Instrumental Music

Walking Bass

Bass line in baroque music-and later in jazz-that moves steadily and continuously.

Concerto

(1) In the seventeenth century, ensemble of instruments or of voices with one or more instruments, or a work for such an ensemble. (2) composition in which one or more solo instruments (or instrumental group) contrasts with an orchestral ensemble.

Tutti

(1) In both the solo concerto and the concerto grosso, designates the full orchestra. Also called ripieno (Italian, "full"). (2) Instruction to an ensemble that all should play.

Sarabande

(1) Originally a quick dance-song from Latin America. (2) In French baroque music, a slow dance in binary form and in triple meter, often emphasizing the second beat; a standard movements of a suite.

Style luthe/brise

(French, "broken style") Broken or arpeggiated texture in keyboard and lute music from seventeenth-century France. The technique originated with the lute, and the figuration was transferred to the harpsichord.

Ripieno

(Italian, "full) In a solo concerto or concerto grosso, designates the full orchestra. Also called tutti.

Canzona

(Italian, "song") (1) Sixteenth-century Italian genre, an instrumental work adapted from a chanson or composed in a similar style. (2) In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, an instrumental work in several contrasting sections, of which the first and some of the others are in imitative counterpoint.

Sonata

(Italian, "sounded") (1) A piece to be played on one or more instruments. (2) baroque instrumental piece with contrasting sections or movements, often with imitative counterpoint.

Ricercare

(Italian, "to seek out" or "to attempt") (1) In the early to mid-sixteenth century, a prelude in the style of an improvisation. (2) From the late sixteenth century on, an instrumental piece that treats one or more subjects in imitation.

Toccata

(Italian, "touched") Piece for keyboard instrument or lute resembling an improvisation that may include imitative sections or may serve as a prelude to an independent fugue.

Courante

A dance in binary form, in triple meter at a moderate tempo and with an upbeat, featured as a standard movement of the baroque dance suite.

Binary Form

A form comprised of two complementary sections, each of which is repeated. The first section usually ends on the dominant or the relative major, although it many end of the tonic or other key; the second section returns to the tonic.

Suite

A set of pieces that are linked together into a single work. During the baroque, a suite usually referred to a set of stylized dance pieces.

Sonata da chiesa

Baroque instrumental work intended for performance in church; usually in four Movements-slow-fast-slow-fast-and scored for one or more treble instruments and continuo.

Sonata da camera

Baroque sonata, usually a suite of stylized dances, scored for one or more treble instruments and continuo.

Trio Sonata

Common instrumental genre during the baroque period, a sonata for two treble instruments (usually violins) above a basso contiuno. A performance featured four or more players if more than one was used for the continuo part.

Fugue

Composition or section of a composition in imitative texture that is based on a single subject and begins with successive statements of the subject in all voices.

Clavecin

French term for harpsichord.

Allemande

Highly stylized dance in binary form, in moderately fast quadruple meter with almost continuous movement, beginning with an upbeat. Popular during the renaissance and baroque; appearing often as the first dance in a suite.

Episodes

In a fugue, a passage of free counterpoint between statements of the subject.

Exposition (Fugue)

In a fugue, a set of entries of the subject.

Answer (Fugue)

In the exposition of a fugue, the second entry of the subject, normally on the dominant if the subject was on the tonic, and vice versa. Also refers to subsequent answers to the subject.

Organ Prelude

Introduction played by the organ as people enter the church for mass; mostly improvised, ends when they sit down and begin the mass.

Prelude

Introductory piece for solo instrument, often in the style of an improvisation, or introductory movement in a multimovement work such as an opera or suite.

Theorbo

Large lute with extra bass strings, used especially in the seventeenth century for performing basso continuo as accompaniment to singers or instruments.

Agrement

Ornament in French music, usually indicated by a sign.

Lute

Plucked string instrument popular from the late Middle Ages through the baroque period, typically pear- or almond-shaped with a rounded back, flat fingerboard, frets, and one single and five double strings

Gigue

Stylized dance movement of a standard baroque suite, in binary form, marked by fast compound meter such as 6/4 or 12/8 with wide melodic leaps and continuous triplets. The two sections usually both begin with imitation.