nya 2 Flashcards
Broadway
the collective nickname for the theater
district in New York, since the major theaters
are clustered near the street named Broadway
bottleneck
– a guitar technique in which a finger of
the left hand is inserted into the sawed-off neck
of a glass bottle so that the finger can glide up
and down the strings smoothly (used in crossroad blues)
border blaster
a radio station operating just outside
U.S. borders (and therefore outside of U.S.
restrictions), usually broadcasting with a very
strong signal; also known as an X station because
of the “X” that launches its call letters
boogie-woogie
a jazz (and blues) piano style in
which the left hand plays a heavy, bouncy, repetitive
pattern while the right hand performs
syncopated melodies
book
a twentieth-century theatrical term for the
overall storyline and the spoken dialogue of a
Broadway show
blues
a style of music that originated among African
Americans as a way to lament problems and
unhappiness; it relies on a customary sequence
of chords—often in a twelve-bar pattern—and
a standard AAB rhyme scheme
block voicing
– a jazz arranging technique in which
instruments that belong to the same family are
assigned similar music to play (so that trumpets
are grouped together, or saxophones, or trombones,
etc.); also called sectional writing
blimp, camera blimp
– a soundproof housing that
encases a movie camera, muffling the sound of
the camera’s motor, so it is not picked up by the
microphone
The Billboard
a magazine devoted to tracking
trends in entertainment, especially music broadcasts
and record sales
bichord
the use of two conventional chords simultaneously
also called polychord
bebop
a modern jazz style that requires substantial
virtuosity because of its complex melodies,
rhythms, and harmonies; its irregular phrasing discourages dancing and encourages listening.
baritone
– the designation for a male voice that is
lower than a tenor and higher than a bass
avant-garde
– a French term for “military vanguard”;
it has been adopted as a description of
cutting
augmentation
the lengthening of a melody or
rhythm by increasing the duration (usually proportionally)
of all of its notes
arpeggio
– a technique in which the individual
pitches of a chord are played in rapid succession
rather than simultaneously, in the manner that
one would strum a guitar or harp
American Theatre Wing –
a Broadway support
organization that undertook projects to support
troops during both world wars; they are
now best known as the society that sponsors the
Tony Awards.
alternation form
a pattern related to verse-chorus
form, but one in which the “chorus” (b) has new
words each time. It can be diagrammed as a-ba-b
(etc.)
a cappella
translated literally, it means “in the
church (chapel) style”; for musicians, it has come
to mean vocal music without instruments
Articulation
The mechanics of beginning and ending a sound
Atonal
Music that lacks a fixed tonal center; deviation from common-practice
harmony; championed by early 20th
-century composers like Schoenberg
Bass line
The lowest “voice” in a sequence of chords; often the harmonic root
Blues inflections
Characteristic of a blues scale; created by lowering third and/or seventh
scale degrees; influenced by African music; see blue notes
Blues scale
A scale that combines characteristics of major and minor scales; third and
seventh degrees can be lowered, normal, or in between
Cantata
Musical style of A Survivor from Warsaw
