Reading: Harmony, Texture, Tonality, and Mode

Question 1

Harmony

Answer 1

The simultaneous sounding of different pitches, or chords.

Question 2

Harmonize

Answer 2

To provide each note of a melody with a chord.

Question 3

Chord

Answer 3

A group of pitches played and heard simultaneously.

Question 4

Consonance

Answer 4

Intervals or chords that sound relatively stable and free of tension, as opposed to dissonance.

Question 5

Dissonance

Answer 5

Intervals or chords that sound relatively tense and unstable, in opposition to consonance.

Question 6

Texture

Answer 6

The blend of the various sounds and melodic lines occurring simultaneously in a piece of music.

Question 7

Monophony, Monophonic

Answer 7

A musical texture involving a single melodic line, as in Gregorian chant; as opposed to polyphony.

Question 8

Homophony, Homophonic

Answer 8

A musical texture that involves only one melody of real interest, combined with chords or other subsidiary sounds.

Question 9

Polyphony, Polyphonic

Answer 9

Musical texture in which two or more melodic lines are played or sung simultaneously, as opposed to homophony or monophony.

Question 10

Counterpoint, Contrapuntal

Answer 10

1. Polyphony; strictly speaking, the technique of writing polyphonic music; 2. the term a counterpoint is used for a melodic line that forms polyphony when played along with other lines; 3. in counterpoint means “forming polyphony.”

Question 11

Imitation, Imitative Polyphony, Imitative Counterpoint

Answer 11

A polyphonic musical texture in which the various melodic lines use approximately the same themes as opposed to non-imitative polyphony. See also point of imitation.

Question 12

Non-Imitative Polyphony

Answer 12

A polyphonic musical texture in which the melodic lines are essentially different from one another, as opposed to imitative polyphony.

Question 13

Tonality, Tonal

Answer 13

The feeling of centrality of one note *and its chord) to a passage of music as opposed to atonality.

Question 14

Tonic

Answer 14

In final music, the central-sounding note.

Question 15

Mode, Modality

Answer 15

In music since the Renaissance, one of the two types of tonality: major mode or minor mode; (also, in earlier times, one of several orientations of the diatonic scale with D, E, F, and G as tonics.)

Question 16

Major Mode

Answer 16

One of the modes of the diatonic scale, oriented around C as the tonic characterized by the interval between the first and third notes containing four semitones, as opposed to three in the minor mode.

Question 17

Minor Mode

Answer 17

One of the modes of the diatonic scale, oriented around A as the tonic; characterized by the interval between the first and third notes containing three semitones, as opposed to four in the major mode.

Question 18

Key

Answer 18

One of the twelve positions for the major and minor scales made possible by using all the notes of the chromatic scale.

Question 19

Modulation

Answer 19

Changing key within a piece.

Question 20

Point of Imitation

Answer 20

A short passage of imitative polyphony based on a single theme, or on two used together.