Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Music > Glossary Terms > Flashcards

Glossary Terms Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
Ultimate Music Theory flashcards
0
Q

Avant-garde

A

A French term for “military vanguard”; it has been adapted as a description of cutting edge artistry that seems ahead of its time

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
1
Q

Aggregate

A

The set containing the twelve different pitches used in western music, analogous to all the pitches of the chromatic scale

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Barbershop

A

A style of singing, wildly popular between 1895 and 1930, which employs four voices to harmonize melodies with frequent tritones and seventh chords

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Blue note

A

A pitch that is deliberately sung “out of tune”; it is a device commonly used by jazz and blues musicians, especially on steps 3 and 7 of the scale

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Broadway

A

The primary theatre district of New York

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Cakewalk

A

A plantation-era entertainment that was mimicked in minstrel shows; originally it was a “challenge-dance” in which slave couples –competing for a cake–tried to do the best parody of their owners high-society manners

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Call-and-response

A

A performance technique in which a soloist or small group presents a short motif and a larger group echoes or answers with contrasting material

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Canon

A

1) a body of works that have achieved long-standing admiration and/or popularity; 2) a technique in which a single melody is performed by multiple musicians, but at staggered, overlapping intervals, thus producing imitative polyphony; a synonym is “round,” and an example is the customary performance technique of the childhood tune “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Character piece

A

An instrumental genre that developed in the Romantic era; it is usually a short work that attempts to express the mood or imagery suggested by its particular title (“Waltz,” “Nocturne,” etc.)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Chorus

A

In jazz, this describes one complete statement of the main melody or strain (or of the chords that support that melody).

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Circuit

A

An association of vaudeville theater owners; they hired entertainers who would then travel from theater to theater within the circuit

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Combo

A

A small jazz or blues ensemble

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Commedia dell’arte

A

An Italian entrainment of the sixteenth century featuring stock characters (Harlequin, Columbine, etc.) who would act in improvised comic skits

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Cue sheet

A

A list given to musicians by vaudeville performers; it indicates the types of music needed at particular moments in the performer’s act (the term is now applied to music that is planned for a movie).

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Custom score (also, original score)

A

Music that is newly composed for a particular film (or television event)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Drone

A

A sustained, unchanging note; the open pipes on a bagpipe are called drones, so their sound is sometimes mimicked in art music by the use of long notes, usually in lower-pitched instruments

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Ethnomusicology

A

A field of study that focuses on music and its cultural aspects within local and global contexts

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Fermata

A

An indication for musicians to sustain a note (or a rest) longer than its customary value, briefly stopping the forward momentum of the piece

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Field holler

A

A long, loud, improvised solo call that expresses emotion

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Field recording

A

A machine-made audio (or video) recording of music performed in its natural environment (as opposed to a studio recording

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

Film score

A

A new genre of the twentieth century; it is the music written to accompany the showing of a film

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

Glissando

A

A rapid sweeping motion up or down a scale, resembling the strum-like” playing technique used by harpists

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

Humanism

A

A system of thought or worldview which attaches primary importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

Impresario

A

A term for the person who controls the finances for an opera or ballet company, and thus is the final authority when hiring composers, performers, etc.; the term “producer” is an equivalent in the film industry.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

Interpolation

A

A number that is added to a show after opening night

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

Klangfarbenmelodie (tone color melody)

A

A twentieth-century compositional technique that puts the emphasis on a series of timbres (tone colors) rather than a single melody

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

March

A

An instrumental genre, usually intended for bands, that features repetitive music patterns and a steady beat (since it originated as a way to keep military groups in step

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

Melismatic

A

Describes a method of setting poetic text in which a single syllable is flexed over a series of different pitches

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

Miniature

A

A short composition, often an synonym for character piece; usually focused on expressing a central image or mood as suggested by its title

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
29
Q

Modal

A

Refers to one of the older scales used in the medieval and renaissance period; major (Ionian) and minor (Aeolian) are only two of the several modal scales that were formerly employed

30
Q

Multi-thematic form

A

A musical architecture used in most marches; it consists of at least three melodies (also called “strains”), with each strain repeated before moving on to the next (e.g., AABBCC)

31
Q

Mute

A

A device that quiets or muffles an instrument’s sound in some way

32
Q

On the bridge

A

A performance indication for sing players, telling them to bow directly over the bridge, which produces a glassy, thin sound (German: am Steg; Italian: sul ponticello)

33
Q

Opera

A

A genre of stage entertainment developed in Italy at the start of the Baroque era; the characters sing their lines rather than speaking them as they would in a play

34
Q

Original score (also, custom score)

A

Music that is newly composed for a particular film (or television event)

35
Q

Ostinato

A

A short musical pattern that repeats many times; it can be a melodic fragment, or even just a rhythmic motif

36
Q

Passacaglia

A

A musical form consisting of a repeating bass line underneath a series of varied melodies

37
Q

Pizzicato

A

The technique of plucking a string on an instrument that is normally bowed (violin, viola, bass, cello)

38
Q

Pointillism

A

An extremely sparse texture in music, where notes often are sounded or sung with no accompaniment, sometimes rests before or afterward, so that each pitch sounds isolated

39
Q

Polychord

A

A complex chord whose pitches can be subdivided into two or more distinct, independent harmonies

40
Q

Post-Romanticism

A

A style of twentieth century composition that retains many of the features of romanticism, with its emphasis on expressiveness, sometimes in combination with newer devices or with techniques from the more distant past

41
Q

Prima donna

A

Italian for “first lady,” this term refers to the starring female role in an opera

42
Q

Prima uomo

A

Italian for “first man,” this term refers to the starring male role in an opera

43
Q

Rag

A

A popular genre, primarily for piano, that uses the style of ragtime; it blends syncopated rhythms with multi-thematic form

44
Q

Refrain

A

A synonym for the repetitive chorus in a verse-chorus form

45
Q

Scenario

A

The “plot” or storyline of a ballet

46
Q

Second Viennese School

A

The Vienna-based composers Arnold Schoenberg and his most prominent pupils, Alban Berg and Anton Weber; the “First Viennese School” had been the Classical/Romantic group consisting of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

47
Q

Shout

A

A term for African-American group singing and dancing, sometimes called “ring shout”; the words often had religious message

48
Q

Solo Break

A

A passage in a jazz piece in which the majority of performers stop playing in order to feature one soloist

49
Q

Song cycle

A

A set of songs unified by some shared characteristic in music and/or poetry

50
Q

Song-plugger

A

A person who promotes sheet music for a publishing company

51
Q

Spiritual

A

A vocal genre developed by African Americans; it usually has as simple, flexible melody and conveys a religious message

52
Q

Sprechstimme

A

A twentieth century vocal technique in which the singer half-sings, half-speaks each note

53
Q

Star-turn

A

A number that features the special talents of a performer

54
Q

Stop-time

A

A jazz playing technique in which an ensemble plays a single note together on the first beat of a bar, and then stops playing until the next measure; it is a special effect sometimes used to accompany a soloist.

55
Q

Storyville

A

A district in New Orleans at the beginning of the twentieth century that is viewed as the axis of the earliest development of jazz

56
Q

Strain

A

A synonym for melody

57
Q

Stride piano

A

A keyboard style that blends the steady left-hand pulsations of ragtime with a right hand that plays swing rhythms; it is usually faster and played more forcefully than ragtime.

58
Q

Swing

A

A rhythmic device particularly prevalent in jazz; it creates a compound-meter effect by lengthening the first eighth note in a pair and subtracting that time from the second note.

59
Q

Text expression

A

The technique of choosing musical elements that suit the meaning of the poetry, such as employing an allegro tempo in a song in which the narrator is excited.

60
Q

Toccata

A

A musical genre, usually for keyboard, that is fast virtuosic, and has an impromptu character

61
Q

Tombeau

A

A musical “lament”

62
Q

Tone cluster

A

A highly dissonant chord that contains several half- or whole-step intervals

63
Q

Tone color

A

The characteristic of sound produced by a voice or instrument; a synonym for timbre

64
Q

Turn

A

The act (entertainment) presented by each performer or group in a vaudeville (variety) show

65
Q

Vamp

A

A short motif that is repeated as a “filler” until a performer is ready to proceed

66
Q

Vernacular music

A

Traditional music belonging to a culture, ethnic group, or society, usually transmitted orally among nonprofessional performers

67
Q

Verse-chorus form

A

A form used in vocal music that contrasts verses (usually labeled “a”) with a repetitive chorus or refrain (“B”) in alteration; e.g. a-B-a-B (etc.)

68
Q

Wah-Wah mute

A

A jazz timbre achieved by waiving the rubber plunger of a plumbers helper over the bell of a trumpet or trombone; it produces a sound that can resemble a distorted human voice.

69
Q

Waltz

A

A ballroom dance in triple meter

70
Q

West End

A

The main theater district of London

71
Q

Whole-tone scale

A

A scale that consists of only six pitches, each of which is a whole step (M2) away from the next; e.g. C-D-E-F#-G#-Bb-[C]

72
Q

Word-painting

A

A technique in vocal music in which the musical setting depicts the literal meaning of specific words, such as a melody that rises and falls while singing about a mountain

73
Q

Work song

A

A vocal genre performed by laborers, either as a group or in a call-and-response pattern; it usually has a steady pulse to help regulate the work flow

Music (17 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions