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WOM music terms
WOM Appendix Glossary of music terms Book 8
Question | Answer |
---|---|
Atonal Music | Music not rooted in any major or minor key. |
Basso Continuo | Baroque accompaniment part, played by a harpsichordist or an organist and either a cellist or a bassoonist. |
Bi-tonal Music | Music occurring in two keys simultaneously. |
Cadenza | A technically brilliant passage of music usually played right before the final cadence. |
Celesta | A small keyboard instrument using steel bars to produce sound; first used as an orchestral instrument by Tchaikovsky. |
Chord | Three or more notes sounding together. |
Chromatic | Sharps, flats, or naturals not found in the scale or key of composition. |
Consonant | Sounds that are stable, smooth, and at rest |
Contrapuntal | Two or more rhythmically and melodically independent lines (POLYPHONIC) |
Diatonic | Using tones belonging to the scale or key of a piece. |
Dissonant | Sounds that are unstable, harsh, and active. |
Dulcimer | A soft-sounding stringed instrument which is held on the player's lap like an autoharp. it has tuning pegs and frets like a guitar. |
Dynamic Level | The level of softness and loudness in music. |
Fugue | A composition with imitative contrapuntal texture. |
Harmony | The progression of one chord to another. |
Harmonic Cadence | A two-chord progression at the end of each phrase, section, and whole piece. |
Harpsichord | A favorite keyboard instrument of the Baroque era. The strings of a harpsichord are plucked rather than struck by hammers like the modern day piano. |
Imitation | The repetition of a certain short melody by subsequent parts or voices. |
Improvise | To make up or change music during performance. |
Interval | The distance in pitch between two tones. |
Key | A series of tones forming any major or minor scale. |
Legato | To play the notes in a smooth, connected manner. |
Melody | An organized group of tones or pitches subdivided into phrases. |
Melodic Cadence | The closing (or ending) tone of each phrase. Scale steps 2, 3, 4, and 5 are used primarily for early and intermediate cadences. Scale step 1 is used for final cadences. |
Melodic Design | Shows how phrases in a melody are related to each other: a a’ b a’ etc. |
Melodic Range | The distance from the lowest to the highest melodic tone. |
Meter | An organized pattern of stronger and weaker beats. |
Metronome | A device invented in 1816 by Johannes Maezel. Its number scale tells how many beats pass by in each minute. |
Modulation | The process of changing from one key to another key. |
Motive | A small, striking, melodic-rhythmic pattern. |
Non-chord tones | Tones not belonging to the chord sounding on the same beat. |
Ornaments | Different kinds of melodic turns and thrills |
Ostinato | A short melodic pattern, usually in the bass, repeated many times. |
Pedal point | A sustained tone in the lowest register occurring under changing harmonies in the upper part. |
Phrase | A semi-complete part of a complete melody. |
Rhythm | The duration or lasting time of musical sounds. |
Sacred Music | Religious music |
Scale | A stepwise ladder of tones. |
Secular music | Non-religious music. |
Sequence | An exact repetition of a prior phrase beginning on a different tone or pitch. |
Seventh chord | A chord consisting of four tones with the interval of a seventh between the the top and bottom tones. |
Staccato | To play the notes in a bouncing or disconnected manner. |
Syncopation | A rhythmic pattern sounding against the steady, regular beat. |
Tempo | The speed of steady beats moving in time. |
Texture | The manner in which all sounding parts are combined in music. |
Theme | A simple melody on which variations can be made. |
Triad | A three-tone chord built of thirds (for example, C-E-G). |
Upbeat | One or more weak-beat tones leading into the first strong beat of a song or phrase. |
Virtuoso | A performer of great technical ability. |
Vocal music | Music written for a solo singer or a group of singers. |