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Intro to Music Vocab

Masterworks: A Musical Discovery - Holoman - Intro to Music All Vocab

Answer	Definition
a	for. The indications a2 or a3 mean the line is to be played by both or all three members of the section.
a cappella	Without instrumental accompaniment; applied to choral music, particularly of the Renaissance.
absolute music	Instrumental music without illustrative or programmatic intent.
accelerando	Growing faster; accelerating.
accent	Emphasis of a musical event, typically by increased volume or sharper attack.
accidental	Notational symbol used to raise or lower a pitch.
accompagnato	Accompanied; as in recitativo accompagnato (recitative with orchestral accompaniment).
acoustics	Science of sound and its perception.
ad libitum	At will, or at the pleasure of the performer; typically an optional part that may be left out.
adagio	Slow. Also used generically to describe a slow movement.
Agnus Dei	Last movement of a choral mass.
Alberti Bass	Accompanimental figure for the left hand in keyboard music, named after the composer Domenico Alberti (c. 1710-40), where the triads are broken into patterns of short note values.
alla breve	Time signature indicating progress by half note.
allargando	A broadening (and often slowing and swelling), usually at the end of a movement.
allegretto	Somewhat slower than allegro, and by extension somewhat lighter.
allegro	Fast. Allegro assai = Quite fast. Allegro con brio = Fast and bright. Allegro ma non troppo = Not too fast. Allegro moderato = Moderately fast. Allegro molto = Quite fast. Allegro vivace = Fast and spirited.
alto	(1) The second highest of the four customary voice parts, below the soprano and above the tenor. (2) Singer with that vocal range. (3) [in scores] Viola. The term alto is also used to describe models of the flute and clarinet lower than the usual one.
andante	At moderate speed.
andantino	Term that has come to mean a little faster than andante, but which once meant a little slower than andante.
animato	Animated; typically suggesting getting faster.
answer	Response in a new voice to the subject of a fugue, usually a fifth above it.
antecedent	thus the first half of a two-part phrase, where the second seems to be an appropriate outcome of the first.
anthem	English sacred choral composition for the Anglican service, often accompanied by organ. Also, any solemn hymn.
antiphony	Referring to music by multiple performing groups separated by space.
arabesque	Florid turn of melody.
arco	Cancels the instruction "pizzicato" ("pizz.").
aria	Composition for solo voice, usually a movement of a larger work.
arioso	Lyrical manner midway in style between recitative and aria, esp. in operatic solo scenes.
arpeggio	Chord where the pitches are played in succession rather than simultaneously.
assai	Very; as in Allegro assai (very fast).
atonality	Having no allegiance to tonality; not having a key.
attacca	Attack, i.e., go on to the next movement without pause.
augmentation	Stating familiar melodic materials in longer-than-ordinary note values.
augmented interval	Intervals a half step wider than the corresponding major or perfect interval.
avant-garde	Term that describes the most progressive or radical element of an artistic movement.
baguette	Drumstick; usually part of a direction to the timpanist or bass drum player to use an alternative kind of stick. Baguettes d'éponge = sponge-headed drumsticks. Baguettes de bois = wooden drumsticks.
ballad	Self-contained narrative (i.e., storytelling) song. Also, any singable or popular tune.
ballade	Title given by Chopin to four major one-movement works for piano solo. Later composers, notably Brahms, also used the title.
bar	Same as measure; the basic unit of meter.
bar line	Vertical line separating measures (or bars) of music in a score.
baritone	(1) Voice part midway between tenor and bass. (2) Brass instrument having the appearance of a small tuba. (3) Member of an instrument family between tenor and bass; as in baritone saxophone.
bass	(1) Lowest-sounding voice part. (2) Double bass viol, lowest of the orchestral string instruments. (3) Lowest-sounding line of a score, or the lowest pitch in a chord. (4) Lowest-sounding member of a family of instruments, as in bass clarinet.
basso continuo	In Baroque music, a continuously sounding bass part over which the rest of the composition is built.
beat	Prevailing metrical pulse.
bebop	Jazz style that emerged in the 1940s, an alternative developed by black musicians to the white big bands.
bel canto	Prevailing vocal ideal in solo vocal music from the Baroque forward.
binary form	Musical forms in two sections (graphed as A and B), very often repeated (AABB).
bitonality	Use of two keys at once.
blue note	Flattened inflection of scale degrees 3 and/or 7 in a major key.
blues	Musical style at the heart of the music of black Americans and permeating jazz and popular forms.
boogie-woogie	Fast jazz style that developed in the 1930s, featuring a driving ostinato bass.
bop	See bebop.
bourrée	Lively Baroque dance movement in duple meter, usually with prominent upbeat.
bridge	(1) In sonata form, passage in the exposition that takes the harmony away from tonic and to dominant, arriving at the second group. Used interchangeably with, but more often than, the term transition. (2) Component of string instruments that raises the s
BWV	Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, or index of Bach's works, organized by genre.
cadence	(1) Arrival at harmonic rest. (2) In parade music, the drumbeat.
cadenza	Passage of improvisatory display for the soloist, especially in a concerto.
canon	Musical procedure where a second voice is generated by following a rule (or "canon").
cantabile	Singingly; in lyric fashion.
cantata	Genre of vocal composition originating in the Baroque, sacred or secular, for soloist or chorus.
cantus firmus	Melody from some other work borrowed to serve as the basis for a new polyphonic composition.
cantus firmus mass	See cantus firmus. A Renaissance mass in which all the movements are based on the same cantus firmus is termed a cyclic mass (see cyclicism).
capriccio	A caprice, usually a light, fanciful, and imaginative solo work, darting about from segment to segment.
celesta	Keyboard instrument of the orchestral percussion section where metal plates are struck by hammers. Invented in the late nineteenth century.
chaconne	Work built on an ostinato bass (or ground bass). See also passacaglia.
chamber music	Originally, music not intended for the church, theater, or concert hall. Now the term implies a performing group of small size.
chanson	Song.
chant	Monophonic liturgical repertoire of the Catholic church. See also plainchant, plainsong, Gregorian chant.
character piece	Descriptive miniature composition of the Romantic period, usually for piano.
chorale	Congregational hymn of the Lutheran church.
chorale prelude	Work for organ based on a Protestant chorale and serving to introduce its singing.
chord	Group of pitches sounding simultaneously; often a triad (three notes) or seventh chord (four notes).
chromatic scale	Scale that includes all 12 pitches.
chromaticism	Style of composition that makes pointed use of chromatic melodies and harmonies. (See also semitone.)
circle of fifths	Diagram in which the 12 pitches and associated keys are set around a circle where each member is a fifth higher.
clavier	Keyboard. Often used as generic term to describe any keyboard instrument.
clef	Sign that associates a line on a staff with a particular pitch and thus serves as a "key" to the system.
closing theme	Theme that concludes the exposition in a sonata form.
coda	Closing section of a movement.
col legno	Hitting the strings with the wood, instead of the hair, of the bow.
collegium musicum	Society of musicians performing for their own pleasure.
coloratura	Florid embellishment of a vocal line, esp. for soprano in the high register; a soprano who specializes in such parts.
compound meter	Meter containing triple (instead of duple) subdivisions of the beat (e.g., , , and ).
con brio	With spirit, lively; as in Allegro con brio.
con fuoco	With fury, furiously; as in Allegro con fuoco.
con moto	With motion; as in Allegro con moto.
con sordino	With mute, muted. Cancelled by the indication "senza" (without).
concert overture	Overture intended to stand alone in a concert, not to go before a theater piece.
concertante	Concerto-like composition for more than one solo instrument and orchestra, popular in France in the eighteenth century.
concertino	Soloists in a concerto grosso (often two violins). See also ripieno.
concertmaster	Principal first violinist in an orchestra.
concerto	Work for soloist(s) and orchestra.
concerto grosso	Instrumental ritornello form from the Baroque, where a small group of solo players (the concertino) alternates with the large orchestra (ripieno).
consequent	Musical material that follows the antecedent and gives it balance and closure.
consonance	Musical stability as perceived in certain intervals and chords. The opposite is dissonance.
continuo	Bass line of a Baroque work with instruments, and the instruments that play it. Same as thoroughbass. Provides the underpinning for Baroque composition. See also figured bass.
contralto	Lowest female voice.
contrapuntal	Adjectival form of counterpoint.
counterpoint	Manner in which two or more melodic lines are combined and juxtaposed to produce pleasing and technically correct intermingling.
countersubject	In fugue, the melodic material that accompanies statements of the subject.
crescendo	Growing louder. See decrescendo.
cyclicism	Use of a theme in more than one movement.
da camera	Type of Baroque sonata or concerto more secular than its counterpart, the sonata or concerto da chiesa.
da capo	On reaching this instruction (or its abbreviation, D.C.) in the score, the performers go back to the beginning of the movement and play until the word fine ("end").
da chiesa	Type of Baroque sonata or concerto somewhat more rigorous than its counterpart, the sonata or concerto da camera, in that it emphasizes fugal counterpoint.
decrescendo	Growing softer.
development	Section in sonata form, between the exposition and the recapitulation, which investigates the possibilities inherent in the material stated thus far.
diatonic	(1) Succession of whole tones and half steps that make up a major or minor scale. (2) Interval drawn from that succession.
Dies irae	Gregorian plainchant for the dead; the sequence from the Requiem Mass.
diminished interval	Interval a half step narrower than the corresponding minor or perfect interval .
diminuendo	Growing softer; same as decrescendo. Abbr. dim.
diminution	Technnique generally accomplished by stating familiar melodic materials in shorter-than-ordinary note values. See also augmentation.
dissonance	Unpleasantness or instability perceived in certain intervals and chords. The opposite is consonance. In classical Western music dissonant intervals require resolution to consonance before closure.
divertimento	A light work for chamber ensemble, popular as entertainment music in the Viennese Classical period.
divisi	Indication in an instrumental part that the section is to divide the lines between or among them. Abbr. div.
Dixieland	New Orleans-style jazz for small combo; favored by white musicians.
dolce	Sweet.
dominant	Fifth scale degree and/or the triad or seventh chord built on it.
double fugue	(1) Fugue where the subject and countersubject are of equal importance, thus suggesting simultaneous subjects. (2) Fugue where two subjects are treated independently, then together.
double stop	Playing two strings at once on a stringed instrument.
downbeat	The initial, and strongest, beat in a measure. See also upbeat.
drone	Line of constant pitch, or the instrument that plays it.
dynamics	Degrees of loudness.
embouchure	Shape and position of the mouth at the mouthpiece of wind instruments.
entr'acte	Piece to be performed between the acts of an opera or play.
episode	Subsidiary passage other than the main thematic material.
equal temperament	Technique of adjusting tunings that divides the octave into 12 equal half steps.
espressivo	Expressive; expressively.
ethnomusicology	Branch of study that treats musics of the world, particularly emphasizing music and culture, and music and oral transmission.
étude	Composition meant to investigate a particular problem of technique.
euphonium	Tenor brass instrument, lying in a range between the trumpet and the tuba.
exposition	(1) In sonata form, the first section, where the main thematic material is presented, always with a modulation to a second key area. (2) In fugue, the stating of the subject (or answer) in each of the voices, especially the opening statement.
Expressionism	Term (borrowed from literary and art history) used rather loosely to describe the music of Schoenberg and his school. The artist portrays not simply an object but his or her internal reactions. What results is (in art) exaggerated, distorted, internalize
falsetto	Abnormally high register of the male voice, in the range of the female voice.
fantasia	Free-form composition, a flight of fancy.
fermata	Held out. At the fermata sign, the perfomer holds the pitch or chord at will (or at the will of the conductor).
figured bass	Baroque notational practice where numbers below the bass line indicate chords to be played by the continuo keyboard artist.
finale	Typically the last scene in an act of an opera.
fine	Marking in a score that shows where to stop after having made a da capo or dal segno repeat.
Five, the	The Russian Five, or Mighty Handful (moguchaya kuchka).
forte	Loud.
fortissimo	Very loud.
fragmentation	Common way of treating thematic material, esp. in the development.
French overture	Baroque form favored by the French composers and their imitators; the kind of movement that begins stage works and instrumental suites of the period.
fret	On certain kinds of string intruments (guitar, lute, viols), a raised position on the fingerboard that shows where to stop the string in order to produce the appropriate pitch.
frog	The hair-tightening mechanism on a bow, and the portion of the bow the player holds in the hand.
fugato	Imitative, fugue-like passage in a non-fugal movement.
fugue	One-movement work in imitative counterpoint, where the theme is stated in each voice as a series of subjects and answers.
G. P.	Everybody pauses. Abbreviaiton in orchestral scores for general pause.
gavotte	Baroque dance in moderate duple meter with prominent upbeat.
genre	Kind, type. Genre in music terminology is typically related to performing force.
Gesamtkunstwerk	Wagner's theory of opera wherein all branches of art-poetry, narrative, design, architecture, etc.-are harnessed in a global art form opera.
Gewandhaus	Building in Leipzig, the cloth merchant's guild hall. A celebrated series of concerts began there in 1781, and eventually the Leipzig orchestra took the name of the hall.
glissando	Slide across the specified range of the instrument.
Gloria	Second movement of a choral mass.
grace note	Ornamental pitch, usually the upper neighbor, played rapidly and without fixed rhythmic value.
grave	Slow, solemn.
grazioso	Graceful, gracious.
Gregorian chant	Name commonly given to the plainsong of the Catholic church, setting the Latin liturgy. Its connection with Pope Gregory the Great (r. 590-604) is uncertain.
ground bass	Repeating bass pattern over which there is continuous variation in the upper parts; same as Ital. basso ostinato.
harmonic	(1) High, fluty sound produced on a string instrument by touching the string gently rather than fully stopping it, forcing it to vibrate at a higher position in the harmonic series. (2) Position in the harmonic series.
harmony	Technique of organizing pitch simultaneities (chords), and its study. Generally speaking, harmony concerns vertical sonority, and melody concerns the horizontal.
hemiola	Rhythmic/metric device where two bars in triple meter are made to sound like three bars in duple, usually just before the cadence in Baroque dance music.
homophony	Musical texture in which all the parts move simultaneously, with simple chord progressions.
hymn	Strophic religious composition, generally for the congregation to sing.
idée fixe	Berlioz used this term to describe the motto theme of his Symphonie fantastique (1830), and said in the printed program that it had to do with the artist's vision of his beloved.
imitation	Compositional practice where motives and melodies are taken up, once stated, by the other voices successively, while originating voices go on in counterpoint.
imitative counterpoint	Polyphonic practice based on imitation.
Impressionism	Term used primarily to describe the work of the painters Monet, Renoir, etc., where loosely articulated images are fashioned from blotches of color the goal was a particularly powerful brilliance. The term is used by extension to describe the work of the
improvisation	Free, live invention of music, usually without notated parts.
incidental music	Music for use with a play, consisting of an overture and any necessary entr'acte; music for any pageantry (a wedding march, for example); and perhaps music for any songs sung onstage.
intermezzo	Orginally, music or light music theater to go between the acts of a serious theater piece. In the nineteenth century the term was used, notably by Brahms, as the title of free piano compositions.
interval	Distance between two pitches.
inversion	Vertical reversing of a musical relationship, either by switching a pair of voices or by turning a theme in the opposite direction.
isorhythm	Use of a single, unvarying rhythmic module throughout a voice part, usually the tenor. Principle of construction in the 14th- and early 15th-century motet.
K. numbers	Numbers attached to Mozart's works refer to a thematic catalog for Mozart written by Ludwig von Kšchel (1862; rev. through 1964).
Kapellmeister	Chapelmaster, a court composer-conductor who would compose music for and lead the palace opera company, orchestra, and church services.
key	Tonal center in a piece of music, toward which the music seems to gravitate. It is defined by a particular tonic pitch and its quality of major or minor. There are 12 major and 12 minor keys.
keyboard	White-and-black key mechanism that activates a piano, organ, or similar instrument.
Kyrie	First movement of a choral mass.
La Scala	The opera house in Milan, built 1778, which took its name from the church, Santa Maria della Scala, originally on the site.
langsam	Slow.
larghetto	Somewhat faster than largo.
largo	Quite slow. The slowest commonly specified tempo.
ledger lines	Short lines that extend the staff.
legato	Smoothly, without space between the pitches.
Leitmotiv	German for "leading motive," a compositional device developed by Wagner.
lento	Slow, although not quite as slow as largo.
libretto	Text of an opera.
Lied	Term for a solo song, especially to a Romantic text of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Liederkreis	First applied to Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte, then, in particular, to Schumann (Dichterliebe).
l'istesso tempo	The same tempo; keep the beat the same.
liturgy	Formalized order of church services. The Catholic liturgy, divided into Mass (Eucharist celebration of the Last Supper) and Divine Office (Matins, Vespers, etc.), specifies certain texts common to each service type (the Ordinary), as well as texts specif
ma	But; as in Allegro ma non troppo.
madrigal	Most commonly, a Renaissance setting of a secular poem to unaccompanied vocal polyphony.
maestoso	Majestic.
maestro di capella	Chapel master.
major	In tonality, the brighter and more open of the two modes of scales, characterized by half steps between scale degrees 3 and 4 and 7 and 8.
Mannheim School	Name given to a school of composers who wrote for the virtuoso orchestra of Duke Carl Theodor in the mid-1740s, and thought to be one of the most significant forerunners of Viennese Classicism.
marcato	Marked; emphatically.
mass	Central public service of the Catholic liturgy, a celebration of the Last Supper. Same as Eucharist. Mass is celebrated by a cantor and the choir. For musical purposes, the most important parts are the choral components of the Ordinary Kyrie eleison, Glo
mazurka	Polish country dance in triple meter, often with accentuation of the second beat.
measure	Basic unit of meter, i.e., one complete metric unit, delineated by the bar line. Measure and bar are interchangeable.
melisma	Group of several pitches sung to a single syllable.
melody	Coherent, pleasing horizontal succession of pitches a tune.
meno	Less; as in meno mosso.
meter	Organization of rhythmic pulses or beats into hierarchies of weak and strong.
mezzo	Half. Used to modify the basic dynamic levels (mezzo forte, mezzo piano) and for the voice part mezzo soprano.
Mighty Handful, the	Term first used by a Russian critic to describe an affinity group of five nationalist Russian composers Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov.
miniatures	Little pieces; commonly in the Romantic piano and song literature.
minor	In tonality, the darker and more enigmatic of the two modes of scales, characterized particularly by the half step between scale degrees 2 and 3.
minuet	Dance form in common to the Baroque and Classical periods.
M.M.	Abbreviation for Metronome de Maelzel.
mode	(1) One of the two subdivisions of tonal scales major or minor. (2) One of the white-note scales, or church modes of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. (3) One of the medieval rhythmic modes.
moderato	Moderately.
modulation	Process of moving from one key area to another.
moguchaya kuchka	Russian for Mighty Handful, the Russian Five.
moll	Minor.
molto	Very; as in Molto allegro.
monody	Term describing Italian accompanied solo song of the early seventeenth century.
monophonic	Having a single voice.
monothematic	Having a single theme.
mosso	Moving, lively; as in pi mosso.
motet	In its most general sense, texted vocal polyphony; the term describes highly significant genres from the Middle Ages through the high Baroque.
motive	Melodic or sometimes rhythmic cell that retains its character and identity throughout a movement or multimovement composition.
movement	Self-contained component of a larger work.
music drama	Term applied to Wagnerian opera and related works that tries to suggest a different and by implication more serious treatment of character and plot than found in traditional opera.
musicology	Scholarly study of music, particularly the history of music.
musique concrète	Term applied to an early technique of electronic music where segments of magnetic tape were manipulated (pitch modification by speed change), cut (loops, etc.) and respliced, and then stored to be used for compositional effect.
mute	Device to reduce the volume of an instrument, almost invariably damping its tone quality as well. See sordino.
neumatic	Groups of several notes per syllable of chanted text.
nocturne	Night music, especially a short Romantic piano piece.
non troppo	Not too much; as in Allegro non troppo.
obbligato	A part that must not be left out.
octave	Interval between a pitch and another of twice the frequency middle C to the C above it, for example.
opera	Work of music theater (music, drama, spectacle) where much or all of the text is sung and music plays the most significant part.
opus	Used with a number, typically assigned by the publisher, to identify a work in a composer's output.
oratorio	Multi-movement setting of a sacred text, usually with emphasis on choral movements.
orchestration	The way music is scored for the orchestra.
Ordinary	Portion of the liturgy (Mass and Office) that remains the same from day to day.
ossia	Alternative version of a reading; usually simpler.
ostinato	Repetition of a pattern many times to constitute the structural underpinning of a piece.
passacaglia	Work built on an ostinato bass (or ground bass), often a descending chromatic bass.
Passion	Extended vocal and instrumental setting of the Crucifixion story from one of the Gospels.
pastorale	Movement that expresses a rural atmosphere or describes country characters and scenes.
pedal point	Sustained pitch usually in the bass (often the dominant, sometimes the tonic) over which the music continues to move. It is usually a component of final closure.
pentatonic	Scale or mode of five pitches, common in folk musics.
pesante	Heavily.
phrase	Basic unit of musical structure, typically eight measures, that represents a more-or-less complete musical idea.
pianissimo	Very soft.
piano	Soft.
piece	Musical work, implying a complete musical work (with all its movements).
pitch	Discrete, identifiable musical sound of a fixed number of vibrations per second.
pi	More; as in pi forte or pi allegro.
pizzicato	Effect produced by plucking, rather than bowing, the string.
plainchant	Term used for the monophonic liturgical repertoire of the Catholic church. Used interchangeably with chant, plainsong, and Gregorian chant.
plainsong	See plainchant.
poco	Little, a little; as in poco a poco.
point of imitation	See imitative counterpoint, imitative polyphony.
polka	A couple dance to skipping steps in lively duple meter.
polonaise	Aristocratic Polish dance in triple time.
polyphonic	Having more than one voice.
polyrhythm	Superposition of different rhythms and/or meters.
polytonality	Use of several keys at once.
ponticello	Bridge of a stringed instrument. Sul ponticello = at the bridge, a thin, nasal, or whiny sound.
portamento	Gentle sliding up into a pitch.
prelude	Instrumental opening movement, often improvisational in character, that precedes a fugue or, sometimes, a group of movements.
presto	Quite fast.
program	Literary context of a descriptive ("programmatic") piece, especially in the nineteenth century.
progressive jazz	Jazz from the 1940s and 1950s, where the goal was to renew and expand the orchestral jazz tradition.
Proper	Portion of the liturgy (Mass and Office) that contains texts specific to the feast day or occasion.
quarter tone	Pitch halfway between consecutive semitones.
ragtime	American musical style of great popularity at the turn of the twentieth century, characterized by strongly syncopated (ragged) rhythms; the usual form is like that of the American march, involving two strains and a trio.
rallentando	Growing slower. Abbr. rall.
range	Compass of a musical instrument or voice part, from its lowest note to its highest. See also register.
recapitulation	In sonata form, the third main section (after exposition and development), where the main thematic material is presented as it was in the exposition, although with the second group remaining in the tonic key. More generally, any large-scale structural re
recitative	In opera and related genres, a vocal passage imitating the rhythms and inflections of speech. Often a recitative is followed by an aria. When crisply delivered and accompanied by simple chords in the continuo, the recitative is considered secco (dry); w
register	Division of the range (e.g., high, middle, low) of a voice or musical instrument. Roughly synonymous with tessitura.
Requiem	The Mass for the dead of the Roman Catholic church.
retrograde	In reverse order. Common procedure in certain kinds of counterpoint and in twentieth-century serial music.
réunion des thèmes, grande	Berlioz's term for the simultaneous combining of themes first heard consecutively.
rhapsody	Free-form instrumental work, generally carefree and episodic.
rhythm	Subdivision of time, principally by establishing length of notes.
ripieno	Orchestral ensemble in a concerto grosso, in textural opposition to the concertino.
ritard	Lessening in speed; gradual slowing down. Abbr. rit.
ritenuto	Held back, implicitly more abruptly than ritard, or for shorter duration. Abbr. riten.
ritornello	Recurring passage.
rococo	Term used to describe the style in art during the reign of Louis XV of France (1715-74) and by extension to gracefully ornamented music.
Romanticism	Emphasis on the spiritual or passionate (as opposed to the intellectual) in literature, art, and music. Used particularly to describe music written from c. 1830 to the end of the century.
romanza	Songful or ballad-like movement, often the second in a solo concerto.
rondo	Musical form in which the main section recurs between subsidiary episodes, often in an overall sonata pattern (the sonata-rondo).
round	Strict canon (at the unison), usually for three voices, that can continue perpetually.
row	Pitches, usually all 12, ordered in a succession that serves as the basis of a composition. See series.
rubato	Literally, robbed time (tempo rubato) the improvisatory adjustment of strict meter.
scale	Ascending or descending series of notes that define a mode or tonality, usually by the terminal pitch.
scena	Operatic scene for one character, generally embracing a recitative, aria, and finale close.
scherzando	Playful. Abbr. scherz.
scherzetto	Short movement or passage in the manner of a scherzo.
scherzo	Movement type directly descended from the minuet and trio and, like the minuet, usually appearing as the third movement of a four-movement instrumental work.
score	Notation for an ensemble where a staff is given to each part or section.
secco	Dry. Recitativo secco is recitative delivered rapidly in speech rhythms and accompanied by the continuo force or a keyboard instrument.
secular	Worldly; not having to do with the church.
segue	Go on, usually to the next movement.
semitone	Distance between two adjacent notes on a keyboard; same as half step.
semplice	Simply.
sempre	Always, ever; as in sempre pi allegro.
senza	Without. Typically cancels con sordino (with mute) indications, thus meaning "remove the mute."
sequence	(1) Series of motives restated at ascending or descending pitch levels. (2) The medieval sequence is an important category of Gregorian chant where a series of text couplets, eventually rhymed poetry, was set syllabically.
serial	Compositional technique in which elements have been prearranged in a fixed series.
series	Ordering of elements of pitch, rhythm, dynamics, etc., that serve as the basis of a composition. Music so constructed is called serial.
seventh	Interval bw a pitch & another 6 diatonic steps apart. A semitone less than an octave is a major seventh; a semitone less than that is a minor seventh. Both are strongly dissonant intervals, the major seventh pulling upward, the minor seventh downward
seventh chord	Common enhancement to triadic harmony wherein a fourth pitch is added to the triad, up another third, thus root + 3rd + 5th + 7th.
sforzando, sforzato	Suddenly forceful or emphasized. Abbr. sfz., sf.
sonata	Instrumental composition, usually for soloist or soloist and keyboard. Originally the term sonata (played music) was used as opposed to cantata (sung music) and toccata (keyboard music).
song cycle	Group of songs, generally with texts by the same poet, unified by a story line or literary theme.
soprano	Highest voice part.
sordino	Mute. Abbr. sord. Con sordino = with mute. Senza sordino = without mute.
sostenuto	Sustained; as in Andante sostenuto. Often a slower-than-usual tempo is implied. The right pedal on a piano is the sostenuto pedal, allowing the strings to vibrate until the pedal is released and lowers the dampers.
sotto voce	In an undertone; barely heard.
spiritoso	Spirited.
Sprechstimme	Speaking voice. Abbr. Sprechst. and notated with X's through the note stems.
staccato	Separated; short and sharp.
stretto	Concluding episode at increased speed. In fugue, overlapping statements of the subject near the end of the work.
stringendo	Quickening; sometimes a lurch forward.
strophic	Having the same music for all the units (or strophes) of the text, as in a hymn.
Sturm und Drang	Literary movement in eighteenth-century Germany and Austria, applied to stormy, emotional, minor-keyed symphonies of the Classical period.
subito	Suddenly; as in subito forte. Abbr. sub.
subject	Melodic idea or theme on which a composition is based. The theme of a fugue is called its subject.
suite	(1) Group of dances in various national styles, usually preceded by an extended prelude or overture, common to the Baroque period. (2) Series of movements extracted from a larger work (often a ballet) to make an effective concert work.
suspension	Pitch held over from a previous chord, becoming dissonant in the new chord, and resolving downward.
symphonic poem	One-movement work for orchestra with narrative or descriptive intent. See tone poem.
symphony	Extended work for orchestra, usually in four movements (fast, slow, dance form, fast), the principal form of orchestral composition.
syncopation	Placing the accent on the ordinarily weak beats of a measure.
tempo	Speed, rate of speed. Tempo is indicated by a (rather approximate) direction in Italian (e.g., Allegro non troppo), a metronome marking (M.M.), or both. Tempo primo, Tempo I = at the original tempo.
tenor	The higher of the male voices.
tenuto	Held, sustained. Abbr. ten.
tessitura	Prevailing range, or ambitus, of a part-high, middle, low-in relation to the overall compass of that part.
texture	Term used to describe the vertical character of a musical passage, esp. how the voices interact. One speaks, for example, of monophonic, homophonic, and polyphonic textures.
thematic transformation	The recomposition of a theme as it is reused so that gradually its character becomes radically different.
theme	A principal melody, a basic point of melodic reference in a movement.
theme and variations	Movement type where the given theme is modified in a series of variations.
through composed	Music composed from beginning to end without internal repetitions. In general, the opposite of strophic.
tie	Notational device used to continue a rhythm across a bar line.
timbre	Tone color that distinguishes the character of an instrumental or vocal sound.
toccata	Improvisatory showpiece for organ, often an introductory movement preceding a fugue. Originally the term toccata (keyboard music, "touched" with the fingers) was used as opposed to cantata (sung music) and sonata (instrumental music).
tonality	System of music composition that establishes relationships through use of a tonal center (the tonic) and a major or minor key built from it.
tone poem	One-movement work for orchestra with narrative or descriptive intent. Same as symphonic poem.
tonic	Initial scale degree or the triad built on it; thus the most important member.
tranquillo	Calmly, tranquilly.
transposition	Moving of a passage of music from one pitch level to another. Composers also notate parts for transposing instruments such that when the player plays the notated pitches the appropriate-sounding pitches come out called a transposed part.
tremolando	With tremolo.
tremolo	Effect with string instruments where very quick up/down bowings produce an unsettled effect. Also a similar alternation between two pitches, possible (unlike string tremolo) on other instruments including keyboards.
triad	Chord built of three pitches in intervals of the third.
trill	Fast alternating between a main pitch and the diatonic pitch above it.
trio	(1) Music for three performers; in music that descends from Baroque practice, this implies two treble instruments and basso continuo. (2) The center section of form in the minuet and trio family, generally in somewhat reduced orchestration
Tristan chord	First chord in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, poignant and inconclusive when first heard; then later becoming identified with unfulfilled desire and, at length, its fateful resolution.
troppo	Too much; as in Allegro non troppo (not too fast).
tutti	All; everybody.
twelve tone	Name given by Schoenberg to his system of composition using a row or series as the basis of a composition.
unison	Interval (that is, non-interval) that exists between two notes of identical pitch. A chorus of equal voices might well, for example, sing a hymn in unison; choral chant is sung in unison. Abbr. unis.
upbeat	Beat that precedes the downbeat.
vibrato	Effect used by woodwind & string players, singers to enhance the tone quality by cycles just above & below the desired pitch, using pulsations of the diaphragm or a backandforth motion of the left hand on the fingerboard (for the strings)
vivace	Vivacious, bright.
vivo	Alive, vigorous.
voce	Voice.
waltz	Dance in time that developed in the late eighteenth century and became the ballroom rage of the nineteenth.
whole-tone scale	Scale that progresses only in whole steps instead of the patterns of half steps and whole steps that define major and minor scales.

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