Chapter 21-24 Vocabulary

Question 1

Virtuosity

Answer 1

Remarkable technical skill

Question 2

Opera

Answer 2

Music drama that is generally sung throughout, combining the resources of vocal and instrumental music with poetry and drama, acting and dancing, scenery and costumes.

Question 3

Figured Bass

Answer 3

Baroque practice consisting of an independent bass line that often includes numerals indicating the harmony to be supplied by performer. Also called Thorough-Bass

Question 4

Bass Continuo

Answer 4

Italian for “continuous bass.” See figured bass. Also refers to a performance group with a choral instrument (harpsichord, organ) and one bass melody instrument (cello, bassoon); also Continuo

Question 5

Major-Minor Tonality

Answer 5

A harmonic system based on the use of major and minor scales, widely practiced from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth century. See also Tonality

Question 6

Equal Temperament

Answer 6

Turning system (used today) based on the division of the octave into twelve equal half steps.

Question 7

Castrato

Answer 7

Male singer who was castrated during boyhood to preserve his soprano or alto vocal register, prominent in seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century opera.

Question 8

Improvisation

Answer 8

The creation of a musical composition while it is being performed, as in Baroque ornamentation, cadenzas of concertos, jazz, and some non-Western musics.

Question 9

Doxology

Answer 9

A prayer of thanks to God, sung after a psalm or at the close of the Magnificat.

Question 10

Da Capo (A-B-A structure)

Answer 10

An indication of return to the beginning of a piece.

Question 11

Recitative

Answer 11

Solo vocal declamation that flows the inflections of the text, often resulting in a disjunct vocal style; found in opera, cantata, and oratorio. Can be secco or accopagnato.

Question 12

Aria

Answer 12

Lyric song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment, generally expressing intense emotion; found in opera, cantata, and oratorio.

Question 13

Overture

Answer 13

An introductory movement, as in an opera or oratorio, often presenting melodies from arias to come. Also an orchestral work for concert performance.

Question 14

Sinfonias

Answer 14

Short instrumental work, found in Baroque opera, to facilitate scene changes.

Question 15

Libretto

Answer 15

Text or script of an opera, oratorio, cantata, or musical (also called the “book” in a musical).

Question 16

Masque

Answer 16

English genre of aristocratic entertainment that combined vocal and instrumental music with poetry and dance, developed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Question 17

Hornpipe

Answer 17

Country dance of the British Isles, often in a lively triple meter, optional dance movement of solo and orchestral Baroque suites. A type of duple-meter hornpipe is still popular in Irish traditional dance music,

Question 18

Scotch Snap

Answer 18

Short-long rhythm.

Question 19

Ground Bass

Answer 19

A repeating melody, usually in the bass, throughout a vocal or instrumental composition.

Question 20

Chorale

Answer 20

Congregational hymn of the German Lutheran church.

Question 21

Lutheran Cantata

Answer 21

The resulting elaboration-of-chorale, a sort of musical sermon on the original hymn.

Question 22

Collegium Musicum

Answer 22

An association of amateur musicians, popular in the Baroque era. Also a modern university ensemble dedicated to the performance of early music.

Question 23

Bar Form (A-A-B)

Section A

Section B

Answer 23

Three part A-A-B form, frequently used in music and poetry, particularly in Germany.
> The first section (Section A) is repeated with new words
> The second section (Section B) is rounded off with the same closing phrases as the first.

Question 24

Oratorio

Answer 24

Large-scale dramatic genre originating in the Baroque, based on a text of religious or serious character, performed by solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, similar to opera but without scenery, costumes, or action.

Question 25

Da Capo Aria

Answer 25

Lyric song in ternary, or A-B-A, form commonly found in operas, cantatas, and oratorios.

Question 26

Ritornellos

Answer 26

Short, recurring instrumental passage found in the Baroque aria and concerto.