quadreble

English

Noun

quadreble (plural quadrebles)

1. (music) A voice in a musical composition (usually for male voices) above the treble; descant.
   • 1959, The Musical quarterly - Volume 45, page xlvi:

     He starts out by saying that there are three sights, the mene, treble, and quadreble, but actually he discusses only two, the treble and quadreble, both of which are read at the transposition of an octave.

   • 1991, Blanche Gangwere, Music history during the Renaissance period, 1425-1520, page 25:

     The voices include a counter (always below the tenor), a countertenor (moving above and below the tenor), mene, treble, and quadreble.

   • 2003, Willi Apel, Don Michael Randel, The Harvard Dictionary of Music, page 780:

     The counter involves transposition of the sighted note to the fifth below (for extremely low notes a twelfth), the mene and countertenor do not transpose, the treble transposes to the octave above, and the quadreble to the twelfth above.

Verb

quadreble (third-person singular simple present quadrebles, present participle quadrebling, simple past and past participle quadrebled)

1. (rare) To quadruple.
   • 1618, John Norden, The Surveyor's Dialogue:

     Not so: for if you observe it, you are to double, treble, or quadreble the length or breadth, as you have occasion.

   • 1919 November 26, “A Word About Mexican Lands”, in The Morning Sun, volume 13, number 275:

     There is going to be a tremendous rush into Mexico when normal conditions are restored, which must be soon, and now is the logical time to buy land there before it doubles, trebles or quadrebles in price, as it is bound to do.

   • 2008 September 7, Nico Adie, “Anybody played the P90 Squier tele?”, in Electrical Audio‎^[1] (Usenet):

     I would estimate that these modest improvements, which cost lest than £20 in total, have quadrebled how good the guitar is.