Organa

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A collection of musical instruments used together to create harmony and rhythm
2. A group of various instruments assembled for performing music alongside one another
3. An arrangement of multiple musical devices designed to function as a cohesive unit in performance

Etymology: Organa is a Latin plural, the form of "organum," which in medieval Latin meant an instrument or musical device. The Latin word itself came from Greek "organon," meaning a tool or implement, and the musical sense comes from the idea of a set of instruments working together. In the medieval West, "organum" came to name a style of polyphony in which a plainchant melody was paired with one or more added voices, and "organa" is the plural used for these arrangements. The name for an organ, the keyboard instrument, shares the same Greek root, which is a useful reminder that the word once meant any tool. Early theorists used the Latin term for this two-voice style, and the surviving repertory of organa from the Notre-Dame school in Paris is among the best-known examples of it.

Synonyms: organs, musical organs, instruments