Music Terms

Blue notes

When the third, fifth, or seventh notes of a major scale are flattened, these notes are called blue notes. Blue notes are frequently used in blues and jazz music

Accelerando

Accelerate or gradually increase the tempo or speed of the music.

Continuo

Also known as basso continuo or figured bass, the term continuo describes a bass part in a composition, often with numbers over the notes to indicate harmonic intervals that should be played above the bass line. During the Baroque period, the figured bass or continuo was commonly used by a keyboard player such as a harpsichord to provide harmonic accompaniments (a cello frequently played the continuo part along with the harpsichord).

Louré

Louré strokes are a short series of gently pulsed legato notes executed in one bow stroke (it is also known as portato).

Maestoso

Majestic and dignified.

Martelé

Martelé is a French term meaning hammered. Each note is percussive, and commences with a sharp accent or "pinch" at the beginning of the note, followed by a quick release. Martelé may be notated in more than one way: with dots, hammer heads or accents.

Meno

Meno means less. It often is used with other terms such as meno mosso (less rapid or less motion).

Mezzo forte

Moderately loud. Mezzo forte is indicated by the marking:

Mezzo piano

Moderately soft. Mezzo piano is indicated by the marking:

Moderato

Moderato means to play at a moderate tempo or speed. This term sometimes modifies others such as Allegro moderato, which means moderately fast.

Mode

Modes are often used to structure the melody or tonality of a piece, and are comprised of notes arranged in a specific scale or pattern of intervals.

First and second endings

First and second endings are repeat signs, and should be played as follows: play the first ending the first time through the music, repeat to the beginning of the section, then skip over the first ending and play the second ending.

Forte

Forte means loud, and is indicated by the marking:

Fortissimo

Fortissimo means the music should be very loud, and is indicated by the marking:

Fortississimo

Fortississimo means the music should be played as loudly as possible, and is indicated by the marking:

Fuoco

Fuoco means "Fire" and indicates the musician should play with fire in a fiery, spirited manner.

Glissando

Glissando is an ornamental effect notated by a wavy or straight line between two notes, indicating a continuous slide in pitch.

Harmonics

Harmonics are overtones of the string and produce soft flutelike sounds when the string is lightly touched at specific fractional divisions (nodal points). Natural harmonics are produced on open strings, and artificial or stopped harmonics are produced on stopped strings.

Harmony

Harmony is created when pitches are combined simultaneously.

Legato

Legato indicates the notes should be smoothly connected, played either in one or several bows. Slurs are often used to indicate legato.

Lento

Lento means slow in Italian (lent in French). Lento and lent are both slow tempos in between largo and andante.

Allegro

A quick, lively and fast tempo (not quite as fast as presto).

Motive

A short melodic or rhythmic idea that recurs throughout a musical composition.

Accidentals

A sign indicating a momentary departure from the key signature by using a flat, sharp or natural to temporarily alter the pitch of a note by a half step. Accidentals apply to the note immediately following the symbol, and remain in effect throughout the measure in which it appears.

Andantino

A slightly slower tempo than andante (andante is a moderately slow tempo).

Adagio

A slow, leisurely tempo, often considered to be slower than andante, but not quite as slow as largo. Slow movements of a piece are sometimes titled Adagio.

Dynamics

A term that indicates the degree of loudness or softness in music. When the dynamic level is changed instantaneously, it is called terraced or changed dynamics (this was popular during the Baroque period). When the Italian word "issimo" is added to a dynamic term, it means very, extremely, or as much as is possible. e.g. pianissimo means "as soft as is possible" and fortissimo means "as loud as is possible."

D.C. al Coda

means go back to the beginning of the piece, play to the "Coda" sign: , then jump to the Coda section to finish the piece (Coda means "tail," and refers to a concluding section of a piece).

D.C. al Fine

means go back to the beginning, and end at the Fine marking (D.C. is an abbreviation for "da capo," and means "from the beginning" and Fine means "end").

Da capo

(D.C.) repeat from the beginning.

Da segno

(D.S.) repeat from the sign.

Col legno

"With the wood." Col legno means to strike the string with the stick of the bow rather than the hair (it is also called col legno battuto). When there are extended col legno passages in music, some professional violinists use inexpensive bows to avoid damaging their expensive bows. Col legno tratto is a less commonly used bowing direction. It indicates draw the wood of the bow across the string (use with caution, this can damage the wood of the bow).

Animato

1. "Animated" or spirited. Play in a lively, spirited manner.

Agitato

1. Agitated or restless. Agitato is a direction to play in an agitated manner.

Coda

1. An Italian word for "tail," coda is a musical term referring to a concluding section of a composition.

Arco

1. Arco is Italian for bow. After a pizzicato (plucked) section of music, arco is often used to indicate the next passage of music should be played with the bow.

Assai

1. Assai means "very" in Italian. It modifies other terms when added to them, e.g. allegro assai means very fast.

Cantabile

1. Cantabile means singing, and is a musical direction to play in a singing vocal style.

Collé

1. Collé means glued. It is a very short stroke, and begins with the bow lightly contacting the string with a distinct and short, sharp pinch. The bow is then lifted to prepare for the next stroke.

Aleatory

1. Comes from the Latin term alea, meaning "a game of dice." Aleatory music is also called chance music. Chance or indeterminancy may affect compositional elements, the performance, or both. For example, the performers may throw dice to determine compositional elements such as rhythmic or pitch choices.

Crescendo

1. Crescendo (cresc.) means to gradually become louder, and is indicated by the sign:

Flautando

1. Flautando is a bowing direction to bow slightly over the fingerboard to produce a flutelike sound effect.

Animando

1. Play with increasing animation, liveliness, and expression.

Brio

1. Spirited and lively. Con brio means play with spirit in a vivacious manner.

Ballata

A ballata is a 14th century Italian secular song. It is a monophonic composition often in the following pattern: A b b a A.

Largo

A broad, slow tempo that is dignified and stately in style. Largo is the slowest of tempo markings

Muted

A direction for the musician to play with a mute. For string players, mutes are small clamps of wood, metal, rubber, leather or plastic, which fit onto the bridge and result in a softer, muted sound with a veiled quality. To mute something is also indicated by the Italian term con sordino or the German term mit dampfer. The terms arco (bow), via sordini (take off mute) and senza sordino (without mute) are used to indicate when the muted section ends and the musician should resume playing with a bow.

Drone

A drone is a continuous pitch, held for an extended time beneath the melody to serve as an aural reference point. In early music, drones generally were not notated in manuscripts, so performers should use their judgment in using them. In fiddle music, drones are often played as double stops, with the fiddler playing a drone on one string, while playing the melody on another.

Homophonic

A form of musical texture with a melody and chordal accompaniment.

Grace note

A grace note is used to ornament a note, and is written in a small font indicating the musician should quickly play the grace note, then the note it is attached to (the grace note is not part of the rhythmic value of the measure).

Hornpipe

A lively British dance, popular during the 16th-18th centuries. The country dance version of the hornpipe was similar to the jig, but with a different meter (often in 3/2). Composers frequently used the lively country dance rhythm of the hornpipe dance for movements in dance suites and incidental theater music. Other meters used in the hornpipe dance were 2/4 and 4/4.

Allegretto

A lively and moderately fast tempo. Often considered to be slower than allegro, but faster than andante.

Madrigal

A madrigal is an Italian song form, often with Italian text. It is a short work in one movement, sung by a small group of vocalists. Madrigal texts were often set to music using word painting (where the melody would follow the line of the text, e.g. waterfall would have music in the contour of falling water).

Air

A melody, tune or song. In fiddle music, airs are often played slowly with rubato, and are not dance tunes. In art music, air is the English word for aria, and both share the same meaning of a lyrical piece for solo voice, with or without instrumental accompaniment.

Andante

A moderately slow tempo. Often considered to be a walking speed.

Marcato

An Italian term which means marked or accentuated.

Accent

An accent placed over or under a note means the note should be emphasized by playing forcefully. Indicated by the sign: >

Aria

An elaborate vocal solo with instrumental accompaniment, used in genres such as an opera, oratorio or cantata.

Concerto

An instrumental composition for solo instrument(s), often in three movements, frequently accompanied by an orchestra. The sequence of the movements in a concerto generally is fast-slow-fast.

Concerto grosso

An instrumental concerto for a small group of soloists (called the concertino), which play in contrast to the main body of instrumentalists or orchestra (called the ripieno or tutti).

Articulation

Articulation describes the manner of providing definition and shape to individual notes or phrases. For string players, this involves both the right and left hand. The main markings are a dot . which means shorten the note, a line _ or slur which means play the note smoothly, and an accent > which means add a forceful emphasis. These markings are often used in combination with each other, and mean many different things to different musicians.

Assez

Assez means "enough" or "rather" in French. It modifies other terms when added to them, e.g. assez vif means "rather lively" in French (vif means lively), and assez vite means "rather fast" (vite means fast).

Augmented

Augmented means raised, and when the term augmented is combined with a specific interval between notes, it means to raise the interval by a half-step. For example, an augmented fourth is a half-step larger than the interval of a perfect fourth.

Bariolage

Bariolage is a French term which means an "odd mixture of colors," and directs the string player to achieve a contrast in tone colors by playing on different strings. An example of bariolage is when the same note is played, alternating between open strings and stopped strings, or by playing a repeated passage and oscillating between two, three, or four strings. Fingering is often used to indicate bariolage.

Binary

Binary means dual or two parts.

Caccia

Caccia means chase or hunt, and describes a canonic form of music, often with two voices chasing each other with an underlying third part. Hunting music themes were often used in this form of music.

Comodo

Comodo is Italian for a comfortable, leisurely and convenient tempo or speed, neither too fast nor too slow.

Con

Con means "with" or in a style expressive of a certain quality. It is often used to modify another term such as con spirito, meaning to play with a spirited style

Diminuendo

Diminuendo (dim.) means to gradually become softer. The term decrescendo (decresc. or decr.) also means to become softer, and is indicated by the sign:

Dolce

Dolce is a direction to play sweetly, softly and gently.

Détaché

Détaché indicates a smooth, separate bow strokes should be used for each note (it does not mean detached or disconnected). Notes are of equal value, and are produced with an even, seamless stroke with no variation in pressure.

Détaché lancé

Détaché lancé is a variation of the détaché bow stroke, and is a slightly separated bow stroke that gently articulates the notes with an unaccented, distinct break between each note. It is often used in combination with the louré or porté stroke to perform several separated notes in the same bow. A combination of a line with a dot over or under it is often used to indicate this bowing.

Impressionism

Impressionism began as an artistic movement, and was used to describe a style of art which was designed to convey an impression rather than a literal depiction of the scene. This term was applied to music, particularly to compositions written by French composers in the early 20th century such as Debussy and Ravel when they wrote music that sought to convey subtle impressions, moods and emotions through compositional techniques such as new chord combinations, sonorities and harmonies, colorful instrumentation, and exotic scales.

A tempo

In tempo. "A tempo" is used after some variation in the tempo, and means return to the original tempo or speed.

Jeté

Jeté means "thrown" in French. In this bow stroke, the bow is thrown on the string, and then bounces for several notes in the same bow direction. The height and speed of the bounce are regulated through factors such as the amount of pressure used by the index finger, and where the bow is initially thrown or placed. Dots above or under the notes may be used to indicate jeté.

Modo ordinario

Modo means "manner" or "style" and ordinario means ordinary. Modo ordinario means play in the ordinary way (often used after an unusual way of playing such as col legno).

Monophony

Monophony is a musical texture for a single melodic line without any accompaniment or other melodic lines.

Mosso

Mosso means moved. When used alone as a tempo term, the meaning of mosso is similar to con moto: with motion. Mosso is sometimes used with other qualifying terms such as piu mosso, meaning a little faster (more motion).

Motet

Motet generally means a vocal piece with sacred text, musically composed in the style of the period. During the 13th-15th centuries, motets were sacred, unaccompanied choral works, often based on a preexisting melody and text. New melodies were then added to the preexisting melody, usually in counterpoint. Beginning in the 16th century, the preexisting melody frequently was secular.

Moto

Moto means motion. It is often used with other terms such as con moto (with motion).

Multiple stops

Multiple stops describe chords played on a stringed instruments. For example, double stops describe playing notes simultaneously on two strings, and triple stops mean playing notes simultaneously on three strings.

Incidental music

Music supplementing a spoken drama such as music composed for a play. Incidental music could be introducing a play (such as an overture), between acts (an interlude), or as a supplement to spoken parts or dramatic elements.

Atonality

Music with an absence of tonality. Traditional tonal structures are intentionally ignored or abandoned in this contemporary form of music.

Bravura

Play brilliantly with boldness and spirit. The term bravura is sometimes used in passages where virtuosic skill is required of the performer.

Grave

Play in a slow and solemn manner.

Appassionato

Play passionately or with intense emotion and feeling.

Largamente

Play with a large, broad and sustained tone.

Amore

Play with love, lovingly.

Grandioso

Play with majestic grandeur.

Breve

Short

Larghetto

Slightly faster than largo, larghetto is a similarly broad, large and stately tempo and style.

Au talon

Talon is French for heel, and the term au talon, "at the heel," means play the music with the bow hair at the heel or bottom part of the bow, closest to the hand (other terms for playing music using the bottom part of the bow include "at the frog", heel or nut).

Mass

The Mass is the principal act of worship of the Catholic Church. As a vocal form, the Mass has been used in almost all periods of music history. It has two basic parts—the Proper and the Ordinary. Sections of the Mass that vary from day to day in each musical service are called the Proper. The Ordinary of the Mass consists of sections that are constant for every Mass. The fixed order of the Ordinary of the Mass is 1) Kyrie, 2) Gloria, 3) Credo, 4) Sanctus, and 5) Agnus Dei. The text of the Mass is given either as a Low Mass or High Mass. A Low Mass involves spoken text, while a High Mass is sung.

Frog

The bottom part of the bow, a block of wood (often ebony) that bow hairs are attached to. When music indicates "play at the frog," it means to use the bottom part of the bow hair, closest to the frog, for that section of music. Some scholars postulate the frog is named after the bottom soft part of a horse's hoof, also called a frog (e.g. Robin Stowell, Cambridge Companion to the Violin, 1992: 24-29). Other terms used to indicate play at the bottom part of the bow include "play at the nut", heel or au talon (French for "at the heel").

Meter

The grouping of beats in stressed and unstressed patterns.

Bow lift

The sign for a bow lift is: and indicates the string player should lift their bow, and return it to its starting point.

Down bow

The sign for down bow is and indicates a downward stroke of the bow from frog to tip.

Fermata

The sign under or over a note or rest indicates the note or rest should be held and prolonged at the discretion of the performer or conductor (this sign is also called a "hold" or by the nickname "bird's eye").

Cantata

The term cantata means "to be sung" (as opposed to sonata, an instrumental work which means "to be played"). A cantata is a vocal work with instrumental accompaniment. It may be sacred or secular, and often contains sections such as solos, choruses, and recitatives.

Chamber music

The term chamber music describes music suitable for performance in a chamber, meaning a room or small hall instead of a large concert hall. Today, chamber music is used to describe instrumental music performed by a small ensemble such as a quartet, trio or chamber orchestra.