Chapter 2: Music is Synergy
Timbre (Tone Color)
Characteristic pattern of overtones that gives a musical instrument its unique sound
Chord Progression
Chords that are organized into sentence-like patterns
Scale
Families of pitches with a tonal center; refers to families of pitches that represent a specific pattern of whole steps and half steps
Crescendo
Gradually getting louder
Decrescendo
Gradually getting softer
Dissonance
Harsh-sounding harmonic combination
Polyphonic texture
music that features two or more independent voices
Monophonic Texture
music with one note sounding at a time with no harmony or accompaniment
Tempo
relative speed of the beat
Range
the distance between the lowest possible pitch and the highest possible pitch
Texture
the number of musical lines or ideas heard simultaneously and their relationship to each other
Meter
the organization of stressed and unstressed beats into repeating patterns or groups of two pulses, three pulses, or four pulses
Consonance
Smooth-sounding harmonic combination
Piano
Soft [mezzo piano-moderately soft; pianissimo-very soft]
Beat
Structural pulse of the music
Key
A designated set of pitches based on a scale
Theme
A melody that is the basis for an extended musical work
Syncopation
An "off-the-beat" accent (between the counted beat numbers)
Forte
Loud [mezzo forte-moderately loud; fortissimo-very loud]
Disjunct
Melodies that contain large leaps between the pitches making them more difficult to sing
Conjunct
Melodies that move in repeated or stepwise motion, producing a smooth, easy to sing pattern.
Atonality
Modern harmony that avoids any sense of a "home key" or tonal center
Pitch
Musical term for frequency of a tone; its highness or lowness
Duration
Relative length of sound or silence within the music
Dynamics
Relative loudness or softness of music
Counterpoint
The art of combining in a single texture two or more melodic lines; compositional method of writing polyphonic music
Instrumentation
The combination of instruments used in a musical composition
Rhythm
The element of music in time.
Melody
The linear presentation of pitch
Tonality
The overall relationship, melodic and harmonic, between the pitches used in a piece of music.
Register
The set of pitches that can be played by a particular instrument
Harmony
The verticalization of pitch (Two or more pitches sounding simultaneously)
Chord
Three or more pitches sounding simultaneously as a block
Homophonic texture
a single melody that is supported by a harmonic accompaniment