Mus App terms

fingerboard

A piece of wood extending from the body of a string instrument; the strings are attached to the end of the fingerboard.

espressivo

Expressively.

allegro

Fast tempo

FM synthesis

Frequency-modulation synthesis; a superior version of electronic synthesis introduced in the consumer market by Yamaha in 1982.

accelerando

Getting faster.

closing area

In a movement in sonata form, the final stage in an exposition or recapitulation that confirms the temporary or home key with a series of cadences.

entry

In an imitative texture, the beginning of each statement of the theme.

blue note

In blues singing or jazz, the deliberate offpitch lowering of certain pitches.

cell

In certain twentieth-century compositions, a brief, recurring musical figure that does not undergo traditional motivic development.

fermata

In musical notation, a sign (-) indicating the prolongation of a note or rest beyond its notated value.

clef

In musical notation, a symbol at the beginning of a staff that determines the pitches of the lines and spaces. The most common clefs are treble (4) for indicating pitches mostly above middle C and bass (9;) for indicating pitches mostly below middle C.

aria

In opera or oratorio, a set piece, usually for a single performer, that expresses a character's emotion about a particular situation.

final

In plainchant, the concluding note in a mode; corresponds roughly to the tonic note in a tonal scale.

bow

In string playing, a bundle of bleached horsehairs stretched tautly between the ends of a wooden stick. To produce a sound, the bow is drawn over one or more of the strings.

avant garde

In the art, on the leading edge of a change in style.

Absolute music

Instrumental music with no explicit pictorial or literal associations. As opposed to:program music.

dissonance

Intervals or chords that sound impure, harsh, or unstable.

adagio

Quite slow tempo.

bar

Same as measure.

allegretto

Slightly fast tempo

ars nova

The "new art" of fourteenth-century France; refers to the stylistic innovations, especially rhythmic, of composers around 1320.

figured bass

The Baroque system of adding figures to a bass line, indicating what harmonies are to be improvised on each beat.

Fauvism

The French version of Austro-German Expressionism.

atonality; atonal

The absence of any sense of tonality.

forte

loud

cantus firmus

("fixed melody") A pre-existing plainchant or secular melody incorporated into a polyphonic composition, common from the twelfth through the sixteenth centuries.

chorale

(1) A German hymn, especially popular in the Baroque; (2) a polyphonic setting of such a hymn, such as those by J. S. Bach.

ensemble

(1) A group of performers; (2) a musical number in an opera, oratorio, or cantata sung by two or more performers; (3) the extent to which a group of performers coordinate their performance.

bridge

(1) A passage connecting two sections of a composition; (2) on string instruments, a small piece of wood that holds the strings above the body.

figure

(1) In Baroque and Classical music, the numbers below a staff designating the harmonies to be filled in above; (2) a general term for a brief melodic pattern.

episode

(1) In a fugue, a freer passage between full statements of the subject; (2) in ritornello form, a freer concertina passage between ripieno statements of the ritornello.

flat

(1) In musical notation, a sign (6) indicating that the note it precedes is to be played a half step lower; (2) the term used to specify a particular note, for example, B6.

ballade

(1) One of several types of medieval secular songs, usually in A-A-B form; (2) a type of nineteenth-century character piece for piano.

canon

(1) Strict imitation, in which one voice imitates another at a staggered time interval; (2) a piece that uses canon throughout, such as "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

dominant

(1) The fifth degree of the diatonic scale. (2) the triad built on this degree; (3) the key oriented around this degree.

finale

(1) The last movement of an instrumental work; (2) the large ensemble that concludes an act in an opera.

alto

(1) The lowest adult female voice; (2) the second-highest voice in a four-part texture.

bass

(1) The lowest adult male voice; (2) the lowest voice in a polyphonic texture.

acoustics

(1) the science of sound; (2) the art of optimizing sound in an enclosed space.

chanson

(French, "song") The most popular form of secular vocal music in northern Europe during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. character piece A short Romantic piano piece that expresses a single overall mood. choir (1) A vocal ensemble with more than one singer to a part; (2) a section of an instrumental ensemble, such as a brass choir.

blues

(I)A form of African-American folk music, characterized by simple, repetitive structures and a highly flexible vocal delivery; (2) the style of singing heard in the blues.

expression

(I)The general character of a passage or work; (2) the blend of feeling and intellect brought to a performance by the performer.

articulation

The manner in which adjacent notes of a melody are connected or separated.

cadence/cadential

The musical punctuation that separates phrases or periods, creating a sense of rest or conclusion that ranges from momentary to final.

compound meters

Duple or triple meters in which the individual beats are subdivided into triple units.

cantata

A Baroque genre for voice(s) and instruments on a sacred or secular poem, including recitatives, arias, and sometimes choruses.

arpeggio

A chord whose individual notes are played successively rather than simultaneously.

duet

A composition for two performers.

accent

A conspicuous, sudden emphasis given to a particular sound, usually by an increase in volume.

chromatic

A descriptive term for melodies or harmonies that use all or most of the twelve degrees of the octave.

combinatorial

A descriptive term for tone rows in which the second half is a transposed version of the first half.

dominant seventh chord

A dominant triad with an added seventh degree-for example, G-B-D-F. dotted rhythm The alternation of LONG and short notes, named after the notation used to record them.

brass

A family of instruments with cup-shaped mouthpieces through which the player blows into a series of metal tubes. Usually constructed of brass or silver.

chord

A group of three or more pitches sounded simultaneously.

branle

A high-stepping Renaissance group dance.

castrato

A male singer castrated during boyhood to preserve his soprano or alto vocal register. Castratos played a prominent role in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century opera.

Etude

A musical piece designed to address a particular technical problem on an instrument.

accidental

A notational sign in a score indicating that a specific note is to be played as a flat, sharp, or natural. The most common accidentals (flats and sharps) correspond to the five black notes in each octave of the keyboard.

basse danse

A popular Renaissance court dance for couples.

ballad opera

A popular eighteenth-century English dramatic form characterized by spoken dialogue on topical themes interspersed with popular folk songs.

Expressionism

A short-lived Austro-German art movement at the beginning of the twentieth century, marked by a focus on the dark, mysterious side of the human mind.

arioso

A singing style between aria and recitative.

andantino

A slightly faster tempo than andante.

celesta

A small keyboard instrument invented in 1886 whose hammers strike a series of resonating steel plates to produce a bell-like but veiled sound. Used by composers from Tchaikovsky to Boulez.

art song

A song focusing on artistic rather than popular expression.

downbeat

A strong or accented beat, most frequently the first beat of a measure.

appoggiatura

A strong-beat dissonance that resolves to a consonance; used as an expressive device in much tonal music.

disco

A style of popular dance music characterized by slick, ostinato-like rhythms and propulsive, repetitive lyrics.

drone

A sustained tone (a kind of permanent pedal point) over which a melody unfolds.

form

A term used to designate standardized musical shapes, such as binary form or sonata form.

chance music

A type of contemporary music in which some or all of the elements, such as rhythm or the interaction among voices, are left to chance.

estampie

A type of early instrumental (perhaps dance) music consisting of independent sections strung together.

ballata

A type of fourteenth-century italian secular song, similar to the French virelai.

baritone

Adult male voice of moderately low range.

chordal style

An alternate term for homophony. chorus (1) Same as choir; (2) each varied repetition of a 12-bar blues pattern; (3) the principal section of an American popular song, following the verse(s).

cadenza

An improvised passage for a soloist, usually placed within the closing ritornello in a concerto movement.

concerto

An instrumental composition for orchestra and soloist (or a small group of soloists).

arrangement

An orchestration of a skeletal score or a reorchestration of a finished composition.

a tempo

At the original tempo.

CD-ROM

Compact disc-read only memory. A compact-disc technology that enables a personal computer to access digitally text, still images, moving pictures, and sound.

disjunct motion

Melodic motion by a leap rather than by a step.

andante

Moderately slow (walking) tempo

a cappella

Music for voices alone, without instrumental accompaniment.

electronic music

Music in which some or all of the sounds are produced by electronic generators. embellishment An ornamental addition to a simpler melody.

folk music

Music indigenous to a particular ethnic group, usually preserved and transmitted orally.

chamber music

Music played by small ensembles, such as a string quartet, with one performer to a part.

antiphon

Originally, a plainchant that framed the singing of a psalm. :The term derives from the early practice of singing psalms "antiphonally"- that is, with two or more alternating choirs.

bass clef

The clef in the upper staff that shows pitches mostly below middle C

exposition

The first section of a movement in sonata form.

envelope

The graphic representation of a sound's attack, duration, and pattern of decay.

coda

The optional final section of a movement or an entire composition.

chromatic scale

The pattern that results when all twelve adjacent semitones in an octave are played successively.

concerto grosso

The principal variety of Baroque concerto, for a small group of soloists (the concertino) and a larger ensemble (the ripieno).

fine arts

The realm of human experience characterized as aesthetic rather than practical or utilitarian, including music, painting, dance, theater, and film.

duple meter

The regular grouping of beats into twos (STRONG-weak). The most common duple meters have two or four beats per measure. dynamics The relative softness or loudness of a note or passage.

augmentation

The restatement of a theme in longer note values, often twice as long (and therefore twice as slow) as the original.

concertina

The solo group in a Baroque concerto grosso.

accompaniment

The subordinate material or voices that support a melody.

ballet

The theatrical presentation of group or solo dancing of great precision to a musical accompaniment, usually with costumes and scenery and conveying a story or theme.

basic set

The underlying tone row in a serial composition.