Chapter 12

Question 1

variation

Answer 1

The process of reworking a given melody, song, theme, or other musical idea, or the resulting varied form of it.

Question 2

prelude

Answer 2

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

Question 3

fantasia/fantasy

Answer 3

(improvisation) (Italian, ‘fantasy’), fantasy (1) Instrumental composition that resembles an improvisation or lacks a strict form. (2) imitative instrumental piece on a single subject.

Question 4

toccata

Answer 4

Piece for keyboard instrument or lute resembling an improvisation that may include imitative sections or may serve as a prelude to an independent fugue.

Question 5

ricercare/ricercar

Answer 5

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

Question 6

canzona/canzon

Answer 6

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

Question 7

instrumental families

Answer 7

separated based on sound (uniform timbre)

woodwind, brass, string, percussion

Question 8

intabulations

Answer 8

Arrangement of a vocal piece for lute or keyboard, typically written in tablature.

Question 9

sackbut

Answer 9

Renaissance brass instrument, an early form of the trombone

Question 10

crumhorn

Answer 10

medieval wind instrument with an enclosed double reed and an upward-curving end, producing an even, nasal sound (soft bagpipe)

Question 11

lute

Answer 11

pear-shaped, rounded back, flat fingerboard, pegbox

one single, five double strings, usually tuned G-c-f-a-d’-g’

Question 12

vihuela

Answer 12

Spanish relative of the lute with a flat back and guitar-shaped body.

Question 13

viol/viola de gamba

Answer 13

Bowed, fretted string instrument popular from the mid-fifteenth to the early eighteenth centuries, held between the legs.

Question 14

violin

Answer 14

Bowed, fretless string instrument tuned in fifths (g-d’-a’-e’).

Question 15

clavichord

Answer 15

Keyboard instrument popular between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. The loudness, which depends on the force with which a brass blade strikes the strings, is under the direct control of the player.

Question 16

virginal

Answer 16

(1) English name for harpsichord, used for all types until the seventeenth century.
(2) Type of harpsichord that is small enough to place on a table, with a single keyboard and strings running at right angles to the keys rather than parallel with them as in larger harpsichords.

Question 17

ornament

Answer 17

A brief, conventional formula, such as a trill or turn, written or improvised, that adds expression or charm to a melodic line.