Glossary of Key Words Flashcards
AABA song form
A form consisting of four eight-bar phrases that are built on two melodic ideas (‘A’ and ‘B’). Sometimes known as 32-bar song form.
Add chord
An abbreviation for ‘added note chord’, where an extra note is added to a basic chord. The most common add chord is the added sixth where a sixth is added to a major triad.
Alap
In North Indian classical music a slow introductory section which helps to set the mood. It has a free rhythm with no regular pulse and is unaccompanied apart from the drone. It usually moves from the lower notes to the higher notes.
Appoggiatura
A dissonant note approached by a leap that usually resolves by step onto a harmony note. Appoggiaturas may be written as ornamental grace notes in small notes or as full-sized notes.
Archlute
A type of lute often used as a continuo instrument from the end of the 16th century to the early 18th century. It has an extended neck with long bass strings running beside the normal strings.
Aria
A solo song with accompaniment usually found on an opera or oratorio.
Arpeggiation
Where the notes of a chord are spread out, each one being played in turn, usually from the bottom note upwards.
Augmentation
An increase in the note lengths of a melody, usually proportionate.
Ballad
Originally a form of verse, often a narrative, set to music. From the late 19th century used to describe a slow popular love song and now commonly used to describe a slow and usually romantic song with a wide, expressive melody and vocal delivery.
Bansuri
An indian bamboo flute with no keys and six or seven finger holes.
Baroque period
Music in the Western Classical tradition from about 1600 to about 1750.
Bebop
A virtuosic style of jazz which developed in the 1940s in the US. Characterised by fast tempos, intricate melodies, and the use of complex chords and chord progressions.
Bend
Where the pitch of a note is changed slightly.
Block chords
Chords built in rhythmic unison with the melody (homorhythmic) i.e. all parts move together in the same rhythm.
Bolero (Cuban)
A slow, sentimental Cuban song in duple time, often with chromatic harmonies.
Bollywood
The name given to the Hindi film industry based in Mumbai (once known as Bombay), combining the words Bombay and Hollywood. The music integrates Indian and Western instruments and musical styles.
Bongos
A pair of small Afro-Cuban single-headed drums with conical or cylindrical hardwood shells, often fixed together by a bar of metal. Bongos are usually played with the bare hands and have a loud, penetrating sound.
Bridge
In popular music, see middle eight (A contrasting section [not necessarily eight bars long] in a popular song, often with a different arrangement of instruments, and/or different chords. Sometimes the middle eight is referred to as the bridge).
Bridge passage
In classical music, a transition section leading from one theme to another.
Cadence
The chords that conclude a musical phrase (e.g. a perfect cadence uses chords V-I and an imperfect cadence uses I or other non-dominant chord and V). Cadences are used to punctuate music, either bringing a melody to a point of repose before going on, or bringing it to a close.
Cadenza
An extended unaccompanied solo passage based on a cadence and featuring brilliant passage work.
Call and response
A solo that is heard and then immediately responded to by another (usually larger) group with an answering phrase.
Calypso
A type of music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago fusing European and West African influences. It is characterised by improvised lyrics on topical or broadly humorous subjects.
Canon
The adjective is canonic. In a canon, two or more parts engage in imitation for some time, perhaps even throughout a complete section or piece.
Cantata
Literally means ‘sung’. An extended piece of music for voices and accompaniment, particularly associated with the Baroque period.
Celesta
A small keyboard instrument with an ethereal, bell-like sound.
Cembalo
Harpsichord
Chance music
See indeterminacy (Music that cannot be predicted before performances. This includes music which was composed through chance procedures and/or where a decision by the performer replaces a decision by the composer. Sometimes known as aleatoric music of chance music).
Chorale
A type of hymn traditionally sung in Lutheran churches in Germany. Chorales sometimes form part of a larger work often for voices or organ.
Chromatic
Chromatic notes are those outside a particular major or minor key (e.g. G sharp in G major). Notes belonging to the scale of the key are ‘diatonic’. Chromatic harmony uses notes from outside the key to colour the chords.
Chromatic scale
A scale made up of all the 12 notes in an octave and formed entirely of semitones.
Classical period
Music in the Western Classical tradition from about 1750 to 1820.
Clave (Rhythm)
A repeated interlocking rhythmic pattern used in Cuban music. It is made up of several one- of two-bar patterns, each played by a different instrument.
Claves
A Latin-American instrument made up of two cylindrical hard wood sticks. One stick rests on the fingertips of one hand and the other stick is used to strike it. The cupped palm acts as a resonator, producing a penetrating, short and dry sound.
Coda
A concluding section.
Coloratura
Very showy and elaborate vocal writing, especially in opera. A coloratura soprano is one with a high, light, agile voice who sings in this style.
Concept album
A studio album where the different tracks are linked together through the lyrics and/or musical ideas contributing to a single unified theme or story.
Concert pitch
Sounding pitch, as opposed to the written pitch for transposing instruments.
Concertino
The group of soloists in a concerto grosso.
Concerto grosso
A work in several movements written for a group of soloists (the ‘concertino’) and orchestra (the ‘ripieno’). Generally associated with Baroque music.
Congas
Afro-Cuban drums with a tall, narrow, barrel-shaped body, played with the fingers and palms. The pitch can be raised by applying pressure to the drumhead with the heel of the hand. They are usually played in pairs.
Consonant
Consonant chords and intervals sound stable.
Continuo
A term meaning either the group of instruments (or single instrument) used to provide the bass, or the notated bass line from which those instruments play (the basso continuo). The continuo part was usually played by a keyboard instrument such as harpsichord or organ (which provided appropriate harmony) plus a bassline often played by a cello, viol or bassoon.
Contrapuntal
In counterpoint (a texture where two or more melodic lines are combined).
Coro-pregón
A structure found in many Cuban genres based on call and response between the lead singer and the ‘coro’ (chorus). Melody and lyrics, called ‘guía’ or ‘pregón’ are improvised by a soloist. The ‘coro’ is sung by a group and has a fixed melody and lyrics, usually repeated unchanged.
Counter melody
A melodic line played in counterpoint with a more prominent lead melody.
Counterpoint
A texture where two or more melodic lines are combined.
Cross rhythm
The effect produced when two conflicting rhythms are heard together.
Cuatro
A small plucked instruments similar to the guitar and popular in South America. There are several different sizes and tunings. The Cuban cuatro is a small eight-string guitar where the strings are tuned in pairs in octaves.
Cue
Each piece of music in a film score.
Descarga
In Cuban music, a jam session featuring improvisation, sometimes used to create songs.
Development
- The central section of a movement in sonata form where material from the exposition is transformed. The music usually includes several modulations.
- The process of modifying musical materials, generally melodic themes, which are changed, transposed or extended, motivically, harmonically or contapunctually.
Diatonic
Notes belonging to the scale of a key are ‘diatonic’.
Diminution
A shortening of the note lengths of a melody, usually proportionate.
Dissonant
Dissonant chords and intervals feel somewhat unstable, as though one of the notes needs to move up or down to resolve into a consonance. Perceptions of what constitutes consonance and dissonance have changed over time.
Dorian mode
The mode following the pattern of intervals formed by D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D. Note the semitones between the second and third, and sixth and seventh degrees.
Drone
Especially in non-classical genres, the extended sustaining or repetition of a note or harmonic interval.
Enharmonically
Enharmonic notes sound the same but are written (or ‘spelt’) differently e.g. G# or Ab.
Ensemble
A group of singers and/or players, usually used when referring to groups smaller than a chorus of an orchestra.
Exposition
The first section in sonata form where the musical material is ‘exposed’ i.e. presented for the first time. The first subject is in the main (or tonic) key. The second subject is in a different key and has a different character. In another context, this term of also used to refer to the opening section of a fugue.
Extended chords
Further notes added to seventh chords, e.g. 9th, 11th and 13th chords where further thirds are added.
Extended techniques
Unconventional or non-traditional methods of singing or of playing musical instruments employed to obtain unusual sounds of timbres.
Figured bass
Used in the Baroque period as a way of denoting chords and their inversions where numbers, or figures, indicate the required harmonies.
Free jazz
A term applied to avant-garde jazz of the 1950s and 1960s and experimental jazz performance in general. Free-jazz musicians explore new sonic possibilities and innovative approaches to composition and improvisation.
Fugal
Adjective from fugue, usually referring to contrapuntal textures which share the characteristics of a fugue but are not continued to make a complete fugue.
Fugue
A contrapuntal piece for two or more instrumental or vocal parts, based on a theme (or ‘subject’) which is imitated at different pitches and in different key(s).
Functional harmony
Harmony that establishes a clear tonality.
Gamelan
Term applied to Indonesian orchestras (largely consisting of gongs and metallophones) and to the music composed for them.
Glissando
A slide from one pitch to another.
Guía
See coro-pregòn (A structure found in many Cuban genres based on call and response between the lead singer and the ‘coro’ (chorus). Melody and lyrics, called ‘guía’ or ‘pregón’ are improvised by a soloist. The ‘coro’ is sung by a group and has a fixed melody and lyrics, usually repeated unchanged).
Guiro
A South American percussion instrument usually made from a gourd with a series of grooves cut in one side which ae scraped with a wooden or wire rod.
Habanera
A Cuban dance, popular in Spain. It is in a slow tempo and duple metre with a lilting rhythmic ostinato and features stately steps accompanied by sensual movements of the arms, hip, head and eyes.
Hammering (for sitar)
A playing technique on the sitar similar to the guitar technique of hammer on/pull offs. On the sitar this is often combined with sliding a left-hand finger across one or more frets.
Happening
An artistic event that combines elements of theatre, performance art, music, and the visual arts, often within a loose structure and without a plot. Happenings often take place in unconventional performance spaces.
