Style Flashcards
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What is: Oratorio?
Usually a story from the bible set to music for soloists, chorus and orchestra. It may include recitatives, arias, duets, and chorus. It is performed without acting or stage design.
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What is: sonata?
A work for solo piano, or a solo instrument accompanied by piano, in three or four movements. (E.g. Flute sonata = Flute + Piano)
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What is: Impressionist?
A term borrowed from painting in whoch brief musical ideas merge and change to create a rather blurred, hazy, and vague outline. Debussy was an important composer of this style. Whole-tone scales were often a feature of this style of music. Paintings were often hazy and blurred - creating an ‘impression’ rather than showing clear lines. Impressionist music is similar in that it doesn’t have clearly defined strong melody lines, but aim to create an atmosphere
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What is: Musique concrete?
Recorded natural sounds which are transformed using simple editing techniques such as cutting and re-assembling, playing backwards, slowing down and speeding up.
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What is: Plainchant?
Also known as plainsong and gregorian chant. Unaccompanied melody set to words of the roman catholic liturgy, such as the mass. Plainchants are modal and have no regular metre. They follow the rhythm of the latin words.
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What is: Mass?
In the renaissance era the mass was a sacred choral work using the five main sections of the roman catholic church liturgy. Features of the mass include latin text and polyphonic texture, and it is usually sung a cappella. Originally used in church worship, but in later years became a large-scale work for chorus, soloists and orchestra.
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What is: Recitative?
A type of vocal writing where the music follows the rhythm of speech. It is used in operas and oratorios to move the story or plot on.
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What is: Chamber music?
Music written for a small instrumental ensemble with one player to a part.
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What is: Jazz funk?
A combination of jazz improvisation and the amplified instruments and character of rock.
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What is: Soul music?
A style of afro-american popular music including elements of blues and gospel and conveying strong emotions.
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What is: Renaissance?
Rebirth of interest in classical times of the distant past. In music, the word refers to the style of music from the period of 1450-1600, between medieval and baroque.
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What is: Pavan/Pavane
A renaissance court dance linked with the galliard. The Pavan is slow and stately with two beats in the bar.
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What is: Galliard?
A renaissance court dance which follows the pavan. A galliard is quick with three beats in a bar.
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What is: Motet?
In the renaissance era, this was was a sacred choral work with latin text and polyphonic texture. It was usually sung a capella.
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What is: Ayre/Air
An ayre (air or song) is a madrigal which can be performed by a solo voice with lute accompaniment; by solo voice with accompaniments by other instruments; or by all parts sung with voice with or without accompaniment
English for aria, song, or simple melody, sometimes the title of a movement of a suite.
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What is: Ballett?
A type of Madrigal in strophic form which was originally danced to. It features a fa-la-la refrain at the end of each verse.
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What is: Madrigal?
In the renaissance era, this was a non-religious work, polyphonic in style, using imitation. Features of madrigal include text in english, use of word painting, through-composed music, usually sung a capella.
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What is: Anthem?
Short sacred choral piece sung in english. Sometimes sung by a choir unaccompanied (a capella) and sometimes accompanied by organ and featuring solo parts. The anthem is the protestant equivalent of the Mortet
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What is: Neo-Classical?
New classicism. From about 1929 onwards this style in music came about when composers reacted against Romanticism and wanted to return to the structures and styles of earlier periods but combined with the dissonant, tonal, and even atonal harmonies. The composers started to write for smaller orchestras. Stravinsky and Prokofiev were two of the composers of this style.
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What is: Serial?
A 20th century method of musical composition invented by Schoenberg in which the 12 notes of the chromatic scale are organised into a series or tone row. This row can be transposed, inverted or played in retrograde, and forms the material basis for an entire work or movement. See Tone row, Retrograde, Inversion and Atonal.
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What is: Chorale?
A German hymn tune. Written in four parts for soprano, contralto (alto), tenor and bass, some of these chorales were used by Bach in his oratorios and cantatas. Usually homophonic in texture.
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What is: Nationalist
A term used to describe music which incorporates elements of folk music of the composer’s country. It emerged about the second half of the 19th century and was a type of Romanticism. Composers include Glinka, Smetana and Grieg.
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What is: Electronic Dance Music?
Electronic dance music (also known as EDM, electronic dance, dance music, club music, or simply dance) is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres produced largely for nightclubs, raves, and festivals. Produced for playback by disc jockeys (DJs), EDM is generally used in the context of a live DJ mix where the DJ creates a seamless selection of tracks by segueing from one recording to the next.
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What is: Contemporary Jazz?
Any type of jazz that has evolved from deviation from its “standard” sound (such as classic swing) since mid-20th century.
