Music and Dance

Question 1

Musical (comedy)

Answer 1

a popular form of music theatre of the 20th century, developed chiefly in the US and England; it features dialogue developing dramatic situations appropriate for song, ensemble, numbers, and dance

Question 2

Portamento

Answer 2

a continuous movement from one pitch to another through all of the intervening pitches

Question 3

Swing

Answer 3

jazz from the period 1935-45, usually known as the Swing Era; the standard instrumental combination for swing music is the big band

Question 4

Big Band Ensemble

Answer 4

players are grouped into instrumental sections
rhythm- piano guitar, string bass, drums
brass- trumpets (2-5), trombones (1-5)
reeds- saxophone (3-5) (many play clarinet) ; alto and tenor saxophones
string section (many feature)

Question 5

swing feel

Answer 5

a jazz-specific feeling created by rhythmic contrast within a particular rhythmic framework; usually involves walking bass and steady rhythm on drummer’s ride cymbal)
the contrast may be manifested in a variety of relationships between long and short notes

Question 6

walking bass

Answer 6

a bass line featuring four equal beats per bar

Question 7

ride cymbal

Answer 7

a cymbal with a clear, focused timbre that is played more or less continuous

Question 8

32-bar popular song form

Answer 8

a standard song form, usually divided into shorter sections, such as AABA or AAB

Question 9

legato

Answer 9

played smoothly with no separation between successive notes

Question 10

backbeat

Answer 10

a sharp attack on beats 2 and 4 of a four beat bar

Question 11

lindy hop

Answer 11

an exuberant and often acrobatic social dance for couples that originated in the ballrooms and dance clubs of Harlem in New York City in the late 1920’s; danced to swing music; became wildly popular by mid-1930’s and began to include aerial throws and leaps

Question 12

Rhythm and Blues (R&B)

Answer 12

a term applied to certain characteristic African-American musical styles prominent during late 1940’s-1950’s

Question 13

Chicago Electric Blue

Answer 13

combines southern blues with electric guitar and amplifier; combined sounds of the country and city

Question 14

stop-time

Answer 14

in urban blue and related popular genres where , in teh four opening bars of the 12-bar blues progression, the group places a heavy accent on the downbeat of each bar and then gives way to the singer

Question 15

Atlantic Records pop

Answer 15

featured African American groups with a more polished and mainstream pop sound

Question 16

Rock n Roll

Answer 16

type of American popular music of mid/late 1950’s, based chiefly on elements of Afro-American music; often described as a merger of black rhythm and blue with white country music, with more emphasis on the contributions of black musicians

Question 17

Boogie- Woogie

Answer 17

a percussive and propulsive jazz piano style characterized by forceful, repeated bass figuration, almost always using the 12-bar format of the blues

Question 18

Disco

Answer 18

a form of dance music that dominated popular music during late 1970’s; it feature regular bass drum accents on every beat and frequent use of orchestral instruments and synthesizers

Question 19

Bel- Canto

Answer 19

a type of 19th-century Italian operatic singing that emphasized the beauty of the voice through the use of lyrical melodic lines and legato phrasing

Question 20

Dance from 1960’s on

Answer 20

largely bound up with specific youth subcultures and their identification with certain popular music groups or individual vocalists

• Rock and roll starts to expand to different styles
• Go-go music: originated from funk music; syncopated rhythm, repeated rhythmic figures and really strong bass lin