With musical backing, orator shows clipped style (8)
I believe the answer is:
staccato
'clipped style' is the definition.
The answer and definition are different parts of speech. However, past participle verbs and adjectives can sometimes define each other.
'with musical backing orator' is the wordplay.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'musical' becomes 'Cats' (Andrew Lloyd Webber musical).
'backing' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'orator' becomes 'cato' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cats' back-to-front is 'stac'.
'stac'+'cato' is 'STACCATO'.
'shows' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for staccato that I've seen before include "with clipped notes" , "with snappy sounds" , "Abrupt" , "Way to play" , "With sharply detached notes (music)" .)