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