Chapter 52-55 Vocabulary

Question 1

Atonal

Answer 1

Total abandonment of tonality (which is centered in a key). Atonal music moves from one level of dissonance to another, without areas of relaxation.

Question 2

Sprechstimme

Answer 2

A vocal style in which the melody is spoken at approximate pitches rather than sung on exact pitches; developed by Schoenberg.

Question 3

Klangfarbenmelodie (Tone-color melody)

Answer 3

Where each note of a melody is played by a different instrument, creating a shifting effect that evokes the moonbeams.

Question 4

Rondeau (Rondo)

Answer 4

Musical form in which the first section recurs several times, usually in the tonic. In the Classical multimovement cycle, it appears as the last movement in various forms, such as A-B-A-B-A, A-B-A-C-A, and A-B-A-C-A-B-A.

Question 5

Serialism

Answer 5

Method of composition in which various musical elements (pitch, rhythm, dynamics, timbre) may be ordered in a fixed series.

Question 6

Tone row

Answer 6

An arrangement of the twelve chromatic pitches that serves as the basis of a twelve-tone piece.

Question 7

Transposed row

Answer 7

Keeps the same order of intervals but begins on a different pitch.

Question 8

Inversion

Answer 8

Mirror or upside-down image of a melody of pattern, found in fugues and twelve-tone compositions.

Question 9

Retrograde

Answer 9

Backward statement of a melody.

Question 10

Retrograde inversion

Answer 10

The mirror image of the backward statement of a melody.