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Music Concepts A-C
Term | Definition |
---|---|
A capella | Not accompanied by instruments |
Accelerando | A gradual increase of the tempo |
Additive form | The structure of music with many different accumulating sections where each section provides new material |
Aerophones | Instruments whose sounds are produced by the vibration of air |
Alberti bass | The name given to a version of the broken chord where the notes are played in the order: bottom, top, middle, top |
Allegro | Ordinarily standing for fast, it expresses happiness |
Alternating bass | A bass techniques featuring continued swapping between the root-note and the 5th |
Anacrusis | The note or notes before the first complete bar of a phrase |
Arpeggio | Playing the notes of a chord one at a time, usually over an octave |
Arrangement | A new version of an existing composition |
Arranger | The musician who creates an arrangement |
Articulation | Ways of playing or singing which influence the way notes are connected to each other |
A tempo | A direction to return to the previous speed |
Atonal music | Music without a key centre and free of the tendency of being drawn to a particular note |
Augmentation | A proportional lengthening of a rhythm |
Backbeat | The 2nd and 4th beats of quadruple metre (as played by the snare drum in rock music and by hi-hats in jazz) |
Bar lines | Vertical lines in music notation indicating the end of each metrical pattern |
Basso continuo | The bass and keyboard parts which provided the accompaniment in seventeenth and eighteenth century Western music |
Beat | A division of time used as a reference point for the rhythms of music |
Beat foundation | A description of the timing of music which is based on beats |
Bend | A technique used on fretted string instruments to produce a small slide in the pitch of a note |
Binary form | The structure of music with two distinct sections: one differing from the other |
Bitonal music | Music which has two distinct key centres occurring simultaneously |
Block chord | Playing the notes of a chord all at once |
Broken chord | Playing the notes of a chord one at a time |
Call and Response | An imitative technique where a melodic phrase sung by a solo vocalist (call) is repeated in unison by a vocal chorus (response) |
Chord | Two or more notes played at once |
Climax | The peak of musical excitement |
Composer | A musician who creates original music |
Composite metres | Metres which combine dotless and dotted beats |
Composition | The music written by a composer |
Compound metres | A description of metres with dotted beats, pulses in 3s and a skipping feel |
Concepts | The elements or components of music |
Consonant | A description of harmony which sounds relatively pleasant and harmonious |
Continuous structure | A general description of the structure of pieces whose section ends are obscured, creating a feeling of perpetual advancement. Examples include polyphone pieces such as rounds, canons and fugues |
Contour | A reference to melodic shape |
Contrapuntal | Thea adjective of counterpoint |
Contrast | Created by introducing new material and used by composers to provide the freshness of the new |
Cordophones | Instruments whose sounds are generated by the vibration of stretched strings (cords) |
Counterpoint | A technique of writing two or more equally important parts so that, predominantly, only one is busy at a time |
Cross rhythms | The simultaneous performance of contrasting divisions, such as 2s against 2s, or 3s against 4s |