A smooth, songlike melody or musical phrase with sustained, lyrical quality; similar to cantilena.
From Italian 'cantilena,' with French phonetic adaptation 'cantilène.' Both variants emerged in music theory during the Renaissance and Baroque periods to describe flowing melodic lines.
Both 'cantilena' and 'cantilene' describe the same musical quality, but 'cantilene' is more common in French and English musical contexts—it's like how different languages pronounced the Italian word as it spread across Europe! This shows how musical terminology traveled with composers and musicians.
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