14-15 Music Set 1

Question 1

translated literally, means “in the church style”; for musicians, it has come to mean vocal music without instruments

Answer 1

a cappella

Question 2

term to describe non-programmatic music

Answer 2

absolute music

Question 3

a tuneful, rhythmic portion of an opera; the soloist usually expresses a particular emotional state and uses extreme virtuosity to show off his or her voice

Answer 3

aria

Question 4

a technique in which the individual pitches of a chord are played in rapid succession rather than simultaneously, in the manner that one would strum a guitar or harp

Answer 4

arpeggio

Question 5

a designation for music of the late 12th & 13th centuries, as techniques of pitch and rhythmic notation were devised and early polyphony was developing

Answer 5

ars antiqua

Question 6

a designation for music of the fourteenth century, when composers employed highly sophisticated techniques of pitch and rhythmic notation to create dense polyphonic pieces

Answer 6

ars nova

Question 7

the technique of using pervading imitation “perfected” by the Renaissance composer Josquin Prez

Answer 7

ars perfecta

Question 8

an approach to composition in which there is no tonal center or tonic note

Answer 8

atonality

Question 9

German for “eye music”, a compositional device in which a compose notates the music so that it visually resembles whatever the poetry is addressing, such as double whole-notes during a reference to someone’s eyes

Answer 9

augenmusik

Question 10

French term for “military vanguard”; it has been adapted as a description of cutting-edge artistry that seems ahead of its time

Answer 10

avant-garde

Question 11

a designation for the period of music history spanning the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century

Answer 11

Baroque era

Question 12

the Baroque method of realizing the figured-bass numbers, involving two players; a single-line bass instrument (bassoon, cello, etc) and a chord-playing instrument (harpsichord, lute, etc); syn. thoroughbass

Answer 12

Basso continuo

Question 13

a chord in which all the pitches are sounded simultaneously, in contrast to an arpeggio

Answer 13

block chord

Question 14

a pitch that is deliberately sung “out of tune”; it is a device commonly used by jazz and blues musicians, especially on steps 3 and 7 of the scale

Answer 14

blue note

Question 15

a section during a solo concerto in which the unaccompanied soloist is featured while the orchestra stops playing; he or she often improvises the virtuostic material that is performed

Answer 15

cadenza

Question 16

a performance technique in which a soloist or small group presents a short motif and a larger group echoes or answers with contrasting material

Answer 16

call-and-response

Question 17

literally “fixed song,” this is a term for a melody that is borrowed from some earlier source - often plainchant- and is imbedded within a new polyphonic piece

Answer 17

cantus firmus

Question 18

French word for song

Answer 18

chanson

Question 19

a piano genre that grew in popularity in the Romantic era; the small-scale work is a portrayal of a particular image or mood, usually suggested by the title

Answer 19

character piece

Question 20

a designation for the period of music history spanning from the mid 18th century through the first two or three decades of the 19th cent

Answer 20

classical era