Is there a musical term that describes the imitation of non-music sounds by musical instruments? (OK, there are plenty of cheap joke possibilites here, I know, but I'm sincerely looking for an answer!)
For instance, it is common for fiddlers to pluck thier strings in "Cluck Old Hen" to imitate a chicken clucking or imitate train whistles in songs about trains. Some mandolin players do a repeating slide-up double-stop in the B part of "Flop Eared Mule" to sound like a mule braying. In the B part of "Staten Island Hornpipe" there are those stacatto C chords that obviously are meant to sound like tugboat horns, presumably as heard around Staten Island.
If this effect were done in words, it would be called "onomatopoeia." What is the musical term for this?
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