Elements Of Music

Question 1

What is tempo?

Answer 1

The speed or pace of a piece of music

Question 2

What do these terms mean:
Adagio
Andante
Allegro
(They are all to do with tempo)

Answer 2

Adagio-slow
Andante-a walking pace
Allegro-fast

Question 3

Getting faster is called…

To do with tempo

Answer 3

Accelerando

Question 4

Getting slower is called…

To do with tempo

Answer 4

Rallentando

Question 5

What are dynamics?

Answer 5

This refers to the volume of music

Question 6

What is duration?

Answer 6

• This refers to how long a note sounds.

- Length of notes are measured in beats

Question 7

What is texture?

Answer 7

-this refers to the complexity of a piece of music

Question 8

What do these terms mean? (They are all to do with texture)

• polyphonic
• homophonic

Answer 8

• polyphonic-Where more than one melodic line is played in a piece of music the texture can be described as complex or polyphonic.
• homophonic-Where a melody is played and accompanied by, eg, block chords the texture can be described as simple or homophonic

Question 9

What is timbre?

Answer 9

This refers to the unique sound characteristic of an instrument that distinguishes it from other instruments

Question 10

What is tonality?

Answer 10

If the music sounds happy, it is said to be in a ‘major’ key. If it sounds sad, it is in a ‘minor’ key.

Question 11

What is pitch?

Answer 11

How high or low a note sounds, described using the letters A-G

Question 12

What do these terms mean? (They are all to do with dynamics)

• forte
• piano
• crescendo
• diminuendo

Answer 12

Loud music is called forte
Soft music is called piano
Getting louder is called crescendo
Getting softer is called diminuendo