Construct · 2 fields · 2 citations

Where does arabesque collide?

One name. Different field. Different construct. One map.

● jingle · one word, two constructs Nearest construct by meaning·not indexed
arabesque2 CONSTRUCTSArabesque (ornament)JONES · ORNAMENTArabesque (music)APEL · CHAR. PIECE

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2026

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Decorative arts

Interlacing foliate surface ornament

In the decorative arts, an arabesque is a form of surface ornament built from stylised, rhythmically interlacing foliage, tendrils, and scrollwork, often combined with geometric interlace, that repeats and flows across a surface without a fixed focal point. Associated especially with Islamic art, from which European usage took the name, it treats pattern as continuous, generative, and potentially endless. Owen Jones's The Grammar of Ornament documented the Arabian and Moresque families of this ornament among the design grammars of many cultures. The referent is a visual ornamental idiom, unrelated to a ballet pose or a musical piece beyond the shared name.[1]

Unit
Not applicable (a style of ornament)
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Characterised art-historically by its interlace, rhythm, repetition, and foliate or geometric motifs

Music

An ornamental, decorative character piece

In music, an arabesque is a piece or passage whose character is ornamental and decorative: graceful, flowing melodic figuration likened to the interlacing of the visual ornament. The term names short lyrical character pieces, as in nineteenth-century works titled Arabesque, and, more loosely, ornately decorated melodic writing. Apel's Harvard dictionary of music treats it among the descriptive genre titles. The construct is a type and texture of musical composition, not a dancer's pose or a pattern on a wall.[2]

Unit
Not applicable (a genre and texture of composition)
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Identified by ornamental, decoratively figured melodic writing and by use of the title for lyrical character pieces

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Nearby collisions

body2 fields · 3 citationsjingle · one word, two constructscharacter4 fields · 4 citationsjingle · one word, four constructscomposition3 fields · 3 citationsjingle · one word, three constructs

References

  1. Jones, O. (2016). The grammar of ornament. Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1856) ISBN 9780691172064
  2. Apel, W. (1972). Harvard dictionary of music (2nd ed., rev. and enl.). Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674375017

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