Miscellaneous Terms

Question 1

Tetrachord

Answer 1

a series of four notes separated by three intervals

Question 2

Solmization

Answer 2

a system of associating each note of a scale with a particular syllable, especially to teach singing

Question 3

Sequence

Answer 3

the restatement of a motif or longer melodic (or harmonic) passage at a higher or lower pitch in the same voice

Question 4

Isorhythm

Answer 4

a musical technique using a repeating rhythmic pattern, called a talea, in at least one voice part throughout a composition.

Question 5

Hocket

Answer 5

an interrupted effect in medieval and contemporary music, produced by dividing a melody between two parts, notes in one part coinciding with rests in the other

Question 6

Chorale

Answer 6

a musical composition consisting of or resembling a harmonized version of a hymn tune

Question 7

Metrical Psalm

Answer 7

a kind of Bible translation: a book containing a metrical translation of all or part of the Book of Psalms in vernacular poetry, meant to be sung as hymns in a church

Question 8

Anthem

Answer 8

a choral composition based on a biblical passage, for singing by a choir in a church service

Question 9

Cantata

Answer 9

a narrative piece of music for voices with instrumental accompaniment, typically with solos, chorus, and orchestra

Question 10

Oratorio

Answer 10

a large-scale musical work for orchestra and voices, typically a narrative on a religious theme

Question 11

Suite

Answer 11

an ordered set of pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope by the early 17th century

Question 12

Zarzuela

Answer 12

a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance

Question 13

Empfindsamer Stil

Answer 13

“sentimental style” is a style of musical composition and poetry developed in 18th-century Germany, intended to express “true and natural” feelings, and featuring sudden contrasts of mood

Question 14

Galant

Answer 14

During the 1720s to the 1770s, this movement featured a return to simplicity and immediacy of appeal after the complexity of the late Baroque era

Question 15

Intermezzo

Answer 15

a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities

Question 16

Alberti bass

Answer 16

Alberti bass is a particular kind of accompaniment figure in music, often used in the Classical era, and sometimes the Romantic era. It was named after Domenico Alberti

Question 17

Symphony

Answer 17

an extended musical composition in Western classical music

Question 18

Opéra comique

Answer 18

began in the early 18th century- a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias- Carmen is an example

Question 19

Rondo

Answer 19

a musical form with a recurring leading theme, often found in the final movement of a sonata or concerto.

Question 20

Piano sonata

Answer 20

a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements

Question 21

Song cycle

Answer 21

a set of related songs, often on a romantic theme, intended to form a single musical entity

Question 22

Idée fixe

Answer 22

a recurring theme or character trait that serves as the structural foundation of a work

Question 23

Bel canto

Answer 23

refers to the Italian-originated vocal style that prevailed throughout most of Europe during the 18th century and early 19th centuries

Question 24

Cabaletta

Answer 24

a simple aria with a repetitive rhythm

Question 25

Cavatina

Answer 25

originally meaning a short song of simple character, without a second strain or any repetition of the air. It is now frequently applied to any simple, melodious air

Question 26

Melodrama

Answer 26

a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions.

Question 27

Leitmotif

Answer 27

a recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation

Question 28

The Mighty Handful

Answer 28

a group of Russian composers who all wanted to develop a distinctly Russian style of classical music. Made up of Mily Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Question 29

Symphonic poem

Answer 29

(also known as a tone poem) a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, etc.

Question 30

Verismo

Answer 30

a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini. Sought to portray the world with greater realism

Question 31

Blues

Answer 31

a music genre which was originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s by African-Americans with roots in African-American work songs, and spirituals. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, and chants. It’s characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale and specific chord progressions

Question 32

Ragtime

Answer 32

a syncopated musical style, one forerunner of jazz and the predominant style of American popular music from about 1899 to 1917. Ragtime evolved in the playing of honky-tonk pianists along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers

Question 33

Jazz

Answer 33

a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. It’s characterized by swing, blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation

Question 34

Orchestral song

Answer 34

a late romantic genre of classical music for solo voices and orchestra

Question 35

Operetta

Answer 35

a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, short length, and subject matter.

Question 36

Impressionism

Answer 36

a movement among various composers in Western classical music (mainly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries) whose music focuses on “conveying the moods and emotions aroused by the subject rather than a detailed tone‐picture”

Question 37

Pentatonicism

Answer 37

Of or using only five tones, usually the first, second, third, fifth, and sixth tones of a diatonic scale

Question 38

Octatonicism

Answer 38

of or related to an octatonic scale: any eight-note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps

Question 39

Expressionism

Answer 39

a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas

Question 40

Polytonality

Answer 40

the simultaneous use of two or more keys in a musical composition

Question 41

Socialist realism

Answer 41

a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War I

Question 42

Gebrauchsmusik

Answer 42

a German term, meaning “utility music”, for music that exists not only for its own sake, but which was composed for some specific, identifiable purpose

Question 43

Darmstadt School

Answer 43

a group of composers who were associated with the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music from the early 1950s to the early 1960s in Darmstadt, Germany. Initially, this included only Pierre Boulez, Bruno Maderna, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen

Question 44

Musique concrète

Answer 44

music constructed by mixing recorded sounds, first developed by experimental composers in the 1940s.

Question 45

Indeterminacy

Answer 45

a composing approach in which some aspects of a musical work are left open to chance or to the interpreter’s free choice. John Cage, a pioneer of indeterminacy, defined it as “the ability of a piece to be performed in substantially different ways”.

Question 46

Minimalism

Answer 46

a form of art music or other compositional practice that employs limited or minimal musical materials. Prominent features of minimalist music include repetitive patterns or pulses, steady drones, consonant harmony, and reiteration of musical phrases or smaller units- popular composers of this genre include Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and John Adams