Western Humanities 201 07 (Musical Analysis) (Key Words) Flashcards
Sacred Music
refers to religious music, such as Gregorian chants, Masses, requiems, cantatas, and hymns.
Secular Music
is the term used to describe symphonies, songs, operas, dances and other non sacred musical works.
Vocal music
is music that is sung and generally has lyrics (words).
Choral music
is vocal music performed by a group of singers.
Instrumental music
is music that is written for and performed on instruments.
Form
in music, means the particular structure or arrangement of elements by the composer in the musical composition. Musical forms include symphonies, songs, concertos, string quartets, sonatas, Masses, and operas.
Tone
is a musical sound of definite pitch (pitch is determined by the frequency of the air waves producing the sound). The term tone can also refer to the quality of the sound.
Scale
is a set pattern of tones (or notes) arranged from low to high (or high to low). The modern Western scale is the familiar do, re,mi, fa, sol, la ti,do, with half steps in between the tones. In other cultures more or fewer tone may be distinguished in a scale.
Tempo
is the rate of speed of a musical passage, usually set or suggested by the composer.
Texture
the number and nature of the voices or instruments employed and how the parts are combined. In music, a theme is characteristic musical idea on which a composition is built or developed.
Melody
is a succession of musical tones, usually having a distinctive musical shape, or line, and definite rhythm (the recurrent alternation of accented and unaccented beats).
Harmony
is the simultaneous combination of two or more tones, producing a chord. More generally, harmony refers to the choral characteristics of a work and the way in which chords interact with one another.
