Music Definitions Quiz

Dynamics or loudness

(a note's amplitude) - from loud (forte) to soft or quiet (piano). We will use indications from pp (very quiet) through ff (very loud).

Timbre

(or tone color) - the unique quality of the sound of an instrument or voice determined by the overtones present in that instrument - from bright to dark

Pitch

(the frequency of vibrations) - from high to low. The faster the rate of vibration, the higher the pitch.

Duration

(the relative length of a note) - use long and short

Attack

(the way a note is articulated) - use legato (the note is attached to its neighbors) or staccato (the note is detached from its neighbors).

Motive

: the smallest group of notes drawn from a theme or another section of a piece that can be thought of as being characteristic of that section. They obtain significance by being repeated, varied and/or developed. Motives may be rhythmic patterns, or melodic patterns, or combinations of both.

Note

A note is a single steady musical sound (as opposed to a noise) or the written symbol representing that sound. A note has five properties.

Tonic

In tonal music (European music of the "common practice period" - roughly 1600- 1900) the tonic, or keynote, is that pitch that functions as the most stable one in a work. The tonic is the center of gravity around which the other pitches move and to which they relate.

Texture

The density of events in the music

Chord

a combination of three or more notes related in terms of their pitch either sounding simultaneously or successively, but perceived as a unit. This latter type of chord is called an arpeggio.

Interval

a combination of two notes related in terms of their pitch; the notes of an interval may be melodic (sounded successively) or harmonic (sounding simultaneously).

Phrase

a group of measures, most often 4 or 8, which, like a phrase in prose, expresses a separable part of a musical statement. A phrase ends with a sense of closure, called a cadence, which although not notated graphically in the music, acts like a comma, semicolon or period in prose. A cadence that sounds "open" (i.e. sounds incomplete) is called a half-cadence. One that is perceived as "closed" (sounds as if it completes a musical thought) is a full cadence. Often phrases appear in pairs, the first ending in a half cadence, the second ending with a full cadence.

Scale

a series of adjacent notes successively ascending or descending. Movement between adjacent notes of a scale is called conjunct or stepwise motion.Melodic movement that skips over notes of the scale pattern is called disjunct or leaping motion. Think of walking up or down a flight of stairs (conjunct) or taking them two or three at a time (disjunct).

Sequence

a series of three or more transpositions in a regular ascending or regular descending pattern.

Beat

a signal or pulse that marks the passing of time in more or less regular segments of equal duration.

Theme

a stable musical statement. It is stable because it is presented in regular phrases and ends with a cadence.

Inversion

a type of variation in which an entire melodic-rhythmic pattern is "turned upside down", so that each ascending or descending motion is reversed.

Transposition

a type of variation in which an entire melodic-rhythmic pattern is moved to a higher or lower pitch level.

Dissonance

any interval or chord NOT characteristic within a specific context; it creates instability and evokes tension within a given historical or stylistic context.

Consonance

any interval or chord that sounds characteristic within a given context; it functions as a relatively stable unit within a given historical/stylistic context.

Homophony

one melody supported by an accompaniment that is most often chordal or simple in nature. The hierarchy here is clear. The melody appears more important.

Monophony

one unaccompanied melody without additional parts or accompaniment.

Meter

the grouping of beats, most often in twos and threes (or multiples thereof) in which the first beat of the group has a greater stress or accent placed on it than on the subsequent beats.

Measure (or bar)

the individual unit of meter, represented by the short vertical lines (bar lines) separating groups of notes. Usually each measure contains the same number of beats, though the actual number of notes will often vary, depending on the length of the notes themselves. The first note in each measure (downbeat) will be stressed, unless this pattern is intentionally disrupted (syncopation).

Syncopation

the occurrence of a strong accent where one does not usually occur, this accent replacing the normally expected one.

Tempo

the speed of the beats, often measured in the number of beats per minute

Rhythm

the temporal aspects of music. This covers all aspects of time, from the time distance between one note (or silence) and the next as well as the duration of an entire movement or piece of music.

Groupings

this occurs when notes are perceived as belonging to larger units. This involves understanding the rhythmic and harmonic relationships among the notes within the group

Polyphony

two or more melodies played simultaneously. may be imitative, where there is one theme that has multiple overlapping statements or non-imitative, where you will hear two or more themes stated simultaneously. In this texture, all the parts sound equally important. Texture also refers to the density of the sound, that is, how many events there are at a time. Music may sound transparent (very few instruments playing) to thick or dense (many instruments at one time.)