Listening Prelim Flashcards
Accelerando
The Italian term, to speed up. In a piece of music it will say accelerando meaning to speed up at that bar
Accidental
Either a sharp, flat or natural
Opera
A drama set to music with soloists, chops, acting and orchestral accompaniment
Ornament
An ornament decorates a melody by adding extra notes. Ornaments are often short and add melodic and rítmica interest
Melisma /melismatic
Several notes sung to one syllable
Anacrusis
One or more unstressed notes before the first bar line of a piece or passage
Repetition
An exact repeat of a musical idea, such as Ostia to or a riff
Imitation
Where the melody is immediately copied in another part. It needs to be not an exact copy
Major
The music sounds in a major key often described as cheery, happy feel to it
Rallentando
With a gradual decrease of speed
Adagio
In slow time
Andante
In a moderately slow tempo
Simple time
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
Compound time
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
Bass
Low frequency sound. Anything bellow middle C in the piano. Require long and thick strings to create low frequency sounds
Soprano
The highest part of a piece of harmony
Flutter tongue got
Rolling your r’s whilst playing a bass or wood wing instrument
Cadenza
A passage of music which allows soloists to display their technical ability in singing or playing an instrument
Cross rhythm
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
Riff
A repeated chord progression, pattern or melody. Used in pop,rock, jazz
Symphony
A large work for orchestra. Usually four movements. In classical periods the movements were normally fast
Swing
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
Vamp
A rhythmic accompaniment with a bass note played on the beat and a chord off the beat. Usually played on piano or guitar
Ostinato
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
Minimalist
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
Ragtime
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
Orchestra
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.
Homophony
Texture. Means sounding together
Polyphony
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.
6/8
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.
3/4
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.
2/4
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.
Accelerando
is an indication to gradually increase the tempo of a song until otherwise noted
Rubato
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.
Chorus
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.
Glissando
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.
Mezzo soprano
is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types
Cello
a musical instrument with strings, shaped like a large violi
Blues
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:
Gaelic phasalm
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.
Wind band
A band with woodwind, brass and percussion instruments.
Simple time
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.
Classical
This term refers to music composed during the period 1750 to 1810 approximately.
This was the era of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.
Baroque
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.
Jig
fast dance in compound time. Usually 2 beats in a bar, with each beat dividing into 3 quavers.
Pibroch
Music for solo bagpipe, in theme and variation form, and with grace notes.
Reel
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.
Concerto
A work for solo instrument and orchestra, eg a flute concerto is written for flute and orchestra. It is normally in three movements.
Atonal
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.
Modulation
A change of key.
Alegro
A fast tempo (speed), approximately 120-168 beats per minute.
Chorus
A group of singers with several people to each part.
The music written for these singers.
The refrain between verses of a song.
Aria
A solo song sung in an operatic style, in an opera, oratorio or cantata, with orchestral accompaniment.
Tenor
A high-pitched, adult male voice.
Country
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.
Pentatonic
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?
Blues scale
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.
Trill
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.
Scotch snap
A very short accented note before a longer note. A feature of Strathspeys.
Perfect cadence
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.
Scottish country dance band
A band which plays Scottish music for people to dance to. The instruments may include fiddle, accordion, piano and drums.
Ragtime
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.
Arco
Instruction given to string players to use a bow. This term might be given to players after a passage using pizzicato
Ornament
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.
