Music Glossary Flashcards
absolute pitch (perfect pitch)
the innate ability to identify pitches by name without using any instrumental aid as a reference
arpeggio
– a chord whose individual pitches are played in an upward or downward succession rather than simultaneously, in the manner that one would strum a guitar or harp
augmentation
lengthened note values of a melody
heard earlier in a piece
Baroque era
– a designation for the period of
western European music history spanning the seventeenth century and the first third of the eighteenth
viola de gamba (bass viol)
an instrument with (usually) six strings and frets, played with a bow
crotales / antique cymbals
small disks of brass that produce extremely resonant bell-like sounds when struck
bodhran
a single-headed drum used in Irish folk music
bridge
a nickname for the “B” phrase of a 32-bar
form (A-A-B-A)
cadenza
a section during a solo concerto in which
the unaccompanied soloist performs virtuosic (and sometimes improvised) material while the orchestra stops playing
call-and-response
performance technique in which a soloist or small group presents a short motif that is answered (with similar or contrasting material) by another musician or a larger group
canon
technique in which a single melody
is performed by multiple musicians, but at staggered, overlapping intervals of time, thus producing imitative polyphony; a synonym is round, and an example is the customary performance technique of the childhood tune “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”;
celesta
a small keyboard instrument with metal
bars that are struck by felt hammers operated by a piano-like keyboard
chant
a single-line (monophonic) melody with
religious text
character piece
a composition that conveys a particular image or sensation without trying to depict a programmatic storyline
chromatic mediant
an altered version of the mediant or submediant triad, achieved either by reversing the customary mode of that triad (i.e., turning a minor iii triad into a major III) or by building a triad on the chromatic neighbor to the mediant or submediant rather than the normal diatonic scale degrees (i.e., building a triad on E♭ rather than E♮ when in the key of C major)
This is a long way to say you play 3 notes, some of which aren’t in key
Classic era
a designation for the period of western European music history spanning the last two- thirds of the eighteenth century and persisting into the early nineteenth century
concerto
an instrumental genre that juxtaposes
an orchestra against (most often) a soloist, or possibly a small group of soloists
conjunct
a melody in which successive pitches
rise or fall primarily in small, stepwise intervals
conservatory
a school that focuses solely on training in a particular discipline in the arts, such as music, theater, dance, or the visual arts
cover
a recording or performance of a piece by someone other than the first person to perform the work
delicato
an instruction to play a piece “delicately”
disjunct
a melody in which successive pitches rise
or fall primarily in large intervals
Dorian mode
a scale pattern containing half-steps
between scale degrees 2 and 3 and scale degrees 6 and 7
double-stop
a technique used on string instruments in which the player bows (or plucks) two strings simultaneously to produce an interval
drop (verb)
to release a recording, whether audio
or video, in the popular music world
drum roll
a technique of sustaining a drum’s
sound by playing it with rapidly alternating beaters or drumsticks
ecology
a field of biology that examines the
relationships between organisms and their physical environment
electronic dance music (EDM)
a heavily percussive electronic musical style designed for dancing at nightclubs, festivals, etc.
elegy
a piece with a melancholy or sorrowful
character, often intended to mourn for someone who has died
encore
a repeated or additional performance of
music in response to audience demand; it is the French word meaning “again.”
EP
an “extended play” recording with multiple tracks, but not as many as would appear on a full album
fauna
a Latin word pertaining to the animal life
within a particular environment
fermata
a symbol (dot with curve over it) indicating that a note (or silence) should be sustained longer than its notated value, briefly halting the underlying pulse of the music
flora
a Latin word pertaining to the plant life
within a particular environment
fx
artificially created or enhanced sounds. Stands for “effects”
glissando
a rapid, sweeping glide up or down
through the pitches of an instrument (players of string instruments can slide up or down the strings, parallel with their fingerboard)
grace note
a short note played as an embellishment just before a longer pitch
guiro
a hollow gourd with notches on one side
that produces a raspy sound when the notches are scraped with a stick
hemiola
the sensation of temporarily shifting
from an established duple meter to the feeling of triple meter, or vice versa
intelligent dance music (IDM)
a type of electronic music meant for home listening rather than dancing
leitmotif
a melodic idea representing a particular
person, object, or idea
manuscript
a handwritten document
medieval era
a time period in Western music
spanning roughly from the sixth century through the fourteenth (also called the Middle Ages)
melismatic text-setting
a type of singing in which multiple notes in a melody correspond to a single syllable of poetry
Mellotron
an early electronic keyboard instrument (manufactured between 1964 and 1986) that sampled pre-recorded analogue sounds
Mixolydian mode
a scale pattern containing half-steps between scale degrees 3 and 4 and between 6 and 7
multi-tracking / over-dubbing
the process of taking separate recordings and assembling them to play simultaneously
mute
a device that quiets or muffles an
instrument’s sound in some way
opera
a genre originating in the Baroque era that resembles a play, but which requires characters to sing their roles
ornithologist
a scientist who studies birds
outro
a synonym for “coda,” frequently used in
popular music
overture
a short piece for an orchestra; sometimes it precedes a theatrical work, but many overtures are created to be concert compositions
pedal tone
a sustained low pitch, similar to long
notes played by an organ’s pedals
pre-chorus
a transitional section added to many
verse-chorus (verse-refrain) forms; it occurs after the verse and before the chorus
prepared piano
an acoustic piano which has had
objects inserted between its strings to alter its tone color
program
1) a description of the events or ideas
portrayed by a programmatic composition; 2) a printed listing of the repertory to be performed during a concert or recital
programmatic
instrumental music that conveys a
sense of a specific storyline but without the use of lyrics
progressive (prog) rock
a style of rock with songs that feature multiple sections, a wide array of instruments (especially orchestral), and blended styles; sometimes called “symphonic rock”
quintuplet
a group of five notes that occupy the
same duration of time that four notes of the same value would normally require
Renaissance Era
a designation for the period of
western European music history spanning the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
Renaissance Man
a person with skills and/or talents in many different areas; similar to “polymath”
rhythm and blues (R&B)
an evolving style label that, by the late 1950s, referred to Black music with energetic and hard-swinging rhythms that made it suitable for dancing
Romantic Era
a nickname for western European music that emphasized expressivity, encompassing the majority of the nineteenth century
rondellus
a medieval polyphonic genre in which
two or more voices sing in harmony and then trade parts, with each person singing the line that the other person had previously sung
rota
a medieval polyphonic genre in which
two or more voices sing in harmony and then trade parts, with each person singing the line that the other person had previously sung
round
a vocal genre that employs exact imitative polyphony (each successive voice sings the same melody that the initial vocalist sang); also called canon
sacred
an adjective for something that is intended for religious practices
sampling
taking a section of audio from another source and then reworking it into the creation of a new track
sawari
The japanese musical tradition of trying to imitate sounds of nature as accurately as possible. Often just considered noise in western cultures
secular
an adjective for something that is intended for religious practices
sforzando
suddenly loud
stopped horn
a technique of inserting a fist within the flared bell of a French horn in order to create a nasal, “buzzy” timbre
syllabic text-setting
a type of singing in which each syllable of poetry is paired with a single note
symphony
an orchestral genre originating in the
Classic period, comprised (customarily) of three or four contrasting movements
through-composed
a term for a piece of music without clearly repeated sections
tremolo
a rapid repetition of a pitch or an oscillation between two pitches that creates a “trembling” effect
done with the bow of a stringed instrument
trio
a piece designed to feature three performers
Tristan Chord
a four-note dissonant harmony that
initially consisted of the pitches F, B, D♯, and G♯, taken from the prelude to Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde”
vibrato
a slight wavering or oscillating sound added in performance by various means (back-and-forth movements of the hand, air support, etc.); the effect adds intensity to the note
virtuosic
an adjective to describe technically
challenging music
waltz
a nineteenth-century ballroom couple’s
dance in a moderate tempo and triple meter
strong downbeat in lower instruments, two light upbeats in higher with a melodical line over all that
word-painting
a compositional technique in which a composer tries to illustrate the literal meaning of a particular word or phrase with musical elements, such as setting the word “mountain” or “sky” on a high pitch
