a. [UN-1 7.]
1. Of sounds: Not of a musical nature; unmelodious, harsh.
1607. Shaks., Cor., IV. v. 64. A name vnmusicall to the Volcians eares.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Rules Tavern Acad., ix. Let argument bear no unmusical sound.
1718. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess Bristol, 10 April. Their pipes … are no unmusical instruments.
1753. Cibber, Lives Poets, I. 18. His stile, is equally unmusical and obsolete with Chaucer’s.
1801. Busby, Dict. Mus., Unmusical, an epithet applied … to whatever is not absolutely harmonious, melodious, or agreeable to a cultivated ear.
1855. Poultry Chron., III. 500/2. At this time … its not unmusical cry is heard.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, xlviii. IV. 22. His voice was singularly unmusical and harsh.
2. Of persons: Not musically gifted; not appreciative of music. Also absol.
1634. Cartwright, Ordinary, II. iii. I’ll … Give organs to every parish…; And so root out th’ unmusical elect.
1861. trans. Mendelssohn’s Lett. Italy, 69. The Papal singers … are almost all unmusical, and do not execute even the most established pieces in tune.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 2 June, 2/3. The unmusical admired her singing, the musical her acting.
3. Not based on musical principles.
1786. T. Twining, in Recreat. & Stud. (1882), 132. All this is unmusical criticism, and goes upon the false notion of the words … being principal.
Hence Unmusicalness.
Also, in recent use (1890), unmusicality.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. v. 759. Matter … perpetually remains, and all other things whatsoever are but … passions and affections … thereof, as musicalness and unmusicalness.
