cantus firmus

1. 1.

   a pre-existing melody used as the basis for a polyphonic composition; originally drawn from plainchant, but later drawn from other sources

   Broaderchant

Questions about cantus firmus

What does cantus firmus mean?

cantus firmus means "a pre-existing melody used as the basis for a polyphonic composition; originally drawn from plainchant, but later drawn from other sources".

Is cantus firmus a common word?

cantus firmus is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.