Music CST

moto perpetuo

("It., "perpetual motion") a piece of a style of writing in which a melodic figuration consisting entirely of rapid notes is sustained without interruption. The finale of Schubert's Symphony No. 3 is particularly energetic example.

chanson

(Fr. "song") a French polyphonic song of the mid-14th through late 16th century. Chanson setting up to about 1450 tended to be concise, syllabic, and strongly rhythmic; the settings composed in the second half of the 15th century exhibit greater melodic and rhythmic freedom. During the 16th century, the chanson evolved away from fixed poetic forms - rondeaux, ballades, and virelais - toward more varied and free-wheeling verse forms.

bagatelle

(Fr. "trifle") a short work, usually for keyboard.

allemande

(Fr., "German [dance]") a stately dance in moderate duple meter. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was among the standard dances in orchestral and keyboard suites

aubade

(Fr., "dawn song") a piece intended to "greet the dawn," or more generally to be played in the morning, often as a salute to an individual.

idee fixe

(Fr., "obsession") A theme used on a recurring basis in a piece of program music to represent a specific person, idea, or action. The term was coined by Hector Berlioz, whose use of the procedure in his Symphonie fantastique (1830)

soubrette

(Fr., "servant girl") in opera, a comic role sung by a light-voiced soprano, often an impertinent servant. Among the most familiar roles are Serpina in Pergolesi's La serva padrona, Despina in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Papagena in Mozart's Die Zauberflote.

baton

(From Fr. baton, "stick") A thin, tapered pointer, usually made of wood, used by conductors to mark the beat in a piece of music and coordinate performances by large groups of musicians

singspiel

(Ger. "sung play") a type of comic opera with text in the vernacular (normally German) in which musical numbers are interspersed with sections of spoken dialogue. Notable eamples include Die Jagd by Johann Adam Hiller (1728-1804) and Mozart's Die Entfurung aus dem Serail (1782), Die Schauspieldirektor (1786), and Die Zauberflote.

flugelhorn

(Ger., "wing horn") Valved brass instrument related to the keyed bugle. The flugelhorn has the same compass as a cornet, but its wider bore and larger bell give it a mellow sound that has been particularly prized in the jazz world, where players such as Miles Davis, Thad Jones, and Clark Terry have championed it as a solo instrument.

obbligato

(It. "necessary") in instrumental music, a part that is essential as opposed to one that is optional or ad libitum. The term is commonly used to refer to prominent parts for solo instruments in the accompaniment of arias, especially in Baroque music.

ostinato

(It. "obstinate") a short melodic or rhythmic figure repeated persistently throughout a passage or a whole composition; when such a figure serves as the bass, it is called a basso ostinato

canzona

(It. "song") [1] A contrapuntal instrumental piece, originally based on the polyphonic chanson; the genre reached its high point during the 16th and 17th centuries. [2] a simple lyric poem or song.

rallentando

(It.) slowing down

cantabile

(It.) songlike, in a singing manner. Often used as a tempo modifier (e.g., Andante cantabile)

animato

(It.) spirited, energetic

dal segno

(It., "From the sign") Tells the performer to repeat playing of the music starting at the nearest segno. This is followed by al fine or al coda just as with da capo.

poco

(It., "[a] little") term used to modify a dynamic, tempo, or expressive marking, e.g., poco marc is "somewhat marcato"; poco forte is "somewhat loud."

andantino

(It., "a little andante") somewhat faster than andante

larghetto

(It., "a little broadly") a tempo slightly faster than largo, closer to adagio.

allegretto

(It., "a little fast") slightly less fast than allegro; often used in place of allegro in pieces or movements of a lighter character or texture.

mosso

(It., "agitated") descriptive term occasionally used as part of a tempo marking, e.g., Andante mosso, quasi allegretto, but more commonly found in conjunction with the words piu ("more") and meno ("less"), to indicate a modification of the designated tempo during the course of a movement, e.g., piu mosso ("faster"), meno mosso ("slower").

tutti

(It., "all") In orchestral music, a passage played by all the instruments in a section, as opposed to a solo.

bel canto

(It., "beautiful singing") operatic style of the early 19th century that called for a light, mellifluous tone and effortless delivery of florid passages. The art of writing for the voice in this manner reached its apogee in the words of the Italian composers Bellini and Donizetti, but can also be found in various operas of Rossini, Meyerbeer, Verdi, and Wagner.

libretto

(It., "booklet") The sung text of an opera or other work for the musical theater.

arco

(It., "bow") played with the bow; usually used as an instruction to players of string instruments, indicating the end of a pizzicato passage.

bravura

(It., "bravery") playing or singing of exceptional boldness, verve, and spirit. When an artist gives an exciting account of a piece, particularly one in which he displays complete technical mastery in passages of obvious difficulty, it is said to be a bravura performance.

largo

(It., "broadly") usually interpreted as very slow tempo, between adagio and grave.

coloratura

(It., "coloring") in vocal music, florid, elaborately decorative, and generally high-lying figuration or ornamentation. Coloratura parts are most often the province or sopranos, though Rossini had a particular fondness for writing this type of music for mezzo-soprano (e.g., the part of Rosina in Il barbiere di Sivilglia and the title role in La Cenerentola), and even created coloratura parts for tenor and bass. Celebrated roles for coloratura soprano include the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflote.

morendo

(It., "dying") expressive marking in very quiet passages, indicating that the sound is to be allowed to fade away.

presto

(It., "fast") tempo marking that usually indicates a more rapid pace than allegro or vivace. Prestissimo, meaning "very fast," calls for the utmost speed, and is the quickest tempo in normal use.

a tempo

(It., "in tempo") A return to the principal tempo of a section or a piece after a passage in which the tempo has been altered.

a capella

(It., "in the chapel") To sing without instrumental accompaniment

marcato

(It., "marked") a direction to the performer to play the note somewhat louder or more forcefully than a note with a regular accent mark (open horizontal wedge).

piu

(It., "more") Term used to modify a tempo or dynamic instruction, e.g, piu piano is "softer"; piu mosso is "faster"

stretto

(It., "narrow," "tight") [1] an overlapping of entries in a fugue so as to heighten the musical tension. [2] the adoption of a faster tempo in the climactic or closing pages of a piece. Examples can be found at the end of the Act II finale in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and in the codas to the final movements of Brahms's Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25, and Mahler's Symphony No. 5.

basso ostinato

(It., "obstinate bass") A persistently repeated pattern or melodic figure in the bass, usually consisting of just a few notes, against which other elements of a musical texture may unfold or change in a rhythmically unrestricted manner Also called "ground" or "ground bass," the term can refer either to the bass line itself or to a recurring harmonic pattern.

cantilena

(It., "singsong") A "singing" line for an instrument or a voice.

lento

(It., "slow") a tempo midway between andante and adagio

ritardando

(It., "slowing down") instruction indicating a momentary slowing or broadening of tempo

tempo

(It., "time") The pace of a particular section or piece of music

molto

(It., "very") descriptive term frequently used in tempo markings, e.g., Allegro molto (Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, finale).

virtuoso

(It., "virtuous") a musician with an extraordinarily well developed technique; an adjective used to describe passages or pieces that particularly challenging from a technical standpoint, or playing that successfully meets such challenges.

tessitura

(It., "weaving") in vocal music, the place in the singer's range where a particular passage or an entire part lies (i.e., not the overall compass that is required to sing the part, but the area where most of the notes are found - high, low, or in the middle of the range.

col legno

(It., "with the wood") an instruction to the player of a string instrument to play a note or passage by bouncing the wooden part of the bow against the strings, or by drawing it across the strings, or by drawing it across the strings rather than using the hair of the bow in the conventional manner.

adagio

(It., in an easy manner") Generally understood as "slow." A movement in slow tempo

missa brevis

(Lat., "short mass") typically a mass setting consisting of only the Kyrie and Gloria.

missa solemnis

(Lat., "solemn mass") any mass in which the entire Ordinary is sung.

organum

(Lat., from Fr. organon, "instrument," "tool", "organ") A "vertical" elaboration of plainchant in which additional vocal lines at one or two different pitch levels (usually above, sometime below) move at the same pace as the line of chant and in a fashion more or less parallel to it; hence it is a form of troping (or "following") of the chant.

bariolage

(from Fr. bariole, "speckled") playing the same note in alternation on two different strings, one stopped, the other open; the rapid shift in tone color between the two creates a shimmering effect.

berceuse

(from Fr. berceau, "cradle") a piece in the style of a lullaby

hocket

(from Fr. hoquet, "hiccup") In medieval polyphony, the staggered interruption of one or more lines by rests, creating the effect of a single line that moves among the different voices. The technique, which turned the resulting silences into contrapuntal elements, often to humorous ends, arose around 1200 and disappeared from use around 1400. It is a compositional technique also used in other periods, including Jazz.

verbunkos

(from Ger. Webung, "[military] draft") Marchlike Hungarian recruiting dance. It was used by Hussars to attract recruits in Hungarian villages from the 18th until the 19th century; Gypsy musicians typically provided the accompaniment. The style was so popular it became a fixture in alter 19th- and 20th-century Hungarian music, such as the first movement of Bartok's Violin Concerto No. 2 (1938).

baritone

(from Gr. barytonos, "deep sounding") male voice range between tenor and bass

diatonic scale

(from Gr. dia tonis, "proceeding by tones") belonging to a major or minor scale, or one of the ancient or medieval modes, as opposed to a whole-tone scale or a chromatic scale, diatonic refers to a scalar arrangement of whole steps and half steps in which the half steps are separated by at least two whole steps.

harmony

(from Gr. harmonia, "a joining [of sounds]") [1] The simultaneous sounding of different tones to produce chords. [2] The process whereby a contextual relationship of chords to one another can be deduced through their linear progression and evaluated in terms of the structural significance or function each chord has within an established theoretical framework.

canon

(from Gr. kanon, "rule") In polyphonic music, a procedure in which different parts take up the same melody in succession; the most familiar example is the round (e.g., "Row, row, row your boat"). Canon is by definition a "strict" form of imitation. In the simplest canons, the imitative entries are at the same pitch (known as canon at the unison); in more complex examples, the melody is designed so that imitation can occur at a different pitch (known as canon at the second, third, etc.) Virtually every composer has used canon.

chromatic (chromatic scale)

(from Gr. khroma, "color") In tonal music, a passage or piece characterized by the use of notes not belonging to the diatonic major or minor scale; all 12 notes per octave.

meter

(from Gr. metron, "measure") In musical notation, the recurring pattern in which a succession of rhythmic units or pulses is organized. The meter of a given measure, several measures, or an entire piece - is indicated by a time signature.

metronome

(from Gr. metron, "measure," and nomos, "law") device patented by Johann Nepomuck Maelzel in 1815, using a double-ended pendulum with an adjustable weight to sound a steady beat at any speed from approximately 50 beats per minute to 160. It is one of the few precision instruments still manufactured according to the original specifications.

rhapsody

(from Gr. rhapsodos, "a reciter of unaccompanied epic poetry") an extended musical piece that is freely organized or episodic in nature rather than rigorously argued. Since the middle of the 19th century, when Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies attained widespread popularity, the term has frequently been applied to pieces of a folkish or nationalistic cast and to works that make virtuosic demands on orchestras and instrumentalists.

syncopation

(from Gr. synkope, "a cutting short") the regular shifting or displacement of a rhythm's normal accent from a strong beat to a weak one, or to a position between beats.

theme

(from Gr. thema, "subject") a musical idea or statement that is capable of standing as a complete musical "thought" and that serves as the subject, or one of the subjects, of a piece. Themes can run the gamut from short and pithy, e.g., the famous theme of Pagini's Caprice in A minor, subject of numerous variation works, to long and discursive, as in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in B-flat minor, whose opening pages unfold a theme of remarkably expansive character over 107 measures...one that is never head again after that.

xylophone

(from Gr. xylon, "wood") Percussion instrument consisting of a set of flat or slightly rounded rosewood bars of graduated size mounted on a trapezoidal frame; the bars are arrayed in two ranks like the white and black keys of a piano. Positioned below each bar is a tube resonator tuned to its pitch. The instrument is played using mallets with spherical heads of different hardness some heads are made of wood, some wrapped in yarn or felt. When struck with a hard mallet, the bars produce a bright, penetrating but fairly dry sound; softer mallets produce a duller, somewhat thuddy sound. Modern orchestral xylophones have a compass of three and a half (sometime four) octaves, from the F (or the C) below middle C to the C three octaves above. Works with prominent parts for xylophone include Mahler's Symphony No. 6 (first and second movements) and Debussy's Iberia.

fantasy

(from Greek phantasia, "idea," "image") an instrumental piece in free form. The term was first used in the 16th century, to refer to music that was freely "invented" rather than based on a preexisting (usually vocal) melody or a particular dance form. By the beginning of the 18th century it had come to designate a type of keyboard piece in which the emphasis was on virtuosity, daring modulation, and the improvisatory development of ideas.

legato

(from It, legare, "to tie") A manner of playing in which notes are effectively "tied" to one another (i.e., smoothly connected). Legato phrasing is normally indicated by slur markings over or under the notes that are to be elided in this fashion. When two or more notes of the same pitch are "tied," especially across a bar line, the note is sounded once and held for the duration of the combined note values. The instruction non legato means that performer should clearly articulate each note.

barcarolle

(from It. barcarola) A piece in lilting 6/8 meter in the style of the songs of Venetian gondoliers. A typical feature of the melody is a gentle, rocking rhythm suggestive of the side-to-side swaying of a boat.

divertimento

(from It. divertire, "to entertain") a multimovement composition consisting of music in a light and pleasing vein, often including dance movements.

scale

(from It. scala, "ladder") a stepwise succession of tones. The most common scales in use in Western music are the diatonic, chromatic, pentatonic, and whole tone.

scordatura

(from It. scordare, "to forget") On string instruments, a nonstandard tuning.

serenade

(from It. serenata) A piece of music intended to be performed outdoors in the evening, usually as a tribute to a particular individual. The term is derived from the Italian word sereno, poetic parlance for a "cloudless evening sky." During the 18th century, especially in Italy, Austria, and southern Germany, the serenade was a popular instrumental genre. Serenades written for orchestra typically consisted of five or more movements beginning with a substantial movement in sonata form, ending with a lively movement in fast tempo, and fitting a sequence of minuets and slow movements between them. Mozart's serenades of the 1770s and 1780s epitomized the genre; his contributions included not only works written for orchestra - most notably the Haffner Serenade, K. 250 (1776).

soprano

(from It. sopra, "above") situated in the highest musical range.

spinto

(from It. spingere, "to push") an essentially lyric voice (soprano or tenor) that exhibits greater power, particularly at the top of the range, than is generally expected, such as the role of Mimi in Puccini's La boheme.

tenuto

(from It. tenere "to hold") instruction indicating that a note is to be held (i.e., sustained) for its full rhythmic value.

verismo

(from It. verita, "truth") Originally, a movement in Italian literature of the late 19th century that emphasized objectivity and realism, by means of characters and situations drawn from the lower social strata. It became an operatic style during the 1890s, propelled by the success of two works that are still "twinned" on many bills: Cavalleria rusticana (1890) by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci (1892) by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

spiccato

(from It., spiccare, "to stand out") on string instruments, a short, off-the-string bow stroke.

toccata

(from It., toccare, "to touch) A work, nearly always for a keyboard instrument, intended as a display of manual dexterity. Most toccatas feature rapid passages requiring clean fingerwork and long sections of continuous movement in short note values.

breve (double whole note)

(from Lat. brevis, "short") one of the two earliest medieval note values, the other being the longa, or long. Gradually, as notes were divided into shorter values, the breve, in spite of its name, became the longest note in common use.

minim

(from Lat. minima, "smallest) In medieval notation, shortest of the five note values in common use, represented by a solid black (or hollow) diamond-shaped note head with a vertical stem. It is equivalent to a half note in modern notation.

modulation

(from Lat. modulatio, "measurement") Within a movement or a section of a piece, a clear change of key. Modulation occurs when a key other than the tonic is established in the listener's perception as the "home" key. The notes and harmonies characteristics of the new key must be present long enough to be recognized; the shift is usually confirmed by means of a cadence in the new key.

symphony

(from Lat. symphonia, "sounding together") a large-scale composition for orchestra, usually consisting of more than one movement, sometimes incorporating passages to be spoken or sung by soloists and/or chorus. As a genre the symphony was an outgrowth of several Italian orchestral genres of the Baroque - particularly the sinfonia and the concerto grosso - and the chamber sonata as it existed in Italy and Germany at the end of the 17th century. Shaped by many hands during the course of the 18th century, most notably Mozart and Haydn, it became the dominant orchestral format of the 19th century thanks to the impact of Beethoven's visionary essays. The most popular early variety of symphony was the three-movement Italian symphony, basically a glorified opera overture with a fast-slow-fast arrangement of movements using short, binary forms. This format was gradually superseded, primarily in Austria and Germany, by a four movement plan: an opening movement in lively tempo (usually Allegro) often preceded by a slow introduction; a lyrical slow movement; a minuet, and a brisk finale Nearly always, the first movement was in sonata form. Often, the slow movement and finale were cast in sonata form as well. This was the type of symphony that took root in Mannheim, Vienna, and other centers and was perfected in the works of Mozart and Haydn. Departures from the four-movement model began with Beethoven's Pastorale and continued through the 19th century and into the 20th, yet the model remained operative in the works of Mahler, Nielsen, Sibelius, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Vaughan Williams.

tenor

(from Lat. tenere, "to hold") originally, the vocal part that carried or "held" the cantus firmus in medieval and Renaissance polyphony. By the 15th century, the term had come to signify the type of voice - a male voice midway between bass and alto - that sang this part. During the later 17th and early 18th centuries, the tenor remained in the shadow of the castrato on the opera stage, but by the end of the 18th century it had emerged as the heroic male voice type. Tenor parts, especially are generally classified as either lyric or dramatic, depending upon how forcefully passages lying in the upper register must be sung. Notable parts for lyric tenor include the roles of Tamino in Mozart's Die Zauberflotte and Alfredo in Verdi's La traviata. The Heldentenor (Ger. heroic tenor) is a more robust type of dramatic tenor, with the stamina to sing for extended periods, and with power, the mid-to-upper part of the range (around the break between head and chest voice). Parts that demanded this type of voice include the Wagner roles of Tristan and, in the final two operas of the Ring cycle, Siegfried, and the tile role in Richard Strauss's Guntram.

da capo

(lit. "From top") Tells the performer to repeat playing of the music from its beginning. This is usually followed by al fine (lit. "to the end"), which means to repeat to the word fine and stop, or al coda (lit. "to the coda (sign)"), which means repeat to the coda sign and then jump forward.

fioritura

(pl. fioriture; It., "flowering") In vocal music, embellishments such as rapid scale passages, trills, and turns, whether improvised or written out, that serve to ornament a line or show off a singer's technique and agility.

guitar fingerpicking notation

*symbols* with meanings in Spanish/Latin/English: *p* (pulgar/pollex/thumb), *i* (índice/index/index), *m* (medio/media/middle) *a* (anular/anularis/ring), *c/x/e/q* (meñique/minimus/little)

C Major/a minor key signature

0 flats/sharps

perfect unison (P1)

0 half step difference

quarter rest

1 beat of silence

quarter note

1 beat of sound

sixty-fourth rest

1/16 beat of silence

sixty-fourth note

1/16 beat of sound

minor seventh (m7)

10 half step difference

major seventh (M7)

11 half step difference

perfect octave (P8)

12 half step difference

quadruple whole rest

16 beats of silence

quadruple whole note

16 beats of sound

piano fingering notation

1=thumb, 2=index, 3=middle, 4=ring, 5=little

half rest

2 beats of silence

half note

2 beats of sound

Bb Major/g minor key signature

2 flats: Bb, Eb

major second (M2)

2 half step difference

D Major/b minor key signature

2 sharps (F#, C#)

cut time (alla breve)

2/2 time signature

supertonic

2nd scale degree of a heptatonic (7-note) scale.

Eb Major/c minor key signature

3 flats: Bb, Eb, Ab

minor third (m3)

3 half step difference

A Major/f# minor key signature

3 sharps: F#, C#, G#

octuple whole rest

32 beats of silence

whole note (semibreve)

4 beats of sound

Ab Major/f minor key signature

4 flats: Bb, Eb, Ab, Db

major third (M3)

4 half step difference

E Major/c# minor key signature

4 sharps: F#, C#, G#, D#

subtonic/leading tone

7th scale degree of a heptatonic (7-note) scale; a raised subtonic, one semitone away from the tonic, is referred to as the leading tone.

double whole rest (breve)

8 beats of silence

double whole note (breve)

8 beats of sound

glissando or portamento

A continuous, unbroken glide from one note to the next that includes the pitches between. Some instruments, such as the trombone, timpani, non-fretted string instruments, electronic instruments, and the human voice can make this glide continuously (portamento), while other instruments such as the piano or mallet instruments blur the discrete pitches between the start and end notes to mimic a continuous slide (glissando).

chord chart

A diagram showing an instrumentalist which strings and frets should be played for a given chord

locked hands style

A form of chord voicing for piano in which the left and right hands of a pianist moving together closely and in parallel, the left hand doubling the same chord played by the right.

crescendo

A gradual increase in volume.

gigue

A lively dance, usually in rapid 6/8 time with a regular, skipping rhythm. It was typically used as the concluding dance in dance suites and partitas of the 17th and 18th centuries.

ad lib

A notation on written music that gives the performer freedom to vary the notes or tempo; in jazz it typically means to improvise freely.

degree

A note of a diatonic scale, identified by a number between one and seven representing its place in the stepwise order of the scale. For example, the second degree in the scale of E-flat major is F, and the third degree in the scale of G minor is B-flat.

claves

A pair of wooden sticks used to play the clave pattern (Latin).

trill

A rapid alternation between the specified note and the next higher note (according to key signature) within its duration, also called a "shake". When followed by a wavy horizontal line, this symbol indicates an extended, or running, trill.

vamp

A repeated chord progression or rhythmic figure leading either into or out of a tune or composition.

volta brackets (1st and 2nd endings)

A repeated passage is to be played with different endings on different playings; it is possible to have more than two endings (1st, 2nd, 3rd ...).

shuffle

A rhythm used in earlier jazz, based on uneven triplets, and deriving from a dance step in which the feet move across the floor without being lifted.

back beat

A rhythmic device in which the second and fourth beat of a measure is heavily emphasized in 4/4 time.

forte-piano (fp)

A section of music in which the music should initially be played loudly (forte), then immediately softly (piano).

tag

A short coda (conclusion to a piece of music that functions like a summing-up, or an afterthought) in jazz.

ballad

A slow song, usually of a romantic nature; sometimes used for any song of the AABA or similar popular song form.

Te Deum

A song of praise to God sung at the conclusion of Matins on Sundays and feast days, and as a hymn of thanksgiving at the consecration of a bishop or after a military victory. The Latin text, which dates from the early Middle Ages, borrows phraseology from the Mass and the Psalms. The text was originally sung as an unchanged plainchant melody during the Middles Ages and was adjusted to a polyphonic setting during the 16th century and onward.

breath mark

A symbol that directs the performer to take a breath (make a slight pause)

partita

By the mid-18th century a partita tended to be an orchestral suite with a modest number of movements (usually no more than four or five) or a suite for wind instruments. By the 19th century the term had become anachronistic, though several 20th century composers used in in favor of weightier designations such as "symphony" for multimovement works.

mass

Christian liturgical ceremony consisting of prayers, acclamations, readings from scripture, and a Eucharistic meal in which the body and blood of Christ (in the form of bread and wine) are consumed, recalling the last supper and Christ's sacrificial death on the cross. The singing or chanting of psalms at Mass probably occurred from the earliest days of the Church. The text of the Mass as it was fixed by the Roman Catholic Church in the first millennium is in Greek and Latin. The five sections that are spoken or intoned at every celebration - Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei - are referred to as the Ordinary. The sections of the text that are specific to a particular day in the church year are referred to as the Proper.

brace

Connects two or more lines of music that are played simultaneously in piano, keyboard, harp, or some pitched percussion music. Depending on the instruments playing, the brace (occasionally called an accolade in some old texts) varies in design and style.

bracket

Connects two or more lines of music that sound simultaneously. In general contemporary usage the bracket usually connects the staves of separate instruments (e.g., flute and clarinet; two trumpets; etc.) or multiple vocal parts in a choir or ensemble, whereas the brace connects multiple parts for a single instrument (e.g., the right-hand and left-hand staves of a piano or harp part).

furiant

Czech dance in quick triple time in which every second beat is accented, so that the rhythmic emphasis cuts across the meter.

paraphrase improvisation

Decorating and reworking a melody or parts of a melody in different forms.

simile marks

Denote that preceding groups of beats or measures are to be repeated. In the examples here, the first usually means to repeat the previous measure, and the second usually means to repeat the previous two measures.

(Lat., "Day of Wrath") sequence used in the Latin Requiem, or Mass for the Dead. The text, attributed to Thomas of Celano (d. ca. 1250), vividly describes the horrors of the Last Judgment. The medieval plainchant melody associated with the text has been quoted numerous times in concert works to evoke death or the supernatural.

Dies Irae

brushes

Drum sticks with wire brushes on the end, sued to produce a quieter, scratching sound.

straight eights

Eighth notes played evenly (as compared to swung eights).

repeat signs

Enclose a passage that is to be played more than once. If there is no left repeat sign, the right repeat sign sends the performer back to the start of the piece or the nearest double bar.

tablature

For stringed instruments it is possible to notate tablature in place of ordinary notes. In this case, a TAB sign is often written instead of a clef. The number of lines of the staff is not necessarily five: one line is used for each string of the instrument (so, for standard 6-stringed guitars, six lines would be used). Numbers on the lines show which fret to play the string on. This TAB sign, like the percussion clef, is not a clef in the true sense, but rather a symbol employed instead of a clef. Similarly, the horizontal lines do not constitute a staff in the usual sense, because the spaces between the lines in a tablature are never used.

harp

Framed string instrument of ancient lineage. Through the physical characteristics and mechanisms of harps have changed through the years, the essential elements in nearly all European harps have been a neck, forepillar, and resonator - generally joined in a triangular arrangement - and strings of graduated length strung between the neck and the resonator. Its mechanism consists of two sets of rotating, pedal-activating discs placed along the neck on the left-hand side of the instrument, which by shortening the sounding length of the strings can sharpen their pitch by either a half step or whole step, allowing the harp to sound all the notes the chromatic scale .There are 47 strings - seven per octave - tuned to the diatonic C-flat major scale: C-flat, D-flat, E-flat, F-flat, G-flat, A-flat, B-flat. Each of the harp's seven pedals controls the discs for all the strings tuned to its note, and can be set in one of three positions. With a pedal in its uppermost position, the strings for that particular note are "open" and vibrate freely; depressing the pedal to its middle position raises the pitch by a semitone, and depressing it to its lowest position raises it by another semitone. Thus, with the D pedal in its uppermost position, each of the harp's D strings will sound a D-flat. With the pedal set to the middle position, each will sound a D-natural, and in lowest position, a D sharp.

major (major scale)

Gr., "greater" or "larger." When used to identify a key or a scale, it refers to the fact that the third degree of that key or scale is a major third (i.e., four semitones) above the fundamental or tonic note. The interval sequence of a major scale (Ionian scale) is W-W-H-W-W-W-H.

minor (natural minor scale)

Gr., "lesser" or "smaller." When used to identify a key or a scale, it means that the third degree of that key or scale is a minor third (i.e., three semitones) above the fundamental or tonic note. In most cases, the sixth and seventh degrees of a minor scale are also "flatted" (i.e., a semitone lower than in a major scale. The intervalic sequence of the natural minor scale (Aeolian scale) is W-H-W-W-H-W-W.

Locrian scale

H-W-W-H-W-W-W. Tonic relative to major scale is VII.

Phrygian scale

H-W-W-W-H-W-W. Tonic relative to major scale is III.

castanets

Handheld percussion instruments of Spanish origin, usually made of wood from the chestnut tree (Sp., castana). Normally they come in pairs, one slightly higher-sounding than the other; each member of a pair consists of two shallow wooden cups loosely joined by a cord that passages through holes drilled in their rims and is looped around the thumb. Castanets are commonly used orchestral percussion instrument, particularly in pieces intended to evoke a Spanish atmosphere - examples include Bizet's Carmen, Chabrier's Espana, Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole, and Debussy's Iberia.

Gloria

Hymn of praise used as the second part of the Ordinary of the Latin Mass, following the Kyrie. the text begins with the words of acclamation delivered by the heavenly host in the account of the Nativity that appears in the Gospel of Luke (2:14): "Gloria in excelis Deo, et in terra pax hominbus bonae voluntatis..." ("Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will...")

12 bar blues

I, I, I, I, IV, IV, I, I, V, IV, I, I

concerto grosso

In Baroque music, an instrumental work in which a small group of soloists, called a concertino, is set off against a larger ensemble, called the ripieno or concerto grosso, hence the genre's name. Typically, a concerto grosso consists of three or four movements, sometime more. The division of forces into a larger and smaller group enables composers to exploit the contrast between loud and soft, or "near" and "far," a characteristic exercise in Baroque music.

continuo

In Baroque music, the custom of assigning the bass line to one or more low-pitched instruments (e.g., cello, viola da gamba, or bassoon) while keyboard instrument (e.g., harpsichord or organ) plays a version of the bass line that is "figured" - i.e., with numbers placed below the notes, so that the play can determine which harmonies are to be played above it, and how they are to be voiced.

hymn

In Greek and Roman times, any song in honor of a god or a hero; in the Middle Ages, a strophic song of religious praise. The Christian hymn originated In the 4th century. Latin hymn texts without melodies began to be collected in manuscripts in the 7th century. The first monophonic hymn melodies are found in manuscripts of the 10th century, the oldest known being the Corpus Christi hymn (ca. 900). In the 15th century, hymn cycles (alternating monophonic verses with three- or four-voice polyphonic verses) became popular (first important cycle was Du Fay's). The alternation of chant and polyphony continued throughout the Renaissance, and composers such as Lassus, Victoria, Palestrina, Byrd, and Tallis contributed to the repertoire. With the Reformation, hymns in the vernacular were introduced and were quickly accepted as a standard aspect of Lutheran worship, eventually becoming integrated into the sacred works of Bach and other German composers.

cyclical form

In multimovement works, a thematic procedure in which a motive or melodic idea from the opening movement serves as the basis for the thematic material of subsequent movements, or is reintroduced verbatim in a later movement, either for dramatic effect or to lend coherence to the overall formal plan.

staccatissimo (spiccato)

Indicates a longer silence after the note compared to staccato, making the note very short. Usually applied to quarter notes or shorter.

coda

Indicates a skip forward in the music to its ending passage, marked with the same sign. Only used after playing through a D.S. (dal segno) al coda or D.C. (Da capo) al coda.

tie

Indicates that the two (or more) notes joined together are to be played as one note with the time values added together. To be a tie, the notes must be identical - that is, they must be on the same line or the same space. Otherwise, it is a slur (see below).

slur

Indicates to play two or more notes in one physical stroke, one uninterrupted breath, or (on instruments with neither breath nor bow) connected into a phrase as if played in a single breath. In certain contexts, a slur may only indicate to play the notes legato. In this case, rearticulation is permitted.

fall

Jazz term describing a note of definite pitch sliding downwards to another note of definite pitch.

down bow (giù arco)

Like sull'arco, except the bow is drawn downward. On a plucked string instrument played with a plectrum or pick (such as a guitar played pickstyle or a mandolin), the note is played with a downstroke.

sforzando (sfz)

Literally "forced", denotes an abrupt, fierce accent on a single sound or chord.

vivace

Literally (in Italian) "lively," it generally indicates a faster tempo than allegro; also used as a modifier, as in Allegro vivace.

variable pedal mark

More accurately indicates the precise use of the sustain pedal. The extended lower line tells the player to keep the sustain pedal depressed for all notes below which it appears. The ∧ shape indicates the pedal is to be momentarily released, then depressed again.

march

Music with a fixed, strong, repetitive rhythmic profile, usually 2/2 or 4/4 time, used to accompany formalized military processions. Among the best-known true military marches are the Marseillasie, written by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle (1760-1836) in 1792, and the masterly creations of John Philip Sousa, many of them composed during the 12 years (1880-92) he served as conductor of the United States Marine Band in Washington, D.C. Famous examples of marches in classical music include Berlioz's arrangement of the Rakoczi March (in La damnation de Faust), the "Wedding Martch" from Mendelssohn's incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, "Entrance of the Guests" from Wagner's Tannhauser, the triumphal scene (Act II, sc. ii) of Verdi's Aida, the first movement of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony, and Piano Concerto No. 21 in C, of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto.

extended harmony

Notes added to a chord beyond the octave, for example, 9th, 11th, and 13th chords.

up bow (sull'arco)

On a bowed string instrument, the note is played while drawing the bow upward. On a plucked string instrument played with a plectrum or pick (such as a guitar played pickstyle or a mandolin), the note is played with an upstroke.

Kyrie

Opening section of the Latin Mass. The text, actually in Greek, is quite short, consisting of three two-word utterances, each of which is repeated three times: "Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie elesion" ("Lord have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord have mercy"). One of the most beautiful is in Bach's Mass in B minor.

marimba

Percussion instrument of the xylophone family, consisting of wooden bars of graduated length set on a frame with metal resonators underneath. It is played with yarn-wrapped mallets (one or two in each hand) and has a range of four to five octaves. Its sound is mellow, not as bright as that of a xylophone, and, thanks to the resonators, richly expressive. Developed around 1910, the marimba is a high-tech adaptation of an instrument that has been used for centuries in Latin America, which in turn traces its lineage back to Africa.

accent

Play the note louder, or with a harder attack than surrounding unaccented notes. May appear on notes of any duration.

behind the beat

Playing slightly behind the beat as articulated by the rhythm section or implied by the ensemble.

double sharp accidental

Raises the pitch of a note by two chromatic semitones. Usually used when the note to modify is already sharpened by the key signature.

upper mordent

Rapidly play the principal note, the next higher note (according to key signature) then return to the principal note for the remaining duration.

lower mordent

Rapidly play the principal note, the note below it, then return to the principal note for the remaining duration.

beat

The basic unit of time in a musical composition, felt as a regular rhythmic pulse.

treble clef (G clef) - C4 (middle C)

The center of the spiral assigns the second line from the bottom to the pitch G above middle C. The treble clef is the most commonly encountered clef in modern notation, and is used for most modern vocal music. Middle C is the first ledger line below the staff here

interval

The distance between two notes of different pitches, expressed in terms of the number of diatonic steps they compass.

appoggiatura

The first half of the principal note's duration has the pitch of the grace note (the first two-thirds if the principal note is a dotted note).

semitone

The interval of a half step, also commonly referred to as a minor second. It is the smallest interval of the standard Western tuning system, in which 12 exactly equal semitones make up an octave. Semitones are found in all chromatic and diatonic scales.

consequent

The last, typically four, measures of a period, containing two measures a restatement or varied version of the basic idea, followed by a restated, varied , or completely new contrasting idea. Harmonically, the consequent may begin with a chord progression not beginning in the tonic, but always ends the period as a whole with a PAC.

polytonality

The simultaneous use of two or more tonal centers in a polyphonic texture. Ives was the first to explore polytonal effects in any methodical way, e.g., in his setting of Psalm 67 for eight-part chorus (ca. 1898-99).

musical staff

The staff is the fundamental latticework of music notation, on which symbols are placed. The five staff lines and four intervening spaces correspond to pitches of the diatonic scale; which pitch is meant by a given line or space is defined by the clef. In British usage, the word "stave" is often used.

tonality

The system of major and minor keys in use in Western music since the 17th century

ledger lines

These extend the staff to pitches that fall above or below it. Such ledger lines are placed behind the note heads, and extend a small distance to each side. Multiple ledger lines can be used when necessary to notate pitches even farther above or below the staff.

bold double bar line

These indicate the conclusion of a movement or an entire composition.

double bar line

These separate two sections of music or are placed before a change in key signature.

recapitulation

Third section of a movement in sonata form, in which material from the exposition reappears and the home key of the movement is confirmed.

alto clef (C clef) - C4 (middle C)

This clef points to the center line of the staff as representing middle C. It is used in modern notation for the viola. The alto clef symbol is also seen pointing towards the fourth line of the staff as middle C, changing it's name to "tenor clef." Until the classical era, the C clef was also frequently seen pointing to other lines, mostly in vocal music, but today this has been supplanted by the universal use of the treble and bass clefs.

staccato

This indicates the musician should play the note shorter than notated, usually half the value; the rest of the metric value is then silent. Staccato marks may appear on notes of any value, shortening their performed duration without speeding the music itself.

octave clef

Treble and bass clefs can also be modified by octave numbers. An eight or fifteen above a clef raises the intended pitch range by one or two octaves respectively. Similarly, an eight or fifteen below a clef lowers the pitch range by one or two octaves respectively. A treble clef with an eight below is the most commonly used, typically used for guitar and similar instruments, as well as for tenor parts in choral music.

neutral clef

Used for pitchless instruments, such as some of those used for percussion. Each line can represent a specific percussion instrument within a set, such as in a drum set. Two different styles of neutral clefs are pictured here. It may also be drawn with a separate single-line staff for each untuned percussion instrument.

cornet

Valved brass instrument invented in France around 1825, more closely related to the posthorn than the trumpet, which it resembles. The cornet has the same range as the B-flat trumpet its bore is two-thirds conical and one-third cylindrical, which imparts a mellowness of tone to the instrument that sets it apart from the more powerful-sounding trumpet. Because of its ease of speaking, it is the most agile of all the brass instruments, ideally suited to florid, decorative figuration.

Aeolian scale

W-H-W-W-H-W-W. Tonic relative to major scale is VI.

Dorian scale

W-H-W-W-W-H-W. Tonic relative to major scale is II.

Mixolydian scale

W-W-H-W-W-H-W. Tonic relative to major scale is V.

turn

When placed directly above the note, the turn (also known as a gruppetto) indicates a sequence of upper auxiliary note, principal note, lower auxiliary note, and a return to the principal note. When placed to the right of the note, the principal note is played first, followed by the above pattern. Placing a vertical line through the turn symbol or inverting it, it indicates an inverted turn, in which the order of the auxiliary notes is reversed.

K. (Kochel)

[1] Abbreviation of the name Ludvig Ritter von Kochel, Austrian author (among other titles) of the standard catalog of Mozart's compositions. [2] Abbreviation of the name Ralph Kirkpatrick, a harpsichordist, used in association with the music of Domenico Scarlatti.

ensemble

[1] Generic term for any group of musicians that perform together. [2] The accuracy and unanimity of execution attained in the performance of a piece, or of a particular passage within a piece, by any group of two or more musicians.

bridge

[1] On string instruments, a thin piece of wood attached to the belly, or front side, of an instrument; its purpose is to raise the strings above the fingerboard so they are free to vibrate, and transmit the vibrations to the body of the instrument so the whole instrument can resonate, thereby amplifying the sound. The bridge on a lute or guitar is low and fairly flat; bridges on violins and other bowed string instruments are high and arched. Bowing close to the bridge produces a thin, edgy sound; the instruction for this is the Italian term: sul ponticello (literally "on the little bridge"). [2] In composition or improvisation, a passage linking one section of a piece to another.

transcription

[1] The copying of a piece of music from one form of notation to another. [2] The arrangement of a piece of music for a medium or forces different from those for which its composer intended it (e.g., Franz Liszt's transcriptions of the Beethoven symphonies for piano, or Leopold Stokowski's transcriptions of Bach organ pieces for orchestra).

tonic

[1] The first degree of a heptatonic (7-note, major/minor) scale and, by extension, the chord whose root is that note. [2] The central or "home" key of a given piece, or of a section of a piece.

dynamic

[1] The loudness or softness of a given note, passage, or part within a musical texture. [2] a marking used to indicate the appropriate dynamic (e.g., ppp, mf, or, ff), or the treatment of a musical gesture (e.g., cresc., poco a poco dim., sfz, or subito f).

bass

[1] The lowest part in a multi-voice texture. [2] The lowest male vocal range [3] The lower half of the entire tonal range [4] The common name for the double bass viol, also known as "string bass" and "bass fiddle," the lowest member of the string family in common use.

diminution

[1] a form of embellishment in which a long note is divided into a series of shorter, usually melodic, values (also called "coloration"); [2] the compositional device where a melody, theme or motif is presented in shorter note-values than were previously used; [3] the term for the proportional shortening of the value of individual note-shapes in mensural notation, either by coloration or by a sign of proportion; [4] a minor or perfect interval that is narrowed by a chromatic semitone is a diminished interval, and the process may be referred to as diminution (this, too, was sometimes referred to as "coloration").

pedal

[1] a lever or a set of actuators operated by the foot on instruments such as the piano, organ, and harp. [2] A note or figure in the bass that is sustained under changing harmonies in the upper parts of a musical composition; a notable example is the pedal C sustained through eight measures in slow tempo at the beginning of Brahms's Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op. 68.

madrigal

[1] a literary-musical vocal form originating in northern Italy in the early 14th century, part of the "dolce stil nuovo" ("sweet new style") as characterized by Dante. The poetic form, at first on arcadian courtly subjects and later on autobiographical or moralizing texts, consisted generally of two- or three-line strophes, followed by a ritornello, and was set for one of two very active upper voices over a slower-moving lower voice. One of the major composers associated with the genre, Francesco Landini (ca. 1325-97), a blind poet, organist, and figure of near-mythic status who was the author of over 150 compositions, left behind the modern legacy known as the "Landini cadence." [2] a polyphonic vocal setting of a piece of secular verse. Also Italian in origin, it became one of the most important musical genres of the 16th century. The musical genres of the 16th century. The madrigal's emergence coincided with the poet Pietro Bembo's (1470-1547) revival of interest in the poetry (sonnets) of Petrach (1304-74). Typically, madrigal settings called for three to six voice parts. Three- and four-voice settings predominated up to about 1550; after that, five- and six-voice settings became the norm.

augmentation

[1] a procedure generally encountered in fugal writing in which a given motif or subject is set in lengthened note values. [2] The expansion of a perfect interval (fourth, fifth, or octave) or a major one (second, third, sixth, or seventh) by a half step. A major sixth expanded in this way is called an augmented sixth, and a chord based on that interval is called an augmented sixth chord

interlude/intermezzo

[1] a relatively short instrumental number (sometimes referred to as an entr'acte) played between scenes or acts of a theatrical work such as a ballet or an opera. Examples of this of interlude can be found in numerous works, including Wagner's Parsifal. [2] In instrumental works, a connecting episode placed between movements or sections of a larger piece. Examples of this type of interlude appear in Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements (a seven-bar passage between the second and third movements).

musette

[1] a small bagpipe popular in France in the 17th century and early 18th centuries. [2] In 18th-century music, a dancelike piece or passage that mimics the sound of a bagpipe, usually by means of a drone bass. The final movement of Haydn's Symphony No. 104 is an example.

suite

[1] an instrumental composition consisting of several movements in dance form, usually in the same key, often preceded by a prelude or a full-blown overture. During the Baroque era, when the suite was a prominent genre in both orchestra and keyboard music, the dances customarily included an allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue. Among the optional dances that could be encountered, the most common were bourree, gavotte, minuet, and passepied. [2] a freestanding work consisting of excerpts from an opera, ballet, or other large work. [3] A multimovement orchestral piece.

overture

[1] an orchestral movement that serves to introduce a staged musical work such as an opera or ballet or an oratorio. [2] a freestanding orchestral work in a single movement, often with a title suggesting some literary or pictorial association, or alluding to a specific occasion. [3] in Baroque music, a suite for orchestra, so designated because such suites typically began with a movement in the style of a French overture.

arioso

[1] in vocal music, a recitative passage characterized by a flowing or melismatic manner of declamation, thus resembling an aria [2] a passage in an instrumental piece patterned after this kind of singing.

development

[1] the extension, elaboration, or transformation of a musical idea by means of repetition, subtle variation, or a refractory process of breaking it into constituent parts. [2] the second section in what is commonly called sonata form (exposition - development - recapitulation)

walking bass

a bass line that moves at a moderate pace, mostly in equal note values, and often stepwise up or down the scale

triad

a chord consisting of three notes: the "root," the third above, and the fifth above, in any arrangement or inversion.

cadence

a chord sequence or melodic formula that ends a musical passage, section, or a whole piece

augmented sixth chord

a chord that contains the interval of an augmented sixth, usually above its bass tone. This chord has its origins in the Renaissance, was further developed in the Baroque, and became a distinctive part of the musical style of the Classical and Romantic periods. Conventionally used with a predominant function (resolving to the dominant), the three more common types of augmented sixth chords are usually called the Italian sixth, the French sixth, and the German sixth.

quintet

a composition for an ensemble of five instruments or singers.

quartet

a composition for an ensemble of four instruments or singers.

septet

a composition for an ensemble of seven instruments or singers.

sextet

a composition for an ensemble of six instruments or singers

trio

a composition for an ensemble of three instruments or singers.

antiphony

a compositional technique utilizing separate groups of musicians who sing or play in alternation and are often placed in different parts of the performance area; popular in 16th century Italy in performance areas with superb acoustics

fugue

a contrapuntal procedure in which a subject in one voice is answered, successively and in fairly strict imitation, in at least two additional voices, usually at the interval of a fourth or fifth; also, the title of a piece, or of a section of a piece, in which such a procedure is employed. The successive entries in a fugue transpose the subject (rather than echoing it at the same pitch, as in a round), creating a harmonically "open" framework that lends itself to extension and development. Within this framework, there is room for a considerable amount of free counterpoint, and opportunity for the harmonizing to lead in any number of directions.

imitation

a contrapuntal procedure involving the repetition of a melodic figure in a different voice from the one in which it is first head; in most cases the repetition overlaps the initial statement Imitation is "strict" if it involves a more or less exact repetition of the figure (canon and fugue are examples); it is "free" if the repetition departs from the figure in any substantial way. The art of imitation was raised to exalted heights in the Renaissance, particularly by Josquin, whose motet Ave Maria offers a clear example.

recitative

a declamatory style of singing (or playing an instrument in a similar manner), often conversational in its pacing and inflection, found in opera and other musico-dramatic forms, or a passage that calls for this style of singing.

continuous

a descriptor (continuous) to a binary or ternary form that is harmonically incomplete, ending either with a half cadence or modulating to another key (usually V in major keys and III in minor keys).

sectional

a descriptor (sectional) to a binary or ternary form that is harmonically complete and ends on the original tonic.

suspension

a dissonance created when a melodic note that belongs to one harmony is sustained while the harmony below it shifts; the note is thus "suspended" above a harmony to which it does not belong. Typically, a suspension resolves downward, by stepwise motion.

tone cluster

a dissonant sounding of several pitches, each only a half step away from the other, in a densely packed chord

snare drum

a drum with heads of parchment about 14 or 15 inches in diameter, and a case, usually of metal, about six inches deep. The drumsticks are of hard wood, usually hickory, with oval -shaped tips. The "snares" are wires (formerly gut strings) that can be brought into contact with the bottom head of the drum; they vibrate against it when the top head is struck, causing the characteristic rustling sound. The drum can also be played with snares disengaged, in which case it sounds like a fairly high-pitched tom-tom.

fanfare

a festive call to attention, usually played by one or more brass instruments (though wind and sting instruments may participate as well), often accompanied by percussion, Most fanfares triadic figure, dotted rhythms, and repeated flourishes of one kind or another.

symphonic poem

a freestanding orchestral work, usually in a single movement based on a literary or descriptive program

diminuendo (descrescendo)

a gradual decrease in volume

cascading motion

a group of descending phrases in which each phrase begins on a higher pitch than the last ended.

consort

a group of instruments

song cycle

a group of songs that are thematically related, that tell a story, or that otherwise form a single musical and poetic entity, as opposed to a collection of individual songs.

canticle

a hymnlike passage in scripture that is not one of the Psalms.

scat singing

a jazz style that sets syllables without meaning (vocables) to an improvised vocal line that imitates an instrument.

drum

a large and morphologically varied family of percussion instruments featuring a membrane made of animal skin or some other pliable material (the "head"), which is stretched across casing and vibrates when struck.

orchestra

a large instrumental ensemble consisting of bowed strings with more than one player to a part, plus various wind, brass, and percussion instruments.

fandango

a lively Spanish dance in triple meter.

Neapolitan chord (N/♭II)

a major chord built on the lowered (flatted) second (supertonic) scale degree.

Blues Scale

a major scale in which the 3rd, the 7th, and sometimes the 5th degrees are lowered.

bass clarinet

a member of the clarinet family pitched an octave below the standard B-flat clarinet, with a lower compass generally extending to low C-sharp, a half step above the open C on the cello. It has a remarkably rich and resonant tone in its low octave, and is capable of great agility throughout its four-octave range.

12-tone

a method of composition in which ordered arrangements of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale serve as the principal melodic and harmonic building blocks of a piece. Schoenberg is credited with devising the system and launching it with his Five Piano Pieces, Op. 23 (1923).

blue note

a minor interval where a major would be expected, used especially in jazz.

sonata form

a musical form consisting of three sections - exposition (a departure from the tonic to a closely related key, usually the dominant), development (excursion through other keys, some of which may be remote from the movement's home key), and recapitulation (the tonic is reestablished, usually by means of a reprise of the opening material), throughout which two themes or subjects are explored according to set key relationships. Common to the Classical era and present, sonata form the basis for many genres in Western music, including the sonata, symphony, concerto, overture, quartet, and trio.

binary form

a musical form consisting of two units (A and B) constructed to balance and complement each other. Four subcategories of binary form are simple, rounded, balanced, and barform. Binary form was popular during the Baroque period, often used to structure movements of keyboard sonatas. It was also used for short, one-movement works. Around the middle of the 18th century, the form largely fell from use as the principal design of entire movements as sonata form and organic development gained prominence.

ternary form

a musical form in which there are three sections, the last of which (A) is identical (or nearly identical to the first, resulting in an overall ABA or ABA' form. Repetition in ternary form (AABBAA or AABBA'A') is less predictable than others, as the form with/without repeats are equally common. Remember that binary forms have two large sections (we hear that B merges with the following A), while ternary forms have three large sections (we hear B as relatively independent from the following A).

period

a musical theme common to the Classical style that is generally eight measures long, containing two four-measure phrases, called the antecedent and the consequent.

sentence

a musical theme that is usually eight measures long, made up of two four-measure phrases: the first is called the presentation phrase and the second is called the continuation phrase. Harmonically, the sentence starts in the tonic and progresses to an authentic cadence (IAC, PAC).

harmonic minor scale

a natural minor scale with a raised 7th scale degree. Its intervalic sequence is W-H-W-W-H-W+H-H.

melodic minor scale

a natural minor scale with raised 6th and 7th scale degrees ascending and lowered 6th and 7th scale degrees descending. The interval sequence of the ascending melodic minor is W-H-W-W-W-W-H and interval sequence of the descending melodic minor is W-H-W-W-H-W-W.

escape tone (ET)

a particular type of unaccented incomplete neighbor tone that is approached stepwise from a chord tone and resolved by a skip in the opposite direction back to the harmony.

melodrama

a passage in spoken dialogue accompanied by music. An example of this is the dungeon scene in Beethoven's Fidelio.

compound period

a period that is generally sixteen measures long (double the size of a normal period) , containing two eight-measure themes, called the antecedent sentence and the consequent sentence.

cantata

a piece for vocal soloist (with or without chorus) and orchestra, based on a sacred or secular text, usually consisting of several movements; sometimes a piece for a single solo voice with the accompaniment of an instrumental ensemble.

nocturne

a quiet, meditative piece, usually for piano, built on a simple harmonic structure geared to the elaboration of a melodic line by ornament, generally over an arpeggiated bass. Most nocturnes are in three-part (ABA) form. The first pieces using the name appeared in the 18th century, but it was the appropriation of the term by the early-19th century Irish composer John Field, and subsequently by Chopin, that established the nocturne as a genre. Among the composers who later made contributions to the literature were Liszt, Faure, Tchaikovsky, Greig, and Scriabin.

octatonic scale

a scale that alternates whole and half steps, resulting in 8 notes. Used in jazz and modern classical music.

pentatonic scale/pitch collection

a scale with five tones to the octave, common to many types of folk music. Contains no sharply dissonant intervals. The base scale degrees of minor pentatonic scale are I-III-IV-V-VII, omitting II and VI. The base scale degree of a major pentatonic scale are I-II-III-V-VI, omitting IV and VII.

fugato

a section of a piece that is written in the manner of a fugue, but less fully developed, such as the passage led by cellos and basses that begins the trio section to the scherzo of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

compound sentence

a sentence that expands both the presentation and continuation phrases into eight measures instead of the typical four, resulting in a sixteen-measure long sentence. Melodically, the eight-measure presentation phrase repeats the combined basic and contrasting ideas, while the eight-measure continuation phrase applies compositional techniques (see continuation phrase) to expand/modify the basic idea or introduce a new idea entirely. Harmonically, the eight-measure presentation phrase prolongs the tonic, while the eight-measure continuation phrase ends the sentence as a whole with an authentic cadence (IAC, PAC).

phrase

a sequence of notes articulated as a single, coherent, usually melodic gesture; a unit of musical syntax corresponding to a sentence in a prose work or to a line of verse. Phrasing - the art of shaping individual phrases so as to give them coherence and meaning within the larger musical context of a particular passage or movement - is an integral aspect of the performer's interpretation of a piece.

progression

a series of chords related to one another within the context of a single key.

dissonance

a simultaneous sounding of two or more notes that the ear judges to be unstable or discordant, according to the harmonic context of the surrounding sounds

air

a solo vocal number in French opera from about 1600 to 1650, an Englush solo song to lute accompaniment, usually spelled "ayre." Later, in the 17th and 18th centuries, "air" came to mean a solo vocal or instrumental piece with a light, simple character

aria

a solo vocal piece in an opera, oratorio, or cantata. Often preceded by an introductory recitative in semi-conversational style, the aria is the major set-piece of many large-scale vocal works, providing the greatest opportunity for the display of the composer's melodic gifts and the singer's vocal and interpretive powers.

call and response

a succession of two distinct phrases usually written in different parts of the music, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or in response to the first.

compound time signatures

a time signature where the pulse can be divided into three inner beats (ex: 6/8, 9/8, 12/8)

simple time signatures

a time signature where the pulse can be divided into two inner beats (ex: 2/4, 2/2, 3/8, 3/4, 3/2, 4/4, 4/2)

mode

a type of musical scale coupled with a set of characteristic, melodic behaviors. In the past four centuries Western tonal music, the most common modes by far have been the major and minor. In earlier music - from chant to Renaissance polyphony - other ancient Greek-inspired scale arrangements, with their own affective quality and character, were regularly used, including Ionian, Dorian, Phryigian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian.

counterpoint

a type of polyphony in which two or more independent and essentially melodic lines (often called "voices") proceed simultaneously, creating harmonious, rhythmically complex textures through their interaction. Modern tonal counterpoint emerged from the elaborate vocal polyphony of the 16th century, epitomized in the works of Josquin, Palestrina, and Lassus. As an element of instrumental composition, it was brought to a high state of development in the later Baroque, achieving a notable richness, rigor, and complexity in the music of J.S. Bach.

measure

a unit of musical duration consisting of the number of beats specified in the time signature, set off in conventional notation by bar lines before and after.

bow

a wooden stick (usually of pernambuco) with an attached ribbon of horsehair, used to play many types of string instruments; the hair of the bow (for an average violin bow, about 150-200 strands, which must come from the tail of a white horse) is drawn across the strings, causing them to vibrate. Early bows had a convex curvature, which made them look literally like the bows from which arrows are shot. The modern violin bow, developed by Francois Tourte around 1785, has a reverse curvature, allowing more pressure to be applied, from which a more powerful tone can be produced.

absolute pitch

also known as "perfect pitch." The ability to identify accurately - that is, by ear without reference to an external source - the pitch of a given note or to produce a specific pitch by whistling or singing it.

basset-horn

an alto member of the clarinet family, usually pitched in F (sometimes in G) with a compass extending about a fifth below that of the standard clarinet.

gavotte

an elegant dance in moderately paced duple time, in which melodic phrases begin on the third beat of a measure and carry a strong accent on the down beat of the following measure; in the dance, the characteristic step - called a contretemps de gavotte - involves a plie on the upbeat followed by a kick on the downbeat. The gavotte is frequently encountered as one of the optional dances in Baroque suites.

oratorio

an extended musical setting of a text usually based on scripture (but occasionally drawn from classical literature), intended for concert performance. The form gets its name from the Congregazione dell'Oratorio, a religious order founded in Rome in 1575 by Filippo Neri, devoted to prayer and spiritual exercises that included singing in an oratory, or a prayer hall.

atonal(ity)

an extreme form of chromaticism that prevents the ear from recognizing or inferring a tonal center.

turn

an ornament applied to a specific note, consisting of a fairly quick alternation between it and the notes a step above it and below it. In the most common type of turn, the main note is sounded, followed by the note a step above, followed by the main note again, followed by the note a step below, and ending on the main note.

trill

an ornament applied to a specific note, consisting of a moderate to very rapid alternation between that note and another note either a half step or a whole step above it.

open string

any string that is allowed to vibrate freely from bridge to nut, without being stopped at some point on its length by being pressed against the fingerboard or a fret. The open strings on the violin are tuned to the following pitches: G, D, A, E; those on the viola: C, G, D, A; the cello: C, G, D, A; the string bass: E, A, D, G. The guitar's open strings sound the pitches E, A, D, G, B, and E.

double bass

bass member of the viol family. The largest and lowest-pitched string instrument in standard use, it is known by many names, including "string bass," "contrabass", "bass fiddle," and plain old "bass." The four strings of the double bass are tuned in a manner that is also typical of viols, in fourths: E - A - D - G. In order to produce notes lower than the low E, many basses are fitted with what is called a C-extension on the E string, which sticks up above the pegbox; five string basses with a low B or C string are also frequently encountered, and are preferred in European orchestras. The useful range of the double bass, from low B or C to the D an octave and a fifth above the open G, is about an octave lower than that of the cello.

cello

bass member of the violin family. The instrument's proper name is violoncello, which means "little bass violin." The modern cello emerged at the beginning of the 18th century, having evolved from a larger form of bass violin used throughout the 17th century. In construction, materials, and overall appearance the cello bears the expected family resemblance to the violin: spruce is used for the belly (or front) of the instrument, maple for the back and sides. The fingerboard, like those of the violin and viola, is unfretted and usually made of ebony. To produce a greater bass resonance, the cello is proportionally "deeper" than the violin and viola. The instrument is held between the legs of the player, its weight supported by an extendable metal peg, called an end pin, that protrudes from a mounting on the tail piece. In addition to facilitating left-hand work high on the fingerboard, the end pin makes a firm, single-point contact with the stage floor, thus reducing the amount of sound energy lost to vibration. The standard cello bow is 28 ¼ inches long, a little shorter than violin and viola bows. There are four strings tuned in fifths: C - G - D - A. The low C is pitched tow octaves below middle C on the piano. The sound quality of the cello ranges from intense, warm, and penetrating, particularly in passages played on the A string, to rich and darkly resonant on the lower two strings. Its pizzicato is particularly sonorous, plump in the lower register, vibrant in the upper reaches.

allargando

becoming broader, therefore slower

rounded binary form

binary form in which material from the beginning of the first section (A) returns after a digression in the second section (B), resulting in an ABA or ABA' form (AABABA or AABA'BA' if there are repeats). Remember that binary forms have two large sections (we hear that B merges with the following A), while ternary forms have three large sections (we hear B as relatively independent from the following A).

balanced binary form

binary form in which the cadential formula (a couple of measures of music or a phrase) from the first section A returns at the end of the second section (B).

simple binary form

binary form in which the first section (A) does not literally reappear in the second section. If the two sections are relatively different, the form may be represented as AB (AABB if there are repeats). If the two sections are very similar, the form may be represented as AA' (AAA'A' if there are repeats).

barform binary form

binary form in which the first section (A) is repeated, but the contrasting second section (B) is not repeated, resulting in AAB.

tuba

brass instrument with a pronounced conical bore favoring the production of its lowest notes, a widely flared bell, and a deep, cup-shaped mouthpiece. Of the many sizes of the tuba that have been produced, two are in standard orchestral use: the nine-foot tenor tuba in F (called a euphonium when used in a band), with practical range from low F sharp to the C above middle C, and the 14-foot bass tuba in C, with a range from low D to F above middle C. For certain orchestral applications, such as the music of Wagner, a contrabass tuba in B-flat is often preferred for its added weight of tone. Tubas come with a variety of valve schemes; there are usually four valves, sometimes five or six, occasionally seven. Piston and rotary vales are found about equally, American players tending to prefer the former. The bass tuba weighs 20 to 25 pounds. The tuba is a comparatively recent arrival as an orchestral instrument. Berlioz was the first important composer to call for tubas in his works, finding their sound preferable to that of the ophicleide, a forerunner of the bass tuba that he had used to sensational effect in the Symphonie fantasique.

horn (French horn)

brass instrument with a relatively deep, funnel-shaped mouthpiece, tubing conical bore, and a widely flared bell. Because the length of tubing necessary to make a horn sound like a horn (upward of eight feet), early instruments were curved or corkscrewed for ease of handling. During the 17th century, French instrument makers worked the tubing into a "hoop" (i.e., a circular coil); this became the standard arrangement and probably accounts for the instrument's common name among English-speaking people, the French horn. Because of its origin as an instrument of the hunt, composers have frequently used the horn to evoke nobility or to suggest elemental nature and the spirit world. Until the early part of the 19th century, the horn was a natural instrument, meaning that it lacked valves and thus produced only the natural harmonic series (the overtones) of a given fundamental note. As with all early brass instruments, the player sounded different notes by varying his lip tension to produce the proper overtone from the series. Some notes were inevitably out of tune, so along with making minute adjustments in lip tension, players learned to control the pitch by inserting the right hand into the horn's bell, partially closing the instrument's throat (thus shortening the length of the column of air inside it) and raising the pitch of the note being sounded. In the early 19th century, German makers added valves to the horn.

natural accidental

cancels a previous accidental, or modifies the pitch of a sharp or flat as defined by the prevailing key signature (such as F-sharp in the key of G major, for example).

deceptive cadence

chord sequence ending with chord progression: dominant (V) to a chord other than the tonic, usually one based on the sixth degree of the scale, known as the submediant (VI/vi) (e.g., in C major, a chord of G major is followed not by the expected C major, but by A minor instead)

imperfect authentic cadence (IAC)

chord sequence ending with chord progression: dominant (V) to tonic (I), but does not have PAC voice-leading (both V and I are in root position and tonic is in the highest voice)

perfect authentic cadence (PAC)

chord sequence ending with chord progression: dominant (V) to tonic (I), with both chords being in root position and having the tonic in the highest voice.

plagal cadence

chord sequence ending with chord progression: subdominant (IV) to tonic (I)

half cadence

chord sequence ending with dominant (V)

piano quintet

composition for piano and string quartet (two violins, viola, and cello).

piano quartet

composition for piano and string trio (violin, viola, and cello).

piano trio

composition for piano, violin, and cello.

viola

contralto member of the violin family. The materials used in its construction are essentially identical to those used for the violin. Where the viola differs considerably from its sister instruments is in the ratio of its size to its tuning; its proportions are not quite optimal. The open strings of the viola, C-G-D-A, are pitched a fifth lower than those of the violin, and an octave above the open strings of the cello. The viola is played like a violin, but it has its own distinctive voice: dusky in the middle range, and plaintive sometimes nasal, in the upper. Many relate to this timbre less readily and less eagerly than to that of the violin or the cello, but it can be highly expressive in the right hands. Good players, even when playing the upper part of the instrument's range, are capable of producing a richness of tone that is truly vocal.

pavane

courtly dance of the 16th and early 17th centuries, always in duple meter and typically at a moderate to slow tempo. The dance originated in Italy (most likely taking its name from the town of Padua), and enjoyed its greatest popularity as an instrumental form in England between about 1580 and 1625, particularly in the hands of Dowland.

waltz

dance in triple time (usually ¾) notable for its combination of grace and energy. As the most popular ballroom dance of the 19th century, both in Europe and America, it was embraced by classical composers from the 1820s until well into the 20th century.

siciliana

dance type frequently encountered in instrumental pieces and arias from the late 17th century to the end of the 18th century, typically associated with an expression of revery or melancholy. Its characteristic dotted rhythm, set in a duple meter with triplet subdivisions (either 6/8 or 12/8), gives it a gently rocking quality that is immediately recognizable. By the beginning of the 18th century the siciliana had become a stock gesture for depicted pastoral scenes in music; Bach and Handel both treated it in that fashion.

mute

device used to soften, or alter, the sound of a string or brass instrument. Typical mutes for string instruments fit over the strings at the bridge, damping their vibration and thus absorbing some of the energy that would otherwise be transmitted to the resonation body of the instrument. The tone is radically altered; the sound acquires an ethereal glaze and seems vaguely disembodied. Mutes for brass instruments vary greatly in appearance and construction, as well as in the effects they produce. The most common is the straight mute, basically a cone-shaped hollow plug of cardboard, wood, or aluminum that is inserted into the bell of the instrument. It is held in front of the bell and produces a muffled, rather dry sound. As with the strings, the main purpose of using mutes on brass instruments is not to make the tone softer, but to produce a different tone color, from disembodied growls and buzzes in soft dynamics to hair-raising snarls in loud ones.

heckelphone

double-reed woodwind instrument with a wide conical bore, large tone holes, and a perforated spherical bell, sounding an octave below the oboe - in effect a baritone oboe. The reed is set into a curved crook, like that of the English horn, and is similarly shaped, though somewhat larger; the key system is based on that of the German oboe. The standard version of the instrument is pitched in C and has a range from the A tenth below middle C to the G a twelfth above. It is most effective in its lower tow octaves, where it produces a reedy and robust sound.

contrabassoon

double-reed woodwind instrument with an air column 18 feet, 4 inches long and a compass an octave below that of a standard bassoon.

beamed notes

eighth notes, and notes of lower rhythmic value, whose flags are connected by beams to signify a rhythmic grouping. For singers, beaming also indicates that one syllable of a lyric is to be sung for multiple notes. In modern music, beaming is at the discretion of the composer or arranger.

lute

family of fretted string instruments in various sizes, having these general characteristics: a rounded, pear-shaped back made up of separate ribs of thin wood; a flat belly with an ornately carved soundhole (called a rose) in the middle and a bridge near the base; a pegbox bent at nearly a right angle toward the back; and strings arranged in pairs (referred to as courses). The lute was the preeminent "gentleman's" (and sometimes "lady's") instrument of the 16th through the early 18th century, suitable to accompany oneself in song or to be played solo.

mezzo-soprano

female voice type midway between soprano and contralto. Operatic roles typically sung by a mezzo-soprano ("mezzo" for short) include Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.

aleatoric music

from Latin, alea "dice," is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer(s).

brass instruments

generic name for several families of instruments made out of brass, primarily trumpets, trombones, tubas, and horns. While the construction of standard brass instruments varies considerably, they all have several things in common: tubing (of conical bore in the case of the horn and tuba, and mostly cylindrical for trumpets and trombones), a metal mouthpiece (shallow and cup-shaped in the case of trumpet, trombone, and tuba; deep and cone-shaped for the horn), flared bells, and on modern instruments (except for the trombone, which doesn't need them), vales allowing the player to sound all of the notes in the chromatic scale.

string instruments

guitar, violin, viola, cello, double bass, harp

focal point

highest note of the melody

anthem

in choral music, a setting of a religious text in English, normally intended for liturgical use.

antiphon

in medieval church music, a liturgical chant with a prose text, sung before or after a Psalm.

ornaments

in vocal and instrumental music, embellishments that are applied by the performer to a particular note - either by convention or at the direction of the composer - to draw attention to that note. If executed in a tasteful manner, they serve to heighten the expressive effect, display virtuosity, vary repetition, or otherwise enhance the listener's experience. Ornaments are often indicated in the score by means of signs and symbols, and they may also be improvised according to custom or whim. Among the more commonly encountered ornaments are the rill, appoggiatura, grace note, turn, mordent. At various times vibrato has also been considered an ornament.

organ

instrument of ancient origin, consisting of a keyboard, wind supply, and pips tuned to different pitches, along with a mechanism linking the keyboard to shunts that direct air from the wind supply to specific pipes, allowing them to sound. Ctesibius of Alexandria, an engineer of the third century B.C., is credited with the invention of the earliest known pipe organ, the hydraulos, in which water pressure was used to regulate the flow of air to the pipes.

percussion

instruments that are played by being shaken, scraped, or struck; in the latter category, the surface that is struck may be a membrane, or a plate or bar of metal, wood, or some other sound-emitting material.

octave

interval between any two notes that are seven diatonic steps (12 semi-tones) apart. Tones an octave apart have a frequency ratio of 2:1 and, for reasons that are note completely understood, sound to our ears like the same pitch, differing only in register. This acoustic phenomenon, known as "octave equivalence," is common to all human cultures.

doit

jazz term for a note that slides to an indefinite pitch chromatically upwards.

bass drum

large, two-headed drum used in orchestras, with a circumferential shell 16 inches wide and a head diameter of 30 inches. It is played using a wooden stick with a large head covered in soft felt, and may be mounted in a suspension mechanism that can be adjusted to put the drum heads in horizontal plane, facilitating rolls. The bass drum produces the most sound energy of any orchestral instrument, and has been in common use since the early part of the 19th century.

prelude

literarlly, "to play before." Often the introductory movement to a suite or to a more involved essay such as a fugue. In the 19th century the term came increasingly to be applied to freestanding keyboard miniatures in a variety of simple forms (mainly two- or three-part), and to that took the place of full-blown opera overtures (e.g., in works such as Verdi's La Traviata and Un ballo in maschera and in Wagner's operas from Lohengrin on).

bourree

lively dance in 2/2 or 4/4 time in which the melodic phrases begin on the upbeat. A favorite dance of Baroque composers, it is frequently encounter as a movement in instrumental and orchestral suites of the 18th century.

forte (f)

loud

flat accidental

lowers the pitch of a note by one semitone

contralto

lowest female voice range

disjunct motion

melodic motion of pitches by leap

chamber music

music meant to be played in intimate surroundings, such as rooms or small auditoriums, rather than in a church, theater or large public space. As a genre chamber music embraces everything from simple pieces for solo instruments to mult-imovement compositions for ensembles of a dozen or more, easily forming the largest and most diverse segment of the repertoire. The chamber inventory includes such standard complements as the instrumental sonata (with or without keyboard accompaniment), the piano trio, and the string and quintet, as well as all the ad hoc combination of instruments and voices that have struck composers' fancies over the years.

absolute music

music that is free of any association with a text or other extramusical idea such as a descriptive or pictorial "program."

program music

music that seeks to portray physical actions, objects, or scenes in a narrative manner, without the use of words. Good examples of program music include Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.

incidental music

music written for ancillary use in the presentation of a play or other dramatic work

articulation (accent) marks

notation that specifies how to perform individual notes within a phrase or passage.

contrapuntal

of or in counterpoint

double stop

on a string instrument, two notes played simultaneously on two strings

fingerboard

on string instruments, a tapered strip of wood (usually ebony) affixed to the neck of the instrument and aligned so as to run beneath the strings from the pegbox toward the bridge, against which the player's fingers stop the strings.

fret

on string instruments, such as guitars, lutes, and viols, a thin strip of wood or ivory placed on the fingerboard that allows a player to stop a string cleanly and play notes in tune.

theremin

one of the first electronic instruments invented around 1920 by Russian inventor Lev Termen. The sound produced in vacuum tubes, is a combination of signals from a fixed frequency radio oscillator and a variable one controlled by the player. This variable oscillator depends upon the capacitance (a measure of ability to transmit electricity) of the player's hands. The principles behind the instrument are the same as those observed by walking toward or away from a radio or television and hearing a change in sound. A wooden cabinet conceals the oscillators and vacuum tubes, and antennae emerge from the cabinet's top and left side. Much of the theremin's novelty and appeal owes to the fact that is is played without being physically touched, and that a theremin, unlike many other instruments, can easily be built at home.

sinfonia

overture in three connected movements (fast-slow-fast) typically used in Italian operas of the early 18th century, characterized by thematic economy and a reliance on fugal or imitative procedures. It was one of the precursors of the modern symphony.

glockenspiel

percussion instrument consisting of up to 30 tuned steel bars mounted in a wooden case, arrayed in two ranks like the white and black keys of a piano. It is played using mallets that have small, spherical heads made of rubber, yarn, wood, or metal. When struck, the bars emit a bright, bell-like tone capable of penetrating even the thickest orchestral texture. The glockenspiel can be used to provide reinforcement for flutes, piccolos, and other high-pitched instruments or by itself for its distinctive color - especially magical when it is played softly.

tambourine

percussion instrument of Middle Eastern origin. The standard tambourine has a single calfskin head about 10 inches in diameter that is stretched over a circular wooden shell. The shell has narrow openings in which pairs of thin brass discs called "jingles" are affixed to the frame by wires. The tambourine can be shaken or struck (with the knuckles, fingers, or base of the hand, or against the knee), and rolls can be produced by sliding a moistened thumb across the head. Precise rhythmic figures can be easily articulated using the fingers or a combination of strokes between hand and knee.

dotted notes and rests

placing a dot after a note or rest to increase the note's value by half. For example, a dotted quarter note is worth 1 ½ beats in 4/4 time.

polonaise

polish dance in ¾ time typically exhibiting a "martial" or processional character, with a fanfare rhythm placing the accent on the second beat. Chopin's polonaises, written for the piano, are the best-known examples in the literature.

homophony

polyphonic music in which the various voices or lines move in more or less the same rhythm, in effect producing a series of chords. The chorales in Bach's cantatas and passions are homophonic settings, as are most standard hymns.

Requiem

properly, a musical setting of the Latin Mass for the Dead; more generally, any musical work with a text intended to commemorate the dead.

whole tone scale/pitch collection

scale with six tones to the octave, each a whole step apart. Because there are no half steps, the scale has no leading tone, no tonic, no point of departure or arrival.

riff

short repeated melodic phrases that function rhythmically and sometimes even to undercut the harmonic structure of a musical piece.

saxophone

single reed wind instrument invented by the Belgian-born instrument builder Adolphe Sax (1814-94) around 1840 and patented in 1846. Modern saxophones come in a variety of sizes, the most common of which are soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone (sopranino, bass, and contrabass models also exist, but are rarely used). The body of the instrument is made of metal, usually brass, and has a conical bore. The mouthpiece and key system resemble those of the clarinet.

clarinet

single-reed woodwind instrument with a cylindrical bore and flared bell, made in a variety of sizes. The name is derived from clarino, the old term referring to the Baroque high trumpet (early clarinets tended to sound like little versions of that instrument, and to be given trumpet-like parts). The body of a standard modern clarinet is in five sections, and is usually made of granadilla, ebony, or African blackwood. A cane reed is attached to the mouthpiece by means of metal screw ligature. The clarinet comprises the largest family of all the woodwind instruments, and its members all share the same fingerings. The principal members of the family are the soprano clarinets in B-flat and in A. These instruments have a usable range of more than three octaves, from E below middle C (sounding D on the B-flat clarinet, C-sharp on the A clarinet) to the G two octaves and a fifth above middle C (sounding F on the B-flat clarinet, E on the A clarinet).

harmonium

small reed organ patented in 1842 by the Parisian instrument builder Alexandre-Francois Debain (1809-77). The standard version of the instrument has a pedal-operated bellows mechanism and a five-octave keyboard.

piano (p)

soft

dolce

soft, sweet

viol d'amore

string instrument similar in size to a viola but more closely related to a viola da gamba, with a flat back and slopping shoulders. It is fitted with a main set of seven strings that are bowed and fingered in the conventional manner and a second set of seven sympathetic strings that run through the bridge and under the fingerboard to a separate set of pegs on the pegbox. When the instrument is played, these strings vibrate in sympathy with the strings above them. The scroll of a viola d'amore is often adorned with a cared figure of the blindfolded Cupid, a reminder that "love [amore] is blind." The instrument produces a gentle, plangent sound with an ethereal halo. The viola d'amore was used widely as a solo and obbligato instrument in the 17th and 18th centuries. Telemann, Bach, and Vivaldi, among others, featured it as a solo instrument in multiple works. Because of its softness it has seen limited use in the modern era.

grand opera

style of opera characterized by spectacular scenery, elaborate effects, and grandiose staging, developed in Paris during the early decades of the 19th century. Its spiritus rector was the librettist Eugene Scribe, an inexhaustible writer who worked an endless number of variations on the same basic formula: the parade of history in five acts of pageantry and extravagance, with central characters caught in the flux of religious or patriotic movements, huge tableaux involving the chorus, solemn processionals, and awesome denouements. In its heyday, during the 1830s and 1840s, grand opera was big business. Fortunes were made and lost on a regular basis, often depending upon the whim of the claque, whose caesar, Auguste Levasseur, was another of the era's aptly named figures.

multi-measure rest

symbol that tells how many measures of silence

solfege

technique of singing passages at sight using the syllables associated with the notes of the scale (do, re, mi, fa, so, etc.) as a mnemonic device to correctly sound different intervals.

monothematic

term used to describe a piece of music or an individual movement whose content is derived from a single melodic idea. Examples include the finales of Haydn's Symphony No. 104 in D (London) and Mozart's Symphony No. 39 in E-flat, K. 543.

bitonality

the employment of two tonalities (i.e., keys) simultaneously, a technique pioneered by Charles Ives and Igor Stravinsky in the early years of the 20th century and utilized by, among others, Puccini, Ravel, Milhaud, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. A classic example is the superimposition of chords of C major and F-sharp major in Stravinsky's Petrushka.

duple time signatures

time signatures with two pulses per bar (2/4, 2/2, 6/8)

quadruple time signatures

times signatures with four pulses per bar (4/4, 4/2, 12/8)

triple time signatures

times signatures with three pulses per bar (3/8, 3/4, 3/2, 9/8)

troubadours and trouveres

two related groups of poet-musicians of 12th- and 13th-century France. The troubadours, from the south, were Western culture's earliest authors of vernacular poetry set to music. Their approximately 2,600 surviving poems, exemplars of technical and rhetorical virtuosity, were written in langue d'oc (also known as Occitan or Provencal) and set to monophonic melodies, of which only about 300 have survived. Usually from high ranks of society, the troubadours were the first to realize the concept of fin'amors, now commonly called "courtly love," in which the poet, through adoration of an unattainable object of love, is refined by the experiences associated with being a worthy, courteous lover. Throughout the 13th century, the northern troveres followed the model begun by their southern compatriots, writing music and poems in langue d'oil, and early form of French. The melodies of troubadour and trovere songs range from elegant and declamatory to simpler, folk-song like tunes. Most were notated without rhythm (in a fashion similar to plainchant), sparking in modern times a century long debate over whether to perform them freely or in a defined meter; recent opinion is that varying types of verse should be the determining factor, so many choices are open to the performer.

fortissimo (ff)

very loud

pianissimo (pp)

very soft

fortississimo (fff)

very, very loud

pianississimo (ppp)

very, very soft

leitmotif

("Ger. "leading motif) a musical representation of a specific object, person, or idea in a descriptive piece such as an opera or symphonic poem, which is used not only as a thematic "tag" but as a substantive element of the musical discourse. This combination of referential and structural utility was pioneered by Wagner principally in Der Ring des Nibelungen (the "spear" motif in Die Walkure, gloriously transformed also serves as the basis for the "love theme in Wotan's farewell to Brunnhilde, as well as Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal.

table

(Fr.) The wooden soundboard of the harp, which ascends from the pedestal to the neck of the instrument at approximately a 45-degree, narrowing as it goes. The instruction pres de la table means that the strings are to be plucked close to the soundboard, which produces a somewhat metallic, guitarlike tone.

agrements

(Fr.) melodic ornaments. During the 17th and 18th centuries, tasteful ornamentation in the performance of solo and vocal instrumental music was de rigueur, particularly in France, where the art reached its highest refinement. The use of agrements served not only to draw the listener's attention to the melody but to enliven a piece's rhythm and intensify its expression. Examples include trills, turns, mordents, and appoggiaturas.

embouchure

(Fr., "mouthpiece") [1] The mouthpiece of a wind or brass instrument. [2] The proper shaping and tensioning of the player's lips so as to direct a stream of air into or across an instrument's mouthpiece, or to control the vibration of a reed, while at the same time regulating the tone that is produced.

etude

(Fr., "study") term used to denote a focused technical exercise for the performer or, in some cases, the composer, and most commonly written for the piano. In the hands of Chopin (among others), the etude became a genre in which concentration on a particular aspect of keyboard technique (i.e., scales for the left hand, fast octaves, use of a particularly weak finger to play the melody) or on a particular texture was coupled with the expression of mood or imagery.

clavier

(Ger.) generic word for a keyboard instrument, usually referring to a harpsichord or piano.

lied

(Ger., "song") a song with a text in German, usually with piano accompaniment. The modern lied arose in the mid- to late 18th century; interest in it exploded during the second and third decades of the 19th, with Schubert, who composed approximately 660 such songs, leading the way.

monophony

(Gr. "single voice") music written for a single voice, or voices singing in unison. The repertoire encompasses plainchant, medieval songs of the troubadours, trouveres, and Minnesingers, as well as any unaccompanied song for solo voice. Monophony also describes pieces of solo instrumental music where there is one melodic line and no harmony.

polyphony

(Gr., "many voices") The simultaneous sounding of two or more distinct musical lines (or "voices") that are rhythmically independent of one another. The style exemplified in Palestrina's masses, such as Missa Papae Marcelli, has for centuries been considered the gold standard.

melisma

(Gr., "song") a group of several notes, usually more than five or six, sung to a single syllable. Bach's setting of the initial chordal entries in his Magnificat provides a good example.

isorhythm

(Gr.," equal rhythm") A procedure evident in some polyphonic compositions of the 14th and early 15th centuries, especially motets, in which a slow-moving melody in the tenor (usually derived from Gregorian chant) is repeated according to a fixed rhythmic pattern while the upper voices unfold above it. The tenor melody might consist of 20 notes (medieval theorists called such a melodic pattern the color), and be set to a rhythmic sequence 15 units long (called the talea). Thus, three statements of the color would occur during the course of four statements of the talea. This complex overlapping of basic chant material with a recurrent rhythmic scheme created a structural and textural richness hitherto unprecedented in the history of music. Du Fay's isorhythmic motets, of which "Supremum est mortalibus bonum" is one, illustrate the technique at its most accomplished.

divisi

(It. "divided") usually abbreviated div., the term is used as an instruction to string section players in orchestras and ensembles that intervals, chords, or passages in multiple voices written in a single part are to be divided among the players in such a way that each instrument plays only one note at a time. Divisions into more than two parts are usually spelled out div. in 3 or div. in 4, as appropriate. The instruction is canceled by the direction non divisi or unison - abbreviated non div. and unis., respectively.

sostenuto

(It. "sustained") [1] a direction to prolong a tone or slow the tempo. [2] a passage of music whose notes are significantly prolonged.

agitato

(It.) Agitated, excited

basso profundo

(It.) An especially deep and sonorous bass voice

buffa, buffo

(It.) Comic. An opera buffa is a comic opera; a basso buffo is a comic bass singing role. Though sublimely elevated in their emotional content, Mozart's three collaborations with Lorenzo da Ponte are examples of opera buffa; the role of Leporello in Don Giovanni is a classic basso buffo part.

a piacere

(It.) Freely

assai

(It.) Quite, very. Usually used to modify a basic tempo, e.g., Allegro assai or Vivace assai

grazioso

(It.) dainty, gracious, pretty. It is most often encountered as the pendant to a standard tempo marking (e.g., Allegretto grazioso, in Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 in G, third movement). Occasionally it serves as a tempo indication in its own right, as in the rondo finale of Beethoven's Piano Sonata in A, Op. 2, No. 2.

grave

(It.) serious. As a tempo marking it implies an extremely slow pace, slower than adagio or largo.

concerto

(It., "agreement") A work for one or more solo instruments and orchestra. In Classical concerto, the first movement is typically in sonata form, like the first movement of a classical symphony, through in a concerto the structural demarcations are often less clear than they are in a symphony. There is usually an opportunity for a cadenza toward the end of the movement. The second movement is in a slow tempo, often laid out in the manner of an aria (usually in three-part song form). This showcases the solo instrument's capacity for intimate expression and gives the player an opportunity to inflect lines and improvise ornaments as a singer would. The finale, usually in rondo or a hybrid of sonata and rondo, is almost always fast, light, tuneful, and display-oriented.

capriccio

(It., "caprice" or "whim") a piece of fanciful, spontaneous, colorful, or otherwise exceptional character, usually in a fast or dancelike tempo, for anything from a single instrument to a full orchestra. The term does not connote a specific form or procedure.

prima donna

(It., "first lady") The principal soprano in the cast of an opera or in a company of singers.

andante

(It., "flowing," "walking," or "moving") Generally considered a slow tempo, although not as slow adagio. It is sometimes applied to music whose character is fast.

mezza/mezzo

(It., "half" or "middle") descriptive modifier indicating a medium degree of intensity or character. Thus, mezzo-forte suggests a moderate loudness, somewhere between piano and forte. The term mezza voce ("half voice") indicates that a particular passage should be sung or played with a restrained tone.

scherzo

(It., "joke") [1] a movement in fast tempo, often dancelike in character, usually found as one of the inner movements of a symphony, a quartet, or any other instrumental form consisting of four or more movements. The term was used throughout the 17th century as a fanciful title for various kinds of vocal and instrumental pieces, but Haydn, in his Op. 33 string quartets, was the first to deploy a scherzo in place of a minuet. Beethoven adopted the scherzo as the standard dance movement in his sonatas and symphonies, reverting to the minuet only for anachronistic effect, as in his Eighth Symphony.

cornett; cornetto

(It., "little horn") a wind instrument made of leather-covered wood, often curved like a cow's horn, with a conical bore, cup-shaped mouthpiece, and finger holes. From about 1550 to 1650, it was the preferred instrument for virtuosic passage work wherever large instrumental or vocal-instrumental forces were called for, and was often heard in wind ensembles along with sackbuts. As its tone is remarkably vocal - velvety yet piercing - in large concerted works.

maestoso

(It., "majestic") Occasionally encountered as a tempo marking, e.g, Maesoso alla Marcia (Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 2, finale), more commonly used as a modifier for a standard tempo, e.g., Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso (Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, first movement).

maestro

(It., "master") Term used to addressing or referring to a conductor, derived from maestro di cappella ("master of the chapel"), the Italian designation for the director of music at a court or church.

moderato

(It., "moderate") a tempo generally viewed as failing between andante and allegro; also used as a modifier for either of those tempos, e.g., "allegro moderato (Rachmaninov, Symphony No. 2, first movement).

sul ponticello

(It., "on the [little bridge") for bowed string instruments, an instruction to play close to the bridge, which produces a thin, raspy tone. This color can be very effective when produced by an entire string section, as occurs in the middle of Sibelius's En Saga.

sul tasto

(It., "on the fingerboard") In string music, a direction indicating that a passage is to be played with the bow contacting the strings over the end of the fingerboard (i.e., farther from the bridge than in normal bowing), which produces a softening and gentle coloration of the sound. The effect was a particular favorite of Debussy, who used the equivalent French marking (sur la touche) in works such as his Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune and Rondes de printemps.

una corda

(It., "one string") pedal on the piano (farthest to the left on a typical concert grand) that, when depressed, shifts the keyboard and action slightly to one side, so that the hammers in the middle range of the instrument come into contact with only a single string, rather than two. At the upper end of the keyboard, where there are three strings per note, the hammers strike only two when the pedal is employed. The bass range, with one string per note, is note affected. Use of the una corda pedal does more than limit the volume of sound a piano will produce; it eviscerates the instrument's tone quality, making it softer and grayer, which can be a telling effect in certain passages, e.g., the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, which the piano plays entirely una corda.

parlando

(It., "speaking") in vocal music, an instruction that a passage should be semi-vocalized, almost as if speaking rather than singing it is mostly commonly found in operatic scores. In instrumental music, an instruction indicating that a passage is to be articulated in a manner that is distinct and eloquent, but not lyrical. A good example comes at the end of "Mi chiamano Mimi" in Puccini's La boheme.

sotto voce

(It., "under [the] voice") an instruction to a performer to sing or play a particular passage softly, as if in a whisper.

viola da gamba (viol in English)

(It., "viola of the legs") family of fretted string instruments encompassing bass, tenor, and treble ranges that appeared in Europe toward the end of the 15th century and enjoyed immense popularity in solo and ensemble performance during the 17th century. The instrument had a flat back and slopping shoulders, was bowed with an underhand grip, and was usually strung with six strings, though examples with five or seven strings were not uncommon. One of the most important contributions to it was made by the French composer Marin Marais (1656-1728), who between 1686 and 1725 published five books of music for the viola da gamba, containing 596 pieces.

opera

(It., "work") drama with singing and the accompaniment of an orchestra or instrumental ensemble.

tacet

(Lat., "[it] is silent") direction to the performer of a vocal or instrumental part to be silent, usually for an entire number or movement.

cantus firmus

(Lat., "fixed melody) A preexisting melody around which a passage or a whole piece of polyphonic music is written. As a contrapuntal technique, cantus firmus can be utilized in any kind of music, but it is most often associated with sacred music, in which a portion of a plainchant melody or chorale tune usually serves as the cantus firmus. This method of composing polyphonic music was common during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

opus

(Lat., "work"; abbreviated op.: plural opera, opp.) a work or group of works that has been published. the use of opus numbers by publishers to identify collections of instrumental music became common in the 18th century.

piccolo

(abbreviation of It. flauto piccolo "little flute") auxiliary member of the flute family with a range an octave above that of a standard flute. It uses the same key system and fingering as the flute, but is slightly under half its length.

neume

(fr. Gr. neuma, "gesture") In medieval chant notation, a variety of graphic symbols representing a single note or grouping of several notes, thought to derive from hand gestures showing the shape of a melody. Surviving manuscripts show that the shapes of neumes varied widely from one part of Europe to another. The revolutionary invention of two staff lines, by Guido d'Arezzo in the 11th century, provided a reference point for pitches, and by the 13th century, neumes had simplified into the commonly seen square chant notation, eventually becoming separate notes.

hemiola

(from Gr. hemiolios, "a half and a whole") Any rhythmic pattern in which units consisting of two beats are set against a prevailing triple meter, or three-beat units against duple meter, resulting in metric ambiguity. The procedure originated in medieval music with the substitution of three "imperfect" notes (each taking two beats) for two "perfect" (three-beat) ones. It became a common feature of Baroque dance music, and was frequently employed by Brahms (who had a great fondness of past practices) in his instrumental works.

hexachord

(from Gr. hex and chorde, "string of six") [1] a stepwise arrangement of six notes (rather than the seven of the diatonic scale) used as a mnemonic device in the teaching of music during the Middle Ages. The concept was introduced by Guido of Arezzo (ca. 991 - ca. 1035); the tones of the hexachord were named after the opening syllables - ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la - of the first six lines of the plainchant Ut queant laxis (Hymn to St. John the Baptist), each of which began a step higher than its predecessor. This became the basis of the technique of solmization - sightsing by means of syllables - still in use today. [2] in 12-tone music, either of the two groups of six pitches that make up a 12-tone row.

trope

(from Gr. tropos, "turn") A musical phrase or an element of a musical setting of a text that is based on a preexisting source. In much of early music, the preexisting source was plainchant. Troping, as used in a vast amount of medieval music, was a reference to authority, a means of giving legitimacy to a new idea.

arpeggio

(from It. arpeggiare, "to play the harp") A chord of any size or configuration that is strummed - or played as if strummed, in the case of a keyboard instrument - so that the notes are sounded individually, from bottom to top or top to bottom. The conventional sign indicating that a chord is to be arpeggiated is a wavy vertical line placed before the chord. Arpeggios can also be written out as a series of small notes beamed together, with the top and bottom notes of the arpeggiations usually appearing in normal-size notes.

tremolo

(from It. remolare, "to tremble") A rapidly repeated note. If the tremolo is between two notes, then they are played in rapid alternation. The number of slashes through the stem (or number of diagonal bars between two notes) indicates the frequency to repeat (or alternate) the note.

ritornello

(from It. ritorno, "return") [1] a repeat of a passage or section within a piece of music [2] an instrumental episode within a vocal piece, especially an aria. An example is provided by the prologue to Monteverdi's L'Orfeo. [3] In 18th century music, a tutti passage in a concerto.

rubato

(from It. rubare, "to steal") An element of phrasing that involves a departure, for expressive purposes, from the precise notated rhythm without a disturbance of the basic pulse. On a particular note or phrase one "steals" some of the durational value of adjoining notes, usually delaying or lingering lightly, then picking up the pace. Few performers today apply rubato with the kind of freedom that typified interpreters of bygone years such as Franz Liszt, but good examples of its use can be found in the recordings of Wilhelm Kempff and Arthur Rubinstein. One of the most accomplished practitioners of the art of rubato was Frank Sinatra, who routinely "teased" the beat, holding a note longer than written, then catching up with the band. During the 18th century, a more formalized application of rubato - in which the phrasing of a melodic line was advanced or delayed by half a beat while the accompaniment remained in strict time - was known as tempo rubato. This staggered effect was incorporated in many keyboard pieces of the era, and can be heard in the first movement variations of Beethoven's Piano Sonata in A-flat, Op. 26.

sonata

(from It. suonare, "to sound") a freestanding piece for solo instrument or instruments, with or without accompaniment. The multimovement chamber genre familiar to modern day listeners as the sonata emerged in Italy during the 17th century, in which sonatas were classified for one or more instruments with continuo as belonging to one of two genres: either sonata da chiesa ("church sonata") or sonata de camera ("chamber sonata"). Church sonatas did not contain movements based on dances. Chamber sonatas contained dance movements and were similar to suites for solo instruments, intended for concert use or domestic entertainment. During Baroque era, there were many trio sonatas, usually composed for two violins, a cello, and continuo (trio refers to melodic voices, not continuo). During the Classical Era, the solo sonata completed its conquest of the chamber sphere, and the genre acquired the characteristics and formal layout that a great extent it retains today. The opening movement, usually an Allegro, tends to be cast in "sonata" form and is usually followed by a movement in slow or moderate tempo and a finale in a lively tempo; an optional "dance" movement (minuet, scherzo) can appear after the first movement, before the finale, or as the finale.

plainchant

(from Lat., cantus planus) Generic term for the unaccompanied monophonic chant of the Western Christian liturgy.

aleatoric

(from Latin alea, "dice") Random or improvisatory; used to describe compositional approaches that involve the element of chance.

passacaglia

(from Sp. pasar and calle, "to walk the street") originally a short interlude played on the guiar between strophes of a song; during the 17th century, the term became attached to an instrumental (mainly keyboard) and orchestral genre in which a series of variations unfold over a recurring harmonic progression, usually taking up eight bars of 3/4 or 3/2 time. Examples include Bach's Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582, for organ and the fourth movement of Brahms's Symphony No. 4 in E minor.

F major/d minor key signature

1 flat: Bb

minor second (m2)

1 half step difference

G Major/e minor key signature

1 sharp: F#

eighth rest

1/2 beat of silence

eighth note

1/2 beat of sound

sixteenth rest

1/4 beat of silence

sixteenth note

1/4 beat of sound

thirty-second rest

1/8 beat of silence

thirty-second note

1/8 beat of sound

octuple whole note

32 beats of sound

mediant

3rd scale degree of a heptatonic (7-note) scale.

whole rest (semibreve)

4 beats of silence

common time

4/4 time signature. It derives from the broken circle that represented "imperfect" duple meter in fourteenth-century mensural time signatures.

subdominant

4th scale degree of a heptatonic (7-note) scale.

Db Major/bb minor key signature

5 flats: Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb

perfect fourth (P4)

5 half step difference

B Major/g# minor key signature

5 sharps: F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯

dominant

5th scale degree of a heptatonic (7-note) scale and, by extension, the chord whose root is that note.

Gb Major/eb minor key signature

6 flats: Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb

diminished fifth/augmented fourth (tritone) (d5/A4)

6 half step difference

submediant

6th scale degree of a heptatonic (7-note) scale.

perfect fifth (P5)

7 half step difference

minor sixth (m6)

8 half step difference

major sixth (M6)

9 half step difference

Alberti bass

A "broken" figuration of the bass line in keyboard music, in which the notes of a triad (three-note chord) are played in rapid alternation as follows: lowest, highest, middle, highest, and so on. Named for Domenico Alberti (ca. 1710-46), who was the first composer to make refular use of it, Alberti basses are a common feature in key board pieces of the 18th and 19th centuries.

castrato

A castrated male singer. The practice of castrating boys with promising voices before reached puberty - to ensure that their tessitura would remain high after they matured - was common in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries.

arpeggiated chord

A chord with notes played in rapid succession, usually ascending, each note being sustained as the others are played. It is also called a "broken chord".

basset clarinet

A clarinet devised by Anton Stadler in Vienna in the 1780s with an extended lower joint that enabled it to reach A, a major third below the low C-sharp of the standard clarinet in A.

altered chord

A dominant chord that has the 5th or 9th raised or lowered by a single semi-tone.

clave

A five-beat pattern that underlies all salsa music.

shake

A jazz term describing a trill between one note and its minor third; or, with brass instruments, between a note and its next overblown harmonic.

left-hand pizzicato (stopped note)

A note on a stringed instrument where the string is plucked with the left hand (the hand that usually stops the strings) rather than bowed. On the horn, this accent indicates a "stopped note" (a note played with the stopping hand shoved further into the bell of the horn). In percussion this notation denotes, among many other specific uses, to close the hi-hat by pressing the pedal, or that an instrument is to be "choked" (muted with the hand).

fermata (pause)

A note, chord, or rest sustained longer than its customary value. Usually appears over all parts at the same metrical location in a piece, to show a halt in tempo. It can be placed above or below the note. The fermata is held for as long as the performer or conductor desires, but is often set as twice the notes' original value.

tuplet

A number of notes of irregular duration are performed within the duration of a given number of notes of regular time value; e.g., five notes played in the normal duration of four notes; seven notes played in the normal duration of two; three notes played in the normal duration of four. Tuplets are named according to the number of irregular notes; e.g., duplets, triplets, quadruplets, etc.

lead sheet

A piece of music in its simplest form: melody, words, and harmony.

impromptu

A piece, usually for a solo instrument such as the piano, written in a spontaneous or improvisatory manner.

nonchord tone

A tone, either diatonic or chromatic, that is not a member of the chord.

overblowing

A wind instrument technique in which increased air pressure is combined with lip manipulation to extend the range of the horn and produce a variety of tones.

English horn

Alto member of the oboe family. Still known in England by its French name, cor anglais, it has nothing to do with the English. How it got its name remains, in fact, a mystery. One theory holds that "anglais" may be a corruption of an old French word meaning "angled" - which, for ease of playing, the instrument has to be on account of its length. The keywork and fingering are similar to those for the oboe. Its range is a fifth lower than the oboe's, extending to the E below middle C, and it possesses a darker, more nasal tone, plaintive in the upper reaches, rich and resonant in the lower.

French sixth chord

Augmened 6 + Major 2. The French sixth (Fr+6 or Fr4 3) is similar to the Italian, but with an additional tone, scale degree 2. The notes of the French sixth chord are all contained within the same whole tone scale, lending a sonority common to French music in the 19th century (especially associated with Impressionist music).

Italian sixth chord

Augmented 6 + Major 3. The Italian sixth (It+6 or It6 or ♯iv6) is derived from iv6 with an altered fourth scale degree, ♯scale degree 4. This is the only augmented sixth chord comprising just three distinct notes; in four-part writing, the tonic pitch is doubled.

German sixth chord

Augmented 6 + minor 3. The German sixth (Ger+6 or Ger6 5) is also like the Italian, but with an added tone, ♭scale degree 3. In Classical music, however, it appears in much the same places as the other variants, though perhaps less often because of the contrapuntal difficulties outlined below. It appears frequently in the works of Beethoven, and in ragtime music.

trombone

Brass instrument with mostly cylindrical bore that becomes conical toward the bell, a shallow, cup-shaped slide operated by the right hand. Its design has remained essentially unchanged since the 1500s. Prior to the 18th century the trombone was known as the sackbut, a name derived from an unlikely mix of Spanish and Teutonic roots meaning, "push-pull." Early trombones came in a variety of sizes and were typically deployed as a kind of "choir" consisting of tenor, bass, and alto voices - a division that has survived in the notation of some orchestral trombone parts, where the first and second trombones share a staff in tenor clef, and the part for third trombone is notated on a separate staff, in bass clef. The standard modern trombone is the tenor, pitched in B-flat, with a 9-foot tube length when the slide is fully retracted. Many tenor trombones come with an additional length of tubing called an "F attachment," allowing the instrument's range to be extended down a fourth, to low C. The trombone has an astonishing dynamic range, from soft to shatteringly loud (it can generate more sonic energy than any other non-percussion instrument), and is capable of an equally range of coloration. In the hands of good players, it can proclaim in full, ringing tones with a brassy glint, threaten with menacing, edgy snarls, or deliver a rich, cantabile baritone.

Offertory

Chant sung at Mass to accompany the "presentation of the offerings" (i.e., the procession in which bread and wine are brought to the altar to be offered by the celebrant in the name of Christ as the Eucharistic sacrifice). In musical settings of the Mass, the Offertory follows the Credo and precedes the Sanctus.

oboe

Customarily defined as a treble woodwind instrument with a double reed and conical bore, the oboe is better known to the musicians who play it as "the ill wind that nobody blows good." Made of granadilla wood, the modern oboe has a slightly flared bell and measures approximately 25 ½ inches in length, not counting the reed, which protrudes 2 ½ inches from the top of the instrument. The oboe's range extends from B-flat below middle C to the A two octaves and a sixth above.

cymbals

Dish-shaped plates made of brass alloy that can produce a loud, ringing vibration when forcefully clashed together, or a tingling, whisper-soft swoosh when brushed gently. Cymbals generally come in matched pairs, and can be of differing thickness, from paper-thin to bullet proof. When two cymbals are struck or brushed together, they are referred to as "crash" cymbals; they are held by looped leather straps passed through small holes drilled in the center of each dome. When a single cymbal is mounted on a stand, it is called a "suspended" cymbal; it can be struck with a soft stick, a snare-drum stick, or a metal object such as a penknife blade or a triangle beater, rolled using a pair of soft sticks, or brushed with metal or fiber implements.

sarabande

Elegant, sinuous dance in slow triple time. Of Spanish origin, it was one of the standard dances of the suite during the 17th and 18th centuries. Bach's cello suites contain some of the most sarabandes ever written; the second movement of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony, with its courtly passion, offers a remarkably speculative treatment of the dance.

minuet

French dance in moderately slow ¾ time, often found in suites of the Baroque era. During the Classical period, the character of the minuet changed from stately to rather brisk, and it become the standard dance movement in four-movement forms such as the symphony and the string quartet.

tarantella

Frenzied southern Italian dance in 3/8 or 6/8 time, named after the city of Taranto in Apulia. While an alternative theory of how the dance got its name - that its wild gyrations were thought to cure the bite of a tarantula - is more attractive, there is no solid evidence to support it. Nonetheless, the breathless pace of the dance and its tendency to jump between the major and minor modes suggest the kind of feverish behavior one might expect from an encounter with Lycoso tarantula (which was also named after the city). The final movement of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony (No. 4 in A major) incorporates a tarantella rhythm in one of its themes.

trio sonata

In Baroque music, a sonata written for two melody instruments and continuo. The standard complement, from the late 17th century on, was two treble instruments and harpsichord, with or without a bass instrument such as cello, violone, or string bass. On keyboard instruments, a trio sonata texture could be achieved without additional instruments, with two principal "voices" or lines, plus a bass line.

cadenza

In a concerto, a display passage for the soloist interpolated within a movement, usually the first one, and usually near its end. Until the 19th century, cadenzas generally did not extend beyond half a minute or a minute in length, and were not written out by the composer but left to the performer to display additional aspects of virtuosity and show off their improvisatory skill. With Beethoven's piano concertos, and other composers' pieces moving forward, the cadenza became lengthier and more exploratory - a premeditated display of solo virtuosity rather than an improvised flash of keyboard bravura.

tenor clef (C clef) - C4 (middle C)

It is the alto clef symbol pointing towards the fourth line of the staff as middle C. This clef is used very often in music written for bassoon, cello, trombone, and double bass; it replaces the bass clef when the number of ledger lines above the bass staff hinders easy reading.

bend

Jazz term referring either to establishing a pitch, sliding down half a step and returning to the original pitch or sliding up half a step from the original note. With the electric guitar, bending is widely used in blues, blues-rock, and rock and, to a somewhat different fashion, in jazz.

harpsichord

Keyboard instrument with strings of graduated length, usually strung perpendicular to the keyboard on a wooden frame enclosed within a wooden case. The earliest harpsichords appeared around 1400. The mechanism makes use of individual jacks (one for each string) to which small plectra of quill, leather, or plastic are attached; when a key is depressed, it raises one or more of the jacks, allowing the plectrum, mounted near the top of the jack, to pluck its designated string. When the key is released, the jacks drops (a hinged fitting allows the plectrum to slide back over the string more or less silently) and the string is silenced by a damper at the top of the jack. Harpsichords normally have two sets of string tuned to the same pitch (and two corresponding rows of jacks) for each key, with a shift mechanism that allows the player to engage one set or both. The primary reason the harpsichord was eventually superseded by the piano was that a player could not achieve substantive dynamic gradations by means of touch.

double flat accidental

Lowers the pitch of a note by two chromatic semitones. Usually used when the note to modify is already flatted by the key signature.

continuation phrase (sentence)

Melodically, the continuation phrase acquires momentum by applying techniques such as fragmentation (breakdown in the size of melodic units), liquidation (removal of melodic figures from the presentation phrase's basic idea), sequential repetition, accelerated surface rhythm, and accelerated harmonic rhythm to the original basic idea. Harmonically, it leads to a cadence that ends the sentence.

presentation phrase (sentence)

Melodically, the presentation phrase contains a basic idea that is repeated twice. Harmonically, the presentation phrase prolongs the tonic via a subsidiary chord progression.

snap pizzicato

On a stringed instrument, a note played by stretching a string away from the frame of the instrument and letting it go, making it "snap" against the frame. Also known as a Bartók pizzicato.

natural harmonic (open note)

On a stringed instrument, means to play a natural harmonic (also called flageolet). On a valved brass instrument, it means to play the note "open" (without lowering any valve, or without mute). In organ notation, this means to play a pedal note with the heel (above the note, use the right foot; below the note, use the left foot). In percussion notation this denotes, among many other specific uses, to open the hi-hat by releasing the pedal, or allow an instrument to ring.

sackbut

Renaissance brass instrument forerunner of the modern trombone

swing rhythm

Rhythm where notes with equal written time values are performed with unequal durations, usually as alternating long and short.

chord

Several notes sounded simultaneously ("solid" or "block"), or in succession ("broken"). Two-note chords are called dyad; three-note chords built from thirds are called triads. A chord may contain any number of notes.

licks

Short musical ideas that are regularly repeated in the improvisations of a particular soloist.

dotted bar line

Subdivides long measures of complex meter into shorter segments for ease of reading, usually according to natural rhythmic subdivisions.

release pedal

Tells the pianist to let the sustain pedal up.

engage pedal

Tells the pianist to put the sustain pedal down.

senza sordino

Tells the player to let the soft pedal up or, for other instruments, remove the mute.

con sordino

Tells the player to put the soft pedal down or, for other instruments, apply the mute.

acciaccatura

The acciaccatura is of very brief duration, as though brushed on the way to the principal note, which receives virtually all of its notated duration. In percussion notation, the acciaccatura symbol denotes the flam rudiment, the miniature note still positioned behind the main note but on the same line or space of the staff.

refrain

The chorus at the end of every stanza in some pop songs.

antecedent

The first, typically four, measures of a period, containing two measures of a basic idea, followed by two measures of a contrasting idea. Harmonically, the antecedent's basic idea is played in the tonic, while the contrasting idea is supported by a cadential progression, ending the antecedent with a weak cadence (either HC or IAC).

tritone

The interval of an augmented fourth (or diminished fifth), so called because it spans three whole tones. Because it falls between two "perfect" intervals - the fourth and the fifth - and generates a glaring dissonance when sounded, it was called the "Devil's interval" in medieval music. In his War Requiem (1961), Britten made prominent use of the tritone, allowing its dissonance to hang like smoke in the air of the opening pages.

bass clef (F clef) - C4 (middle C)

The line between the dots in this clef denotes F below middle C. This clef appears nearly as often as the treble clef, especially in choral music, where it represents the bass and baritone voices. Middle C is the first ledger line above the staff here.

transpositions

The notation or performance of music at a pitch different from that at which it was originally intended to sound.

voicing

The placement of notes in a chord; the instruments that are assigned to those notes.

rhythm

The regular pattern of strong and weak beats (or a recognizable ordering of longer and shorter durations) that characterizes a musical phrase, passage, or period.

bar line

These separate measures (see time signatures below for an explanation of measures). Also used for changes in time signature. Bar lines are extended to connect multiple staves in certain types of music, such as keyboard, harp, and conductor scores, but are omitted for other types of music, such as vocal scores.

Credo

Third section of the Ordinary of the Mass. Its text is the Nicene Cred, which begins with the words "Credo in unum Deum..." ("I believe in God...") and states the fundamental tenets of Christian belief. In an the archlike structure of the Mass, the Credo forms the keystone. Its text is the longest of any section of the Ordinary, and at the center of it are the words that express the mystery that is central to the faith: "Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram saluttem, descendit de coelis, et incarnates est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est." ("For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man." Because of the importance of its text the Credo tends to receive an especially rich treatment in most polyphonic settings of the Mass.

diminish

To reduce a perfect interval (fourth, fifth, or octave) or a minor one (especially the seventh) by a half step. A seventh so reduced is called a diminished seventh (e.g., C-sharp - B-flat), and a chord built on that interval (e.g., C-sharp - E - G - B-flat) is called a diminished seventh chord.

Ionian scale

W-W-H-W-W-W-H (W=whole step, H=half step), same as major scale. Tonic relative to major scale is I.

Lydian scale

W-W-W-H-W-W-H. Tonic relative to major is IV.

arhythmic

Without an obvious beat

metronome (tempo) marking

Written at the start of a score, and at any significant change of tempo, this symbol precisely defines the tempo of the music by assigning absolute durations to all note values within the score. In this particular example, the performer is told that 120quarter notes fit into one minute of time.

harmonics

[1] Overtones or "partial," i.e., tones above the fundamental frequency of a given musical note that are components parts of the sound of that note. Harmonics occur at integral multiples of the fundamental frequency of a note, meaning that if the note is pitched at 64 Hz, harmonics sound at 128 Hz, 192 Hz, 256 Hz, 320 Hz, and so on. In music, the harmonic series for a given fundamental includes the fundamental itself. Thus, for the note C, the harmonic series consists of the note itself followed by the C an octave above and, continuing upward, G, C, E, G, B-flat, C, D, E F-sharp, G, A, B-flat, B, and the 16th harmonic, the C four octaves above the fundamental. [2] Notes of high pitch produced artificially on string and wind instruments by fingering or overblowing in such a way as to select and strengthen an overtone while suppressing the fundamental that normally produces it.

chorus

[1] a group of singers that performs as a body. The term commonly implies a large number of singers, but is valid for any group on which two or more individuals sing the same part. [2] a work or section of a work written for such a group (e.g., the "Hallelujah!" chorus from Handel's Messiah.)

rondo

[1] a multisection form in which the melodic material heard at the beginning returns one or more times within the body of the rondo, always in the tonic key and makes a final appearance at the end to "round" off the form. These recurrent appearances of the initial material, called refrains, are interspersed with episodes of contrasting character. A schematic representation of the typical rondo might look like this: ABACADA. In order for the form to work, the main subject (A) must be an easily grasped "tune" or subject. [2] A movement in which rondo form or a close approximation of it is employed. The final movements of concertos are frequently cast in rondo form, with the designation Rondo often appearing at the head of the score. Movements in rondo form are also encountered in many sonatas (e.g., Beethoven's Piano Sonata in A, Op. 2, No. 2, fourth movement) and symphonies (e.g., Mahler's Symphony No. 7, finale).

inversion

[1] a voicing of the notes of a chord in which a note other than the root of the chord is heard as the bass. [2] The complementary interval that results when the notes forming a given interval "trade places by means of octave transposition. The inversion of a third (such as from C to E) is a sixth (E-C), while the inversion of a seventh (such as G-F) is a second (F-G). [3] The process of turning a succession of notes or an entire theme "upside down." For example, if a particular melody ascends by a fourth, then makes a stepwise descent of a third, its inversion descends a fourth, then makes a stepwise ascent of a third. Inversion of this kind is frequently encountered in contrapuntal music, especially in fugues, and is a ubiquitous feature of 12-tone composition.

ballade

[1] one of three verse forms (formes fixes) - the other were the rondeau and virelai - that served as templates for secular song in France during the 14th and 15th centuries. The ballade stanza adheres to an AAB pattern ending with a refrain. [2] An instrumental piece of moderate length, usually for piano, in free or rhapsodic from. Chopin was the first composer to attach the name ballade to works of this type.

movement

a complete section or subdivision of a piece of instrumental music, generally unified by tempo, key, mood, or affect.

variation(s)/theme and variations

a formal procedure in which the "possibilities" of a given theme, which is usually stated at the beginning of the process, are explored through a series of discrete modifications. This results in the form of theme, variation 1, variation 2, and variation 3. The variation process typically investigates the structure of the theme - its intervallic, rhythmic, and harmonic makeup - and seeks to tease out some of its rhetorical and expressive implications.

pastorale

a movement or piece that evokes a rural scene, usually through music of a rustic and placid character. In instrumental and vocal pieces of the 17th and 18th centuries, music in the pastoral vein typically appears in the key of F, sometimes C or F, and utilizes meters such as 6/8 and 12/8. Drones and gently rocking dotted rhythms are the most common features of the style, exemplified by the Sinfonia from Bach's Christmas Oratorio.

longa (quadruple whole note)

a musical note that could be either twice or three times as long as a breve

passing tone

a nonchord tone that is sounded during stepwise melodic motion (usually descending) between two notes that do belong to the harmony, thus producing a momentary ("passing") dissonance.

neighbor tone (NT)

a nonchord tone that passes stepwise from a chord tone directly above or below it (which frequently causes the NT to create dissonance with the chord) and resolves to the same chord tone.

ghost note (dead note, muted note, silenced note, false note)

a note with a rhythmic value, but no discernible pitch when played. In musical notation, this is represented by an "X" for a note head instead of an oval.

reprise

a part of a movement or composition that repeats an earlier theme or section.

motet

a polyphonic vocal composition, usually with a sacred text. The motet emerged as a distinct genre in France during the 13th and 14th centuries, initially retaining many of the structural and technical characteristics of the liturgical polyphony from which it developed. The most sophisticated motets from this era typically presented a Latin text in slow-moving notes in the tenor voice, with additional text or texts - in Latin or the vernacular (i.e., French) - set to faster-moving notes in one, two, or three upper voices. The overlapping texts, sacred and secular, tended to comment upon one another n surprising ways; similarly, the overlapping metrical and melodic patterns produced by the use of isorhythmic elements in these settings surprised and delighted the medieval ear. Melodies in motets became more melismatic in the 15th and early 16th century by composers such Du Fay, Josquin, and Palestrina. Motets with instrumental accompaniment became the norm in the 17th century, while the use of choral forces, rather than solo voices one to a part, was preferred. Large choral motets in the style of cantatas, with orchestral accompaniment and parts for soloists, flourished in France from the middle of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th century in the hands of Lully, Rameau, and others. Among the finest contributions to the motet repertoire are the handful of works J.S. Bach composed, all with German texts, the majority for eight voices a cappela, between 1712 and 1735.

parody mass

a setting of the mass in which the music of a preexisting polyphonic composition - such as a motet, a madrigal, or a chanson - is recognizably incorporated The weaving of portions of the entire polyphonic texture of another work into its musical fabric is what distinguishes a parody mass from a cantus firmus mass, in which a single voice line (such as a chant melody or a popular tune) serves as the armature around which a free polyphonic treatment is built.

falsetto

a singing technique, more properly called second-mode phonation which produces in men a a pure head voice resonance, higher than the usual chest voice; since ancient times, men have sung in alto range in this manner.

tone row

a succession of notes, usually with no pitch repeated, used as a generative motif for a piece of music. Most of the works that employ tone rows are 12-tone compositions.

sequence

a thematic device in which the same melodic figure is repeated several times in succession in an ascending or descending pattern, i.e., with each repetition beginning a step higher (the usual case, because it produces a sense of tension) or a step lower.

conductor

an individual who leads a performance by a group of musicians, coordinating their actions by means of gestures and often using a baton to mark the beat.

grace note

an ornamental note, usually of short duration, appended to another note. In written notation, grace notes appear smaller than the notes they ornament, and are often written with a slash through the stem.

chaccone

any piece in which an extended melody or a series of variations occurs over a repeating bass line (bass ostinato) . These were the characteristics of the French chaconne, a Baroque dance in slow triple time derived from a more lively dance called a chacona that originated in the New World during the 16th century and achieved popularity in Spain early in the 17th century.

bassoon

bass woodwind instrument fitted with a double reed. The Italian name for the bassoon, fagotto, means "stick," which is a god description of the most instrument's loglike appearance. Most bassoons are made of maple and are assembled out of four sections: the bell joint, the bass or long joint, the butt, and the wing joint. Modern bassoons are equipped with 17 to 22 keys, and have a range from low B-flat (a whole step below the open C on the cello) up to the E a tenth above middle C. The bassoon is powerful and sonorous in the lower part of its range, svelte and creamy in its middle register, soft and slightly plaintive in the upper middle register, and increasingly tense and penetrating in the upper-most range, thinning out to a shallow squawk at the very top. The instrument can be made to sound gruff and grumbly, and is often utilized for that effect, but it has a wonderful singing tone with ample resonance and can be employed to great effect as a melodic instrument.

trumpet

brass instrument with a mainly cylindrical bore, a conical bell flared at the opening, and a shallow, cup-shaped mouthpiece. Its origins are ancient, and its metamorphosis from the natural instrument of medieval and Renaissance pageant to the valved wonder of the orchestral brass section has been a complex one, involving not only changes in the instrument's construction but profound shifts in the style of music written for it and the technique and artistry expected of its players. The compositional symbols behind the instrument changing over time (symbolizing military and civil authority during the Renaissance, symbolizing ornate virtuosity during the Baroque, symbolizing fanfare during the Classical, and symbolizing magnificence during the Romantic) was in part due to its different tunings and registers. The modern vavle trumpet (in B-flat or C) used today, with a tube length of about four feet, superseded the F trumpet in the early years of the 20th century. Smaller and more agile, it has a usable range from F sharp below middle C to the C (and occasionally D) two octaves above. Its most notable attributes are the edge, carrying power, and heroic brilliance of its tone. Piston valves are standard, though trumpets with rotary valves continue to be used I some European orchestras.

block chords

chords whose notes are played at the same time in parallel motion

broken chords

chords whose notes are played one at a time, either broken or rolled.

galant

dominant musical style of the second half of the 18th century, also known as the "free" style to distinguish it from the "strict" or "learned" style. Whereas the "learned" style derived from Renaissance vocal polyphony and exhibited counterpoint and fugal procedure, the galant was associated with theatrical, symphonic, and chamber music and contained allusions to various topics - among them the singing style, the brilliant style, Sturm und Drang, and Turkish music, as well as the rhythms of popular and courtly dances. J.C Bach, one of the leading practitioners of the galant style during the 1760s and 1770s, was an early model for Mozart, in whose music the galant reached its peak in the 1780s.

woodwind instruments

handheld instruments that produce sound when the player blows air through a single or double reed (e.g., the oboe), through a notched mouthpiece (e.g., the recorder), or across an open hole in the body of the instrument (e.g., the flute). Woodwinds are not necessarily made of wood; flutes, for example, have at various times been made of glass, bone, wood, and metal. Examples of woodwind instruments include bass clarinet, basset clarinet, basset horn, bassoon, clarinet, contrabassoon, English horn, heckelphone, piccolo, and saxophone.

ode

in ancient times, a poem intended to be sung on a special occasion, or as part of a dramatic performance. In modern times, a vocal work, usually in several sections, offered in praise of an august personage or as a gesture of thanksgiving.

caesura

indicates a brief, silence pause, during which time is not counted. In ensemble playing, time resumes when the conductor or leader indicates. Also a term used in poetry reading.

clavichord

keyboard instrument in the use from the early 15th through the mid-18th century, prized for its remarkably gentle and expressive sound. The mechanism of a clavichord is elegantly simple compared with that of a harpsichord or piano: when a key is depressed a brass blade at the back of the key, called a tangent, contacts a pair of stings, causing them to vibrate; the tangent remains in contact with the strings until they key is released, allowing the player to influence the sound by touch, even create a delicate vibrato.

piano

keyboard instrument with strings of graduated size and length (usually running perpendicular to the keyboard) strung over a wooden soundboard and enclosed in a wooden case. The piano was developed in Italy early in the 18th century using a mechanism invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1732). The heart of this mechanism was its linkage of keys to hammers and its use of an escapement that allowed strings to continue vibrating after they were struck. The piano's major advantage over the harpsichord was that it could produce dynamic gradations from soft to loud, hence its original name, pianoforte.

circle of fifths

keys or tonalities ordered by ascending (for sharp keys) or descending (for flat keys) intervals of a fifth

conjunct motion

melodic motion of pitches by step

mezzo forte (mf)

moderately loud

mezzo piano (mp)

moderately soft

f hole

on sting instruments, particularly those belonging to the violin and viol family, the symmetrical openings (one shaped like an italic f, the other like its mirror image) on the front or "belly" of the instrument that allow sound to radiate from its interior.

tam-tam

percussion instrument derived from gongs of indefinite pitch that originated in China. It consists of a thickish disc of bronze with a rolled rim, with prevents the outer edge from vibrating. The disc is suspended from a frame and is struck with a stick covered with chamois or felt. Orchestral tam-tams come in two sizes: a large one measuring 28 inches in diameter and small one about 20 inches in diameter. When struck forcibly, the tam-tam is the loudest instrument in the orchestra, a veritable sun capable of obliterating the sound of a hundred instruments in the glare of its distinctive noise. It can also be tremendously effective when played softly, producing a sound that is ominous and dreadful, e.g., the chilling single stroke that marks the climax of the final movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor.

triangle

percussion instrument named for its shape. The standard triangle is a steel rod bent in the shape of an equilateral triangle, six to seven inches on a side and open at one corner. It is played with a metal beater. If properly struck, the instrument's tone is high, clear, and luminous. Individual notes can be played with a stroke that contact the instrument on the base or along one of the sides near the apex, depending on the tone one wishes to produce. Rolls, which can be notated either as trills or tremolos, are played by executing rapid stokes with one of the angles, producing a sparkling, penetrating sonority that blends beautifully with the upper partials of the orchestral harmony. The triangle entered the arsenal of Western classical music in the Middle Ages, but became a fixture in the orchestra only toward the middle of the 18th century, after being popularized by Janissary bands of the Ottoman Empire.

timpani

pitched drums with large-diameter heads of calfskin or plastic stretched across, deep, bowl-shaped copper shells (hence the name "kettledrums") that impart considerable resonance. The drums come in four standard sizes with overlapping ranges. The largest has a head 30 inches in diameter and a range from low D to the A a fifth above; the rest of the family consists of drums with head diameters of 28 inches (yielding F to C), 25 inches (B-flat to F) and 23 inches (D to A below middle C). Increasing the tension on the drumhead raises the pitch.

sharp accidental

raises the pitch of a note by one semitone

shawm

raucous outdoor instrument of medieval and Renaissance ceremony, descended from Middle Eastern ancestors (see oboe).

mandolin

small plucked string instrument with a pea-shaped, round-backed body, a fretted fingerboard, and four double courses of strings (in the same tuning as those of a violin) that are sounded by a plectrum. Devloped in Naples during the 1740s, it became popular during the second half of the 18th century, and its use as a serenade instrument inspired numerous allusions and parodies in opera, the most famous of which is the aria "Deh, vieni alla finestra" from Mozart's Don Giovanni.

violin

string instrument developed in Italy during the 16th century, the soprano member of the family that includes the viola as its alto (or, more properly, its contralto) and cello as its bass. The violin has four strings that are anchored at the tailpiece, run across the bridge, and over the fingerboard to the nut, and terminate at the pegs, which are used to tension them. The strings, tuned in fifths to the pitches G-D-A-E, are made of metal (copper, aluminum, or steel), gut, or a combination of the two. The violin is held between the chin and left shoulder (a chin rest and shoulder support are often attached), and played with a bow. It has a four-octave range, from the open G to a high G or G-sharp playable, if one has the nerve, on the E string. As the most prominent string instrument in Western culture, the violin has carried the essential message of classical music for 400 years. Its sound is vibrant and extraordinarily rich in overtones, and good players can produce a tone that is radiant, full of life, and wondrously expressive, in every respect as nuanced and communicative as the human voice. The violin also has the deepest, most engaging solo repertoire of any orchestral instrument, testimony to its versatility and innate expressiveness. The highlights of that repertoire are major solo concertos by Vilvadi, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Silebius, Bartok, Berg, Prokofiev, Korngold, Shostakovich, and Barber, all of them technically challenging and emotionally probing.

guitar

string instrument of the lute family with a fretted fingerboard, a wooden body with a flat back and incurved sides, and several courses of strings that are strummed or plucked. The modern six-stringed classical guitar became standardized in the mid-19th century, primarily through the work of Spanish luthier Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817-92). Typically, it has a round soundhole, a table made of spruce or cedar, and sides and back of rosewood or maple. Instruments thought to be forerunners of the modern guitar includ9ing the gittern, a three-or-four-course lutelike instrument of Moorish origin that came to Spain in the 13th century, and the gittern's Spanish offspring, the six or seven-course vihuela, which had a flat back and curved sides and was primarily an instrument of the court. By the 16th century, the smaller four-string guitar, used more in popular music, began to replace the vihuela; the five-string Renaissance guitar came into its own with its first tutorial, by Juon Carles Amat, Guitarra espanola, published in 1596.

habanera

sultry dance in duple time named for the city of Havana. Its characteristic feature is a dotted figure on the downbeat of each measure. Of Afro-Cuban origin, the habanera emerged around 1800 and became enormously popular with French and Spanish composers of the later 19th and early 20th centuries. Bizet immortalized the dance in his opera Carmen, where it serves to introduce the title character.

contrapuntal motion

the general movement of two melodic lines with respect to each other. Words used to describe contrapuntal motion are parallel (two voices move in the same direction by the same generic interval), similar (two voices move in the same direction, but by different intervals), contrary (two voices move in opposite directions—one up, the other down), and oblique (one voice is stationary, while the other voice moves).

transposition

the notation or performance of music at a pitch different from that at which it was originally intended to sound.

melodic contour

the shape of a melodic phrase; terms used to describe melodic contour include rising or falling in pitch, conjunct (stepwise) or disjunct (skipwise) motion, cascading motion, contrapuntal motion, and/or undulating motion.

temperament

the tuning of the notes of various scales so as to produce musically or theoretically appropriate concords. The standard temperament in modern Western music is called "equal temperament," in which every half step is exactly the same distance from its neighbor up and down the scale. It took centuries for equal temperament to emerge from the fog of ancient philosophy and medieval music theory, which held that certain intervals, especially fourths and fifths, had to be "perfect," their pitches fixed according to simple numerical ratios. The problem was that stacking perfectly tuned fourths and fifths on top of each other did not in the end produce a satisfactory octave. For instruments with a fixed tuning, especially keyboard instruments, this eventually became an insurmountable problem. Among the early solutions to this problem were "just" intonation (in which fifths and thirds are kept pure) and "mean-tone" temperament (in which the fifths are shortened but the seconds are of uniform size). Even with these adjustments, certain keys or tonalities sounded much more pleasing to the ear than others, which as time went by proved an increasingly onerous limitation. The proponents of equal temperament argued that not only did it allow music in all keys to sound equally "good", but also that it gave composers the freedom to modulate from on key to another (even a distant key) within a given piece. Still, there is much to be said for "ill-tempered" tunings, which are capable of producing extraordinarily beautiful concords, in some cases, with an entirely unique visceral and emotional impact.

concertmaster

title given to the "leader" or principal first violinist of an orchestra. In addition to being regularly called upon to play solos when they appear in standard repertory works, the concertmaster has an important managerial role in the day-to-day work of an orchestra - deciding in conjunction with the conductor what bowings the first violin section (and by extension the entire string body) will use for specific passages in the music it is to play. In performance, the concertmaster's most important function is to lead by example, in particular to convey to the rest of the string group the phrasing and the manner and intensity of attack appropriate at any given moment.

flute

wind instrument, which in its simplest form consists of a hollow tube, closed at one end, with the embouchure near the closed end, and a series of holes drilled along its length that can be covered by the player's fingers. It is sometimes referred to as the "transverse" flute to distinguish it from instruments such as the recorder that are held end-on. A flutist uses the lips to direct a tightly focused stream of air at the edge of the embouchure; when it strikes the edge, the stream is split into eddies, producing vibrations that cause the column of air inside the flute to resonate. Flutes can be made of anything, wood, bone, bamboo, clay, ivory glass, or metal. The best flutes are made of precious metal: solid sterling silver, gold, or platinum. The standard modern flute is assembled from three sections, called "joints" (head, body, foot). The lowest note is middle C (though some flutes come with an extended foot joint allowing a B) and the usable range extends up to C three octaves above. There is a soft, velvety quality to the lower notes; while with weaker players these notes tend to be breathy, a good player can produce a weighty, even fat, tone when sounding them. There is a brightening of tone as one goes up the scale, and a notable clarity and silvery brilliance in the second octave, the ideal part of the flute's range. Higher than that the flute acquires a penetrating brilliance, tending eventually toward shrillness in the third octave, though when played by a master like James Galway these high notes are of glistering purity, and sweet. The uppermost notes require a considerable amount of breath, however, and cannot be played softly.