council workers wearing hi-vis jackets
Read moreWord of the week: zephyr
The 1961 Ford Zephyr MkII. Other Zephyrs are available in song lyrics
Word of the week: Launching a new Song Bar series highlighting words or phrases used in lyrics for the oddness or musicality, let’s start with a z-word, and several examples including Madonna, Bill Callaghan, Frank Sinatra and Ian Dury
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