undersong

Noun

1. An accompanying sound or strain; an accompaniment.
   • Accept the Off'ring I at diſtance bring, / With Harp ill-tun'd, and long thro' Age unſtrung, / Fit only to fill up ſome Under-ſong! - 1702, Sam[uel] Woodford, “In Sacred Memory of the Very Reverend Author of the...
   • But th’ unceasing rill To the soft Wren or Lark’s descending trill Murmurs sweet undersong mid jasmin bowers. - 1795, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Epistle IV: To the Author of Poems”, in Poems on Various Subjects, London:...
   • To sit without emotion, hope, or aim, / By my half-kitchen my half-parlour fire, / And listen to the flapping of the flame, / Or kettle, whispering it's faint undersong. - 1807, William Wordsworth, “[I Am Not One &c.]”,...
2. Subordinate and underlying idea, meaning or atmosphere; undertone.
   • Defective however and faulty must be the composition in prose, which you and I with all our study and attention cannot understand. In poetry it is not exactly so: the greater part of it must be intelligible to all: but...
   • 1916, John Cowper Powys, “Oscar Wilde” in Suspended Judgments, New York: G. Arnold Shaw, p. 410, The mad smouldering lust which gives a sort of under-song of surging passion to the sophisticated sensuality of “Salome” …
   • Here we see this most reticent and mannerly of poets [i.e. Elizabeth Bishop] being compelled by the undeniable impetus of her art to break with her usual inclination to conciliate the social audience. [...] she usually...
3. The burden of a song; the chorus; the refrain.
   • It is not hard to observe that David’s Allelujahs are more then his Hosannas; his thanks more then his suits. Oft-times doth he praise God when be begs nothing: seldome ever doth he beg that favour for which he doth not...
   • The Challenge to Damætas ſhall belong / Menalcas ſhall ſuſtain his under Song: / Each in his turn your tuneful numbers bring; / In turns the tuneful Muſes love to ſing. - 1697, Virgil, “The Third Pastoral. Or, Palæmon,...