Listening Prelim

Question 1

Accelerando

Answer 1

The Italian term, to speed up. In a piece of music it will say accelerando meaning to speed up at that bar

Question 2

Accidental

Answer 2

Either a sharp, flat or natural

Question 3

Opera

Answer 3

A drama set to music with soloists, chops, acting and orchestral accompaniment

Question 4

Ornament

Answer 4

An ornament decorates a melody by adding extra notes. Ornaments are often short and add melodic and rítmica interest

Question 5

Melisma /melismatic

Answer 5

Several notes sung to one syllable

Question 6

Anacrusis

Answer 6

One or more unstressed notes before the first bar line of a piece or passage

Question 7

Repetition

Answer 7

An exact repeat of a musical idea, such as Ostia to or a riff

Question 8

Imitation

Answer 8

Where the melody is immediately copied in another part. It needs to be not an exact copy

Question 9

Major

Answer 9

The music sounds in a major key often described as cheery, happy feel to it

Question 10

Rallentando

Answer 10

With a gradual decrease of speed

Question 11

Adagio

Answer 11

In slow time

Question 12

Andante

Answer 12

In a moderately slow tempo

Question 13

Simple time

Answer 13

The best of a piece of music can be broken into two-part rhythms. Simple time signatures are the easiest to count, because a one-two pulse in a piece of music feels the most natural to a listener and performer. Common examples are 4/4,2/3,3/8 and 2/2

Question 14

Compound time

Answer 14

The beat is broken down in there-part rhythms. The top number is evenly divisible by 3, with the exception of time signatures where the top number is 3. Also each beat is divided into three components, creating a one-two-three pulse. Common examples 6/8, 12/8, 9/4

Question 15

Bass

Answer 15

Low frequency sound. Anything bellow middle C in the piano. Require long and thick strings to create low frequency sounds

Question 16

Soprano

Answer 16

The highest part of a piece of harmony

Question 17

Flutter tongue got

Answer 17

Rolling your r’s whilst playing a bass or wood wing instrument

Question 18

Cadenza

Answer 18

A passage of music which allows soloists to display their technical ability in singing or playing an instrument

Question 19

Cross rhythm

Answer 19

To describe the effect of two notes being played against three. In piano it might be groups of two quavers in the right hand and groups of triplets in the left. Also used to describe the effect that occurs when the accents in a piece of music are different from those suggested by the time signature

Question 20

Riff

Answer 20

A repeated chord progression, pattern or melody. Used in pop,rock, jazz

Question 21

Symphony

Answer 21

A large work for orchestra. Usually four movements. In classical periods the movements were normally fast

Question 22

Swing

Answer 22

A form of notation in which the beat, typically a crotchet, is divided into two parts, and the former part is longer and more accented than the later

Question 23

Vamp

Answer 23

A rhythmic accompaniment with a bass note played on the beat and a chord off the beat. Usually played on piano or guitar

Question 24

Ostinato

Answer 24

Same as riff and loop. Ostinato more used in classical music, riff pop and loop contemporary dance music. Audios in Bitesize. A phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical, usually at the same pitch

Question 25

Minimalist

Answer 25

Features that can be found are:complex contrapuntal texture, broken chords, slow harmonic changes, note addition to a repeated phrase, melodic and rhythmic transformation and gradual changes in texture and dynamics

Question 26

Ragtime

Answer 26

style of early jazz music written largely for the piano in the early twentieth century, characterized by jaunty rhythms and a whimsical mood. Note: Scott Joplin was a famous composer and performer of ragtime

Question 27

Orchestra

Answer 27

A group of musicians who play together on a variety of instruments, which usually come from all four instrument families — brass, percussion, strings, and woodwinds. A typical symphony orchestra is made up of more than ninety musicians.

Question 28

Homophony

Answer 28

Texture. Means sounding together

Question 29

Polyphony

Answer 29

polyphony consists of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, which is called homophony.

Question 30

6/8

Answer 30

6/8 means two beats (dotted chrotchets) divided into threes.” Maran’s Illustrated Piano (pp 55) says: “In the 6/8 time signature, each measure has 6 beats and each eighth note receives one beat.

Question 31

3/4

Answer 31

To start this off, think of a waltz. You might count it out like this: One two three one two three (and so on). That’s 3/4 time; each measure is three quarter-notes long (or the equivalent number of notes of other lengths). Most music is in 4/4, also known as common time, where measures are four quarter-notes long.

Question 32

2/4

Answer 32

Common Music Time Signatures. … The two numbers in the time signature tell you how many beats are in each measure of music. A piece with a time signature of 4/4 has four quarter note beats; each measure with a 3/4 meter has three quarter note beats; and each measure of 2/4 time has two quarter note beats.

Question 33

Accelerando

Answer 33

is an indication to gradually increase the tempo of a song until otherwise noted

Question 34

Rubato

Answer 34

to expressive and rhythmic freedom by a slight speeding up and then slowing down of the tempo of a piece at the discretion of the soloist or the conductor.

Question 35

Chorus

Answer 35

group singing choral parts in connection with soloists or individual singers. a piece of music for singing in unison. a part of a song that recurs at intervals, usually following each verse; refrain.

Question 36

Glissando

Answer 36

s a glide from one pitch to another. It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French glisser, to glide. In some contexts it is distinguished from the continuous portamento.

Question 37

Mezzo soprano

Answer 37

is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types

Question 38

Cello

Answer 38

a musical instrument with strings, shaped like a large violi

Question 39

Blues

Answer 39

usually distinguished by a strong 4/4 rhythm, flatted thirds and sevenths, a 12-bar structure, and lyrics in a three-line stanza in which the second line repeats the first:

Question 40

Gaelic phasalm

Answer 40

Psalms (hymns) which were sung in Gaelic, unaccompanied. The minister in the church leads the congregation in the singing. Heard mostly in the Western Isles of Scotland.

Question 41

Wind band

Answer 41

A band with woodwind, brass and percussion instruments.

Question 42

Simple time

Answer 42

The music has two, three or four beats in each bar, and each beat is a crotchet (1 beat note) and each beat can be divided into 2. If you try saying the word ‘sim-ple’ in each beat, and it fits with the notes, then you are listening to simple time.

Simple time signatures are written as 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4.

Question 43

Classical

Answer 43

This term refers to music composed during the period 1750 to 1810 approximately.

This was the era of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Question 44

Baroque

Answer 44

Baroque is the name given to a style of music composed during a particular period, 1600-1750 approximately.

Bach and Handel are two of the composers from this period.

Question 45

Jig

Answer 45

fast dance in compound time. Usually 2 beats in a bar, with each beat dividing into 3 quavers.

Question 46

Pibroch

Answer 46

Music for solo bagpipe, in theme and variation form, and with grace notes.

Question 47

Reel

Answer 47

A Scottish dance written in simple time with two or four beats in a bar. It is usually in a major key and is played at a fairly fast tempo. Each beat can be heard dividing equally into groups of two or four.

Question 48

Concerto

Answer 48

A work for solo instrument and orchestra, eg a flute concerto is written for flute and orchestra. It is normally in three movements.

Question 49

Atonal

Answer 49

Atonal music has no feeling of key, major or minor. It is very dissonant, and it will lack a ‘nice’ melody and accompaniment. Atonal music is a feature of some 20th-century music.

Question 50

Modulation

Answer 50

A change of key.

Question 51

Alegro

Answer 51

A fast tempo (speed), approximately 120-168 beats per minute.

Question 52

Chorus

Answer 52

A group of singers with several people to each part.
The music written for these singers.
The refrain between verses of a song.

Question 53

Aria

Answer 53

A solo song sung in an operatic style, in an opera, oratorio or cantata, with orchestral accompaniment.

Question 54

Tenor

Answer 54

A high-pitched, adult male voice.

Question 55

Country

Answer 55

Country music is a genre of United States popular music that originated in the Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from the southeastern genre of United States, such as folk music (especially Appalachian folk music), and blues music.

Question 56

Pentatonic

Answer 56

Any five-note scale. In practice, the most common one is that on which much folk music is based, particularly Scottish and Celtic. The five notes could be C D E G A.

Musical notation showing an example of a pentatonic scale
Auld Lang Syne is composed using this pentatonic scale. Can you work out the melody for Auld Lang Syne, starting with the note G?

Question 57

Blues scale

Answer 57

scale generally consisting of tonic, major second, minor third, fourth, fifth, major sixth, and minor seventh, in which notes, particularly the third, fourth, and fifth may be bent.

Question 58

Trill

Answer 58

Moving quickly and repeatedly between two notes which are a step apart. A trill is played when the symbol tr is written above a note.

The examples show a trill played between the notes C and D.

This picture shows how the music would look if the trill is written out in full.

Question 59

Scotch snap

Answer 59

A very short accented note before a longer note. A feature of Strathspeys.

Question 60

Perfect cadence

Answer 60

A cadence consists of two chords at the end of a phrase. A perfect cadence is the dominant to tonic chords (V-I). In the key of C major, chords G-C.

Question 61

Scottish country dance band

Answer 61

A band which plays Scottish music for people to dance to. The instruments may include fiddle, accordion, piano and drums.

Question 62

Ragtime

Answer 62

A style of dance music which became popular at the end of the 19th century and which helped to influence jazz.

It features a strongly syncopated melody (meaning the notes don’t always fall on the beat) against a steady, simple accompaniment played as a vamp, often played on piano, eg Scott Joplin rags.

Question 63

Arco

Answer 63

Instruction given to string players to use a bow. This term might be given to players after a passage using pizzicato

Question 64

Ornament

Answer 64

An ornament decorates a melody by adding extra notes. Ornaments are often short and add melodic and rhythmic interest.

The first example shows first how a mordent is written and then how it is played: the main note is played, followed by the note above, then the main note again.