Music 101 Terms Flashcards
To learn the terms
Crescendo
Gradually growing louder
Melody
A lline, or the tune, in music
a succession of pitches
Contour
How it makes up and down
Range
Span of pitches
interval
distance between any two pitches
conjunct
melody that moves in small connected intervals
disjunct
melody that moves in “leaps” or large intervals
phrases
units that make up a melody (like a sentence)
cadences
the resting place or end of a phrase (like punctuation)
Makes it sound complete
Countermelody
a secondary melody
“against a melody”
Pitch
the highness or lowness of a sound
determined by frequency
represented by notes
frequency
the number of vibrations per second
Duration
length of time
volume
loudness or softness
timbre
the character or quality of a musical sound or voice
also known as tone color
Range
the distance between the lowest and highest notes
tessitura
the range in which most of the melody comfortably lies
contour
overall share of the melody as it turns upward, downward, or remains static
use to visual melody
Rhyme Scheme
The last syllables in each line rhyme
A B A B is an example
Climax
the high pint in a melodic line
peak of intensity
Rhythm
the movement of music in time
a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound
meter
organizes the beats in music
marked off in measures (or bars)
contains fixed number of beats
simple meters
each beat divided into 2
Duple, triple, and quadruple
Compound meters
each beat divided into 3
Non-metric
Obscured beat
Beat
the basic unit of rhythm