machicotage

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noun

A style of singing, especially of sacred music, cultivated from the late Middle Ages until the 19th century, centered on Paris, and derived from the Gallican ritual; in this style vocal lines are decorated with improvised ornamentation, and differentiated from each other in a polyphonic composition also by tone color.

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Meanings

nounmachicotage (uncountable)
  1. archaicrareuncountableA style of singing, especially of sacred music, cultivated from the late Middle Ages until the 19th century, centered on Paris, and derived from the Gallican ritual; in this style vocal lines are decorated with improvised ornamentation, and differentiated from each other in a polyphonic composition also by tone color.

    A similar practice in French cathedrals, called machicotage, is documented from 1391 through at least the eighteenth century.

    1995, Peter Jeffery, Re-Envisioning Past Musical Cultures: Ethnomusicology in the Study of Gregorian Chant
Cite this entry
APA

machicotage. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/machicotage

MLA

“machicotage.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/machicotage. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “machicotage,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/machicotage.

Source: machicotage on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.