Glossary
Glossary
AABA form: A compositional form in which the first section, abbreviated A is repeated, and then a contrasting section, B is played before repeating the A section one more time.
Absolute Music: refers to instrumental music that is not designed to tell a particular story or evoke a specific image, but merely exists for its own sake.
Accelerando: Italian for “accelerating”, indicates where the tempo should speed up.
Accidental: a sign that is put in front of a note to change its pitch. A sharp (♯) sign raises a note a half step. A Flat (b) sign lowers a note a half step. A natural sign () cancels out a sharp or flat that was introduced earlier in a measure or appears in the key signature.
Age of Enlightenment: a late 18th century philosophical movement valuing reason, rationality, and logic over emotions and impulse.
Alto clef: used for viola parts. Two curved lines converge in the middle of the staff to indicate where Middle C is. Clefs are used so that the majority of notes in score can be arranged on the staff lines. Otherwise composers would have to add ledger lines above or below the staff, making it harder for performers to determine what the pitches are.
Amateur: someone who loves doing something rather than a professional who does it for pay.
Arrangement: the same composition can be arranged in many different ways. It includes features like which instruments play at what times.
Art Song: a short, single-movement composition for solo singer and piano.
Atonality: a lack of tonality, in which there is no key center and no note is more important than other.
Ballad: a slow song
Bar line: vertical lines that divide the staff into measures.
Basso continuo: the section of an ensemble that accompanies a soloist in Baroque music. The bass line was played by a low string instrument, and chordal instruments, such as the lute, harpsichord, or organ.
Bel canto: Italian for “beautiful singing,” a style of operatic singing.
Cadence: the winding down of a musical phrase, usually settling on some sort of resolution.
Cadence: the ending to a phrase that gives a feeling of rest
Cadenza: a section at the end of a concerto movement in which the orchestra stops and the soloist continues. In the Baroque and Classical eras the performer typically improvised this section.
Chap. 6: An unaccompanied passage, typical improvised, played by the instrumental soloist in a concerto.
Call and response: a succession of two distinct phrases, in which the first phrase, performed by a soloist, that is followed by a response by the group.
Canon: a kind of counterpoint that works like a round. One voice begins performing a melody, and a little while later a second voice begins at the beginning of the melody while the first voice continues on. The song “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat” can be performed this way
.
Cantata: a genre of work composed for choir, vocal soloists, and orchestra, sung during a church service in the Baroque period.
Chamber ensemble: general term for a small instrumental ensemble.
Chamber music: general term for music played by a chamber ensemble.
Chanson: songs of the troubadours during the Middle Ages.
Character Piece: a short, single-movement composition for the piano evoking a specific mood, character, or image.
Chord: three or more notes played together.
Chromaticism: the use of notes from the chromatic scale in a composition.
Chromatic Scale: all twelve notes in an octave. On the piano this can be played by starting on any pitch and then going up while playing every white and black note along the way, until arriving at the same pitch an octave higher.
Coda: Latin for “tail”. A passage that brings a piece of music to a conclusion.
Improvisation: n some forms of improvisation a foundation is provided by one part of the ensemble while a soloist improvises, for example, in a jazz combo where the rhythm section (bass, drums, and piano/guitar) play the harmony while the soloist improvises a melody using the same chord progression. In collective improvisation all the musicians play freely, for example, in a Dixieland jazz group where the trumpet, trombone, and clarinet are all playing single lines that mesh with each other.
Concerto: a genre of composition that emerged during the Baroque era and is still common today. In the Classical era, a concerto was typically composed for one solo instrument accompanied by orchestra and written in three movements that vary in tempo and form.
Concertino: an Italian term indicating the smaller group of instrumental soloists playing in contrast to the full orchestra in a Baroque concerto grosso.
Consonance: a group of notes whose spectrums combine smoothly are said to be consonant. The most consonant .
Counterpoint: the relationship between the notes in two voices, including the intervals between them and the direction that they each move.
Countertenor: a singer with a high “head voice”.
Crescendo: a gradual increase in volume.
Court: the institution where musicians are judged, and if found guilty, sentenced to playing gigs at dive bars. Just kidding—we’re not talking about the places with judges and lawyers work in this book. In the Middle Ages they had courts like that, but when we are talking about music (and courtly love) we mean the term to describe the place and people where the ruler lived. The court went wherever the king went, including his relatives, lower level royals, and members of the church like the bishops.
Decrescendo: a gradual decrease in volume.
Dissonance: groups of notes whose spectrums clash with each other are said to be dissonant. The most dissonant intervals are the lowered fifth and the seventh.
Dynamic markings: Italian abbreviations are used to indicate how loud a part should be played. P stands for “piano”, which means soft; F stands for “forte”, which means loud.
Etude: a short composition that a musician practices to improve a specific technical skill.
Exoticism: a composer’s use of melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and unusual instruments to try to imitate the musical sounds of East Asia, the Arab world, and Spain.
Favela: a Brazilian slum, the birthplace of samba
Fifth: the interval between the 1st and 5th note of a major scale is called a fifth.
Flat sign (♭): An accidental that indicates that the note that follows it should be played a half step lower.
Figured bass: a system of numbers found under a staff that indicated what chords to play by the basso continuo section in the Baroque period.
Form: the underlying structure or layout of a piece of music.
Gamelan: a set of instruments used for Indonesian music
Gregorian Chant: a genre of a capella music sung in the church during the Middle Ages.
Half note: lasts for two beats. It is written as an unfilled oval with a vertical stem attached to it.
Half step: the interval describing the closest distance between two notes on the piano keyboard. For example, the distance between c and c# is a half-step. The distance between the notes e and f is also a half step, since there is no black note between them. A flat (b) sign lowers a note a half step. A sharp (♯) sign raises a note a half step.
Harmonic series. All sounds are formed by a combination of sine waves at different frequencies. The lowest is called the fundamental frequency. The sine waves that are above that are called harmonics. In a sound that has a defined pitch the harmonics are have frequencies that are integer multiples of the fundamental frequency. This series of pitches is the harmonic series.
Harmony: the combination of musical notes simultaneously.
Homorhythmic: all the voice parts are singing the same words at the same time, but in harmony (like a hymn).
Hook: a memorable musical fragment often contained in the chorus of a pop song, designed to make it easy for the listener to remember and identify the song with.
Idée fixe: a repeated musical idea, like an idea or desire that dominates the mind.
Inharmonic spectrum: the frequencies in the spectrum are not integer-multiples of the fundamental, so they do not fuse together to give a sense of pitch. Instead it sounds like some sort of noise.
Interval: the distance between two notes
Intonation: accuracy of pitch when singing or playing an instrument. When someone’s “intonation is good” they are playing in tune.
Key: 1) a lever on a keyboard instrument like the piano; 2) key of a piece of music is defined by the notes of the scale in effect.
Key Signature: the sharps or flats written after the clef symbol indicate what key the music is in, and saves the musician reading the score from having to see a lot of accidentals.
Ledger Line: a line added above or below the staff to accommodate notes that are otherwise too high or low.
Legato: playing in a smooth flowing manner, without breaks between notes.
Libretto: the text of an opera, usually written by someone other than the composer.
Major third: the interval between the 1st and 3rd note of a major scale is called a major third.
Major scale: a series of eight pitches built on top of any note, using the interval pattern whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half.
Measure: the staves are divided by barlines into measures. Each measure has the same number of beats in it. The number of beats is indicated in the time signature.
Melisma: a series of different notes sung over the same syllable of lyrics.
Melody: a series of notes that are perceived as a group. There is usually some combination of higher and lower pitches of a variety of durations in order to make it easier to identify and remember. Like a paragraph of text that is broken into a series of sentences, melodies may consist of a series of phrases, each of which could be sung over the exhalation of one breath.
Metronome: a device that can be set to click a certain number of beats per minute.
Mode: a type of musical scale. Another name for the major scale is the “Ionian Mode”.
Modulate: the shift the key center from one to another. Sometimes popular songs modulate up at the end to add excitement.
Motet: a type of sacred music, polyphonic, sung in Latin, and usually during the Mass.
Movement. Longer works like concertos, symphonies, and sonatas, are divided into several movements which usually are separated from each other by a short break.
Music: organized sound.
Nationalism: expression of a composer’s heritage through the incorporation of folk songs, dances, legends, and history from their native land into their music.
Natural sign (♮). An accidental that cancels out a previous accidental or alteration.
Nocturne: a composition which evokes “nocturnal” feelings or qualities of “nighttime.”
Note: the individual sound events that performers play, indicated in the score by ovals.
Octave: the distance between two cs (or any other note name) that are eight lines and spaces apart. Doubling the frequency of a note raises its pitch an octave.
Oratorio: a large vocal work featuring choir, vocal soloists, and orchestra that was performed as an unstaged religious drama during the Baroque period.
Orchestration: the distribution of the notes of a composition among the different instruments in an ensemble.
Ornaments, Ornamentation: decorative turns around notes that were popular during the Baroque period, and in contemporary soulful singing.
Performance: using an instrument to play notes, usually in front of an audience.
Phrase: a series of melody notes that express a musical thought, usually ending with a cadence
Pilgrimage: a trip to the Holy Land or other religious site.
Pitch: a note’s pitch indicates how high or low it is.
Plainchant: a plainchant (or chant) is a single melodic line sung in Latin during church services in the Middle Ages.
Polychord: the layering one chord on top of another.
Polyphonic: more than one note being played simultaneously.
Program (or programmatic) Music: instrumental music for which the composer imagined a specific story, image, or idea. The extramusical idea is usually communicated to the audience through a descriptive title or an explanation in the form of a written program.
Raga: a set of notes and motifs in a system of rules and procedures for composition and improvisation in North Indian classical music.
Repertoire: the group of musical works that a performer is prepared to perform.
Rest: a symbol that shows that the musician is supposed to wait before playing the next note.
Rhythm is a pattern of durations and accents of notes.
Ritardando: an Italian term that indicates that the tempo is supposed to slow down.
Romanticism: a 19th-century philosophy embracing heightened emotions, imagination, and individuality.
Rubato: a Italian term for “robbed time,” indicates a slight speeding up and slowing down of a melody. Performers use it an expressive device.
Samba: the main style of music and dance in Brazil, played in a time signature of 2/4.
Scat singing: nonsensical syllables made up by jazz singers when they improvise.
Score: notated music on staff paper.
Sharp sign (♯): An accidental that indicates that the note that comes after it should be played a half-step higher.
Sitar: a stringed instrument used to play melodies in Indian music.
Soloist: a person who is featured and plays a part contrasting with the rest of the group.
Sonata: a genre of composition which existed during the Baroque era but became more standardized in the Classical era and is still common today. In the Classical era, typically composed either for solo piano or for one instrument plus piano, generally in three movements that vary in tempo and form.
Sonata form: a form that has three sections: exposition (themes are introduced), development (themes are developed), and recapitulation (themes are brought back).
Staff (plural staves): a set of five horizontal lines on which notes can be written
String Quartet: a chamber ensemble consisting of two violins, a viola, and a cello. Also a term for a composition, often in four movements that vary in tempo and form, to be played by that ensemble. The string quartet genre was established in the Classical era and is still common today.
Style: features like phrasing and the way that one note connects to the next that are associated with a certain time period and/or location.
Subject: the first theme in a fugue
Symphony: a category of composition played by a symphony orchestra, established as a genre in the Classical era, and still common today. A standard Classical symphony consists of four movements that vary in tempo and form.
Tabla: a pair of drums used in Indiana music.
Tala: a cycle of beats that organizes rhythm in a North Indiana raga.
Tanpoura or tamboura: a four-stringed instrument used to play a drone in North Indian classical music.
Ternary form: a three-part form, sometimes abbreviated as ABA.
Tempo: sets how fast the beat of a piece of music is, indicated by the metronome marking of beats per minute.
Tonality: most music is tonal because it has a key center, that is built on the first note of the major scale used at the time.
Treble clef: a sign drawn at the left edge of a staff to indicate whether the staff is for high or low notes.
Trill: a kind of ornament in which there is a quick alternation between two neighboring notes.
Troubadours: singer-songwriters of the Middle Ages, who entertained the upper classes.
Tutti: an Italian term indicating the full orchestra that plays in contrast to the concertino in a Baroque concerto grosso.
Vibrato: a small, rapid slight change in pitch used to enrich the tone.
Virtuoso: a performer with the highest level of technical skill
Whole note: a note with a long time duration. It usually lasts for four beats. It is written as an unfilled oval without any line attached to it.
AABA form: A compositional form in which the first section, abbreviated A is repeated, and then a contrasting section, B is played before repeating the A section one more time.
Absolute Music: refers to instrumental music that is not designed to tell a particular story or evoke a specific image, but merely exists for its own sake.
Accelerando: Italian for “accelerating”, indicates where the tempo should speed up.
Accidental: a sign that is put in front of a note to change its pitch. A sharp (♯) sign raises a note a half step. A Flat (b) sign lowers a note a half step. A natural sign () cancels out a sharp or flat that was introduced earlier in a measure or appears in the key signature.
Age of Enlightenment: a late 18th century philosophical movement valuing reason, rationality, and logic over emotions and impulse.
Alto clef: used for viola parts. Two curved lines converge in the middle of the staff to indicate where Middle C is. Clefs are used so that the majority of notes in score can be arranged on the staff lines. Otherwise composers would have to add ledger lines above or below the staff, making it harder for performers to determine what the pitches are.
Amateur: someone who loves doing something rather than a professional who does it for pay.
Arrangement: the same composition can be arranged in many different ways. It includes features like which instruments play at what times.
Art Song: a short, single-movement composition for solo singer and piano.
Atonality: a lack of tonality, in which there is no key center and no note is more important than other.
Ballad: a slow song
Bar line: vertical lines that divide the staff into measures.
Basso continuo: the section of an ensemble that accompanies a soloist in Baroque music. The bass line was played by a low string instrument, and chordal instruments, such as the lute, harpsichord, or organ.
Bel canto: Italian for “beautiful singing,” a style of operatic singing.
Cadence: the winding down of a musical phrase, usually settling on some sort of resolution.
Cadence: the ending to a phrase that gives a feeling of rest
Cadenza: a section at the end of a concerto movement in which the orchestra stops and the soloist continues. In the Baroque and Classical eras the performer typically improvised this section.
Chap. 6: An unaccompanied passage, typical improvised, played by the instrumental soloist in a concerto.
Call and response: a succession of two distinct phrases, in which the first phrase, performed by a soloist, that is followed by a response by the group.
Canon: a kind of counterpoint that works like a round. One voice begins performing a melody, and a little while later a second voice begins at the beginning of the melody while the first voice continues on. The song “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat” can be performed this way
.
Cantata: a genre of work composed for choir, vocal soloists, and orchestra, sung during a church service in the Baroque period.
Chamber ensemble: general term for a small instrumental ensemble.
Chamber music: general term for music played by a chamber ensemble.
Chanson: songs of the troubadours during the Middle Ages.
Character Piece: a short, single-movement composition for the piano evoking a specific mood, character, or image.
Chord: three or more notes played together.
Chromaticism: the use of notes from the chromatic scale in a composition.
Chromatic Scale: all twelve notes in an octave. On the piano this can be played by starting on any pitch and then going up while playing every white and black note along the way, until arriving at the same pitch an octave higher.
Coda: Latin for “tail”. A passage that brings a piece of music to a conclusion.
Improvisation: n some forms of improvisation a foundation is provided by one part of the ensemble while a soloist improvises, for example, in a jazz combo where the rhythm section (bass, drums, and piano/guitar) play the harmony while the soloist improvises a melody using the same chord progression. In collective improvisation all the musicians play freely, for example, in a Dixieland jazz group where the trumpet, trombone, and clarinet are all playing single lines that mesh with each other.
Concerto: a genre of composition that emerged during the Baroque era and is still common today. In the Classical era, a concerto was typically composed for one solo instrument accompanied by orchestra and written in three movements that vary in tempo and form.
Concertino: an Italian term indicating the smaller group of instrumental soloists playing in contrast to the full orchestra in a Baroque concerto grosso.
Consonance: a group of notes whose spectrums combine smoothly are said to be consonant. The most consonant .
Counterpoint: the relationship between the notes in two voices, including the intervals between them and the direction that they each move.
Countertenor: a singer with a high “head voice”.
Crescendo: a gradual increase in volume.
Court: the institution where musicians are judged, and if found guilty, sentenced to playing gigs at dive bars. Just kidding—we’re not talking about the places with judges and lawyers work in this book. In the Middle Ages they had courts like that, but when we are talking about music (and courtly love) we mean the term to describe the place and people where the ruler lived. The court went wherever the king went, including his relatives, lower level royals, and members of the church like the bishops.
Decrescendo: a gradual decrease in volume.
Dissonance: groups of notes whose spectrums clash with each other are said to be dissonant. The most dissonant intervals are the lowered fifth and the seventh.
Dynamic markings: Italian abbreviations are used to indicate how loud a part should be played. P stands for “piano”, which means soft; F stands for “forte”, which means loud.
Etude: a short composition that a musician practices to improve a specific technical skill.
Exoticism: a composer’s use of melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and unusual instruments to try to imitate the musical sounds of East Asia, the Arab world, and Spain.
Favela: a Brazilian slum, the birthplace of samba
Fifth: the interval between the 1st and 5th note of a major scale is called a fifth.
Flat sign (♭): An accidental that indicates that the note that follows it should be played a half step lower.
Figured bass: a system of numbers found under a staff that indicated what chords to play by the basso continuo section in the Baroque period.
Form: the underlying structure or layout of a piece of music.
Gamelan: a set of instruments used for Indonesian music
Gregorian Chant: a genre of a capella music sung in the church during the Middle Ages.
Half note: lasts for two beats. It is written as an unfilled oval with a vertical stem attached to it.
Half step: the interval describing the closest distance between two notes on the piano keyboard. For example, the distance between c and c# is a half-step. The distance between the notes e and f is also a half step, since there is no black note between them. A flat (b) sign lowers a note a half step. A sharp (♯) sign raises a note a half step.
Harmonic series. All sounds are formed by a combination of sine waves at different frequencies. The lowest is called the fundamental frequency. The sine waves that are above that are called harmonics. In a sound that has a defined pitch the harmonics are have frequencies that are integer multiples of the fundamental frequency. This series of pitches is the harmonic series.
Harmony: the combination of musical notes simultaneously.
Homorhythmic: all the voice parts are singing the same words at the same time, but in harmony (like a hymn).
Hook: a memorable musical fragment often contained in the chorus of a pop song, designed to make it easy for the listener to remember and identify the song with.
Idée fixe: a repeated musical idea, like an idea or desire that dominates the mind.
Inharmonic spectrum: the frequencies in the spectrum are not integer-multiples of the fundamental, so they do not fuse together to give a sense of pitch. Instead it sounds like some sort of noise.
Interval: the distance between two notes
Intonation: accuracy of pitch when singing or playing an instrument. When someone’s “intonation is good” they are playing in tune.
Key: 1) a lever on a keyboard instrument like the piano; 2) key of a piece of music is defined by the notes of the scale in effect.
Key Signature: the sharps or flats written after the clef symbol indicate what key the music is in, and saves the musician reading the score from having to see a lot of accidentals.
Ledger Line: a line added above or below the staff to accommodate notes that are otherwise too high or low.
Legato: playing in a smooth flowing manner, without breaks between notes.
Libretto: the text of an opera, usually written by someone other than the composer.
Major third: the interval between the 1st and 3rd note of a major scale is called a major third.
Major scale: a series of eight pitches built on top of any note, using the interval pattern whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half.
Measure: the staves are divided by barlines into measures. Each measure has the same number of beats in it. The number of beats is indicated in the time signature.
Melisma: a series of different notes sung over the same syllable of lyrics.
Melody: a series of notes that are perceived as a group. There is usually some combination of higher and lower pitches of a variety of durations in order to make it easier to identify and remember. Like a paragraph of text that is broken into a series of sentences, melodies may consist of a series of phrases, each of which could be sung over the exhalation of one breath.
Metronome: a device that can be set to click a certain number of beats per minute.
Mode: a type of musical scale. Another name for the major scale is the “Ionian Mode”.
Modulate: the shift the key center from one to another. Sometimes popular songs modulate up at the end to add excitement.
Motet: a type of sacred music, polyphonic, sung in Latin, and usually during the Mass.
Movement. Longer works like concertos, symphonies, and sonatas, are divided into several movements which usually are separated from each other by a short break.
Music: organized sound.
Nationalism: expression of a composer’s heritage through the incorporation of folk songs, dances, legends, and history from their native land into their music.
Natural sign (♮). An accidental that cancels out a previous accidental or alteration.
Nocturne: a composition which evokes “nocturnal” feelings or qualities of “nighttime.”
Note: the individual sound events that performers play, indicated in the score by ovals.
Octave: the distance between two cs (or any other note name) that are eight lines and spaces apart. Doubling the frequency of a note raises its pitch an octave.
Oratorio: a large vocal work featuring choir, vocal soloists, and orchestra that was performed as an unstaged religious drama during the Baroque period.
Orchestration: the distribution of the notes of a composition among the different instruments in an ensemble.
Ornaments, Ornamentation: decorative turns around notes that were popular during the Baroque period, and in contemporary soulful singing.
Performance: using an instrument to play notes, usually in front of an audience.
Phrase: a series of melody notes that express a musical thought, usually ending with a cadence
Pilgrimage: a trip to the Holy Land or other religious site.
Pitch: a note’s pitch indicates how high or low it is.
Plainchant: a plainchant (or chant) is a single melodic line sung in Latin during church services in the Middle Ages.
Polychord: the layering one chord on top of another.
Polyphonic: more than one note being played simultaneously.
Program (or programmatic) Music: instrumental music for which the composer imagined a specific story, image, or idea. The extramusical idea is usually communicated to the audience through a descriptive title or an explanation in the form of a written program.
Raga: a set of notes and motifs in a system of rules and procedures for composition and improvisation in North Indian classical music.
Repertoire: the group of musical works that a performer is prepared to perform.
Rest: a symbol that shows that the musician is supposed to wait before playing the next note.
Rhythm is a pattern of durations and accents of notes.
Ritardando: an Italian term that indicates that the tempo is supposed to slow down.
Romanticism: a 19th-century philosophy embracing heightened emotions, imagination, and individuality.
Rubato: a Italian term for “robbed time,” indicates a slight speeding up and slowing down of a melody. Performers use it an expressive device.
Samba: the main style of music and dance in Brazil, played in a time signature of 2/4.
Scat singing: nonsensical syllables made up by jazz singers when they improvise.
Score: notated music on staff paper.
Sharp sign (♯): An accidental that indicates that the note that comes after it should be played a half-step higher.
Sitar: a stringed instrument used to play melodies in Indian music.
Soloist: a person who is featured and plays a part contrasting with the rest of the group.
Sonata: a genre of composition which existed during the Baroque era but became more standardized in the Classical era and is still common today. In the Classical era, typically composed either for solo piano or for one instrument plus piano, generally in three movements that vary in tempo and form.
Sonata form: a form that has three sections: exposition (themes are introduced), development (themes are developed), and recapitulation (themes are brought back).
Staff (plural staves): a set of five horizontal lines on which notes can be written
String Quartet: a chamber ensemble consisting of two violins, a viola, and a cello. Also a term for a composition, often in four movements that vary in tempo and form, to be played by that ensemble. The string quartet genre was established in the Classical era and is still common today.
Style: features like phrasing and the way that one note connects to the next that are associated with a certain time period and/or location.
Subject: the first theme in a fugue
Symphony: a category of composition played by a symphony orchestra, established as a genre in the Classical era, and still common today. A standard Classical symphony consists of four movements that vary in tempo and form.
Tabla: a pair of drums used in Indiana music.
Tala: a cycle of beats that organizes rhythm in a North Indiana raga.
Tanpoura or tamboura: a four-stringed instrument used to play a drone in North Indian classical music.
Ternary form: a three-part form, sometimes abbreviated as ABA.
Tempo: sets how fast the beat of a piece of music is, indicated by the metronome marking of beats per minute.
Tonality: most music is tonal because it has a key center, that is built on the first note of the major scale used at the time.
Treble clef: a sign drawn at the left edge of a staff to indicate whether the staff is for high or low notes.
Trill: a kind of ornament in which there is a quick alternation between two neighboring notes.
Troubadours: singer-songwriters of the Middle Ages, who entertained the upper classes.
Tutti: an Italian term indicating the full orchestra that plays in contrast to the concertino in a Baroque concerto grosso.
Vibrato: a small, rapid slight change in pitch used to enrich the tone.
Virtuoso: a performer with the highest level of technical skill
Whole note: a note with a long time duration. It usually lasts for four beats. It is written as an unfilled oval without any line attached to it.