to set to music
4
5.7
- phrasal verb
:
musicalizar
- Once we had words that we set to music, those words would become encoded and preserved in memory with far greater resistance to distortion.
It was this very short little clip, but set to music.
- It was this very short little clip, but set to music.
Examples
-
She asked me so many times; I should have hired a jingle writer to set the words to music.
Fiction book (2002) -
The composer set to music the beautiful poem for the school's spring concert.
-
Jimmy had even set it to music, though no one but Charlotte had ever heard it performed.
Fiction book (1996) -
The story's so old it should have been set to music long ago.
-
May I set it to music with attribution?
Blog text (3) -
When I was twelve, I heard two pieces of poetry set to music that absolutely boggled my mind.
Academic text (2015) -
There are several versions of the nutcracker story, which was set to music by Tchaikovsky.
Academic text (2002) -
They took the mindset, the spirit, the dreams, the hopes and wishes and thoughts of the people of the time period, and they set it to music.
-
The diarist goes back to the previous autumn, when the journalist and photographer Into Inha had asked her to translate a poem by Zachris Topelius to be set to music by Sibelius.
Academic text (1999) -
She decided to set to music her favorite lyrics during her songwriting session.
Synonyms
102
3.5
To make writing, music, or a plan
68
6.0
To prepare words or music for a performance
30
7.0
To write music for a film or play
How Elaborate
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to compose music for a text' is directly derivable from combining 'set' (to place/arrange) with 'to music' (into musical form); the phrase literally means to put words into a musical setting. This verb + prepositional phrase composition is common across languages (e.g. French 'mettre en musique', Spanish 'poner música'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
The phrase set to music comes from the simple act of someone taking words and setting them into music, that is, putting the words into a tune so people can sing them. That's why it means 'to create music for words'.