Final Exam Flashcards
Timbre
quality of sound or “tone/color” of sound
Timbre variation
you can take almost any instrument and mess with the sound; expressive changes in timbre
rhythm section
harmony, bass, and percussion (usually)
rubato
stretching of time for expression, having trouble determining where the piece ends, kind of just keeps going
downbeat
where you begin counting “one”
measure/bar
the space from downbeat to downbeat
meter
patterns of pulses
rhythmic contrast
a basic african-american rhythmic element, also known as polyrhythm
polyrhythm
always has two contrasting rhythmic layers happening simultaneously
layers in polyrhythm
foundation layer: keeps time, stable, not usually improvised
variable layer: constantly changing and improvised
dropping bombs
big accent booms of bass drum in unpredictable places
genres of african folk music
work song, spiritual, ballad, field holler (&blues), call and response
variable intonation
ex: blue notes
the “father of blues”
W. C. Handy
countrified blues
male singer with a guitar
classic or vaudeville blues
female singer on stage with a small jazz band
race records
recordings for the new urban black market c. 1920’s
who is credited for discovering blues?
Ma Rainey
powerful vaudeville and blues singer in the 1920’s
Bessie Smith
pitch
frequency of a note
tonality
scales’ center of gravity that they are working towards
diatonic scale
seven-note scale, simpler more “ordinary” scale, gives very non-western sound
pentatonic
five note scale that sounds much simpler (ex: black keys on piano), “folksy, simple sound”
chromatic scale
twelve notes, all half steps, more complicated and sounds more sly and forlorn