A Capella
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Alberti Bass
-a repeated accompaniment figure (see 1figure 15) common in 18th-century keyboard music that usually consists of the notes of a triad played in steady eighth or sixteenth notes in the order lowest-highest-middle-highest.
Aria
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Articulation
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Basso Continuo
-in music, a system of partially improvised accompaniment played on a bass line, usually on a keyboard instrument. The use of basso continuo was customary during the 17th and 18th centuries, when only the bass line was written out, or "thorough" (archaic
Binary Form
-Binary form (or AB Form) is a type of form of music pieces. The term Binary means "in two parts", while Form in music acts as a kind of guideline for composers to design or shape a piece of music. When "binary" and "form" join together, you will get a ba
Cadenza
-a cadenza (from Italian: cadenza, meaning cadence; plural, cadenze ) is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display. D
Cantata
-Loosely defined today, a cantata is a vocal work with multiple movements and instrumental accompaniment; it can be based on either a secular or sacred subject.
Chamber Music
-instrumental music played by a small ensemble, with one player to a part, the most important form being the string quartet which developed in the 18th century.
Chorale Pelude
- In music, a chorale prelude is a short liturgical composition for organ using a chorale as its basis. It was a predominant style of the German Baroque era and reached its culmination in the works of J.S. Bach, who wrote 46 examples of the form in his Or
Coda
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Comic Opera
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Concerto
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Concerto Grosso
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Consonant
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Crescendo
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Dance Suite
-An instrumental composition, especially of the 1600s or 1700s, consisting of a succession of dances in the same or related keys.
Development
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Dissonant
-inharmonious or harsh sound; discord; cacophony.
Episode
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Exposition
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Fantasie
-fantasy, fancy, fantazy, phantasy, German: Fantasie, Phantasie, French: fantaisie) is a musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation.
Form
-The most basic definition of musical form is how music is structured. But "Form" is a very... very broad subject, and in the study of Music Theory one of the hardest topics. Form separates the "men from the boys" so to speak. Music is very similar to mat
Fortepiano
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Fugue
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Genre
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Grand Staff
-Definition of grand staff. : a pair of five-line staffs connected by a brace that contain the music for a single instrument (such as a piano, xylophone, or harp) Middle C, located near the center of the keyboard, falls in the center of the grand staff.
Ground Bass Aria
-Ground bass, also called basso ostinato (Italian: "obstinate bass"), in music, a short, recurring melodic pattern in the bass part of a composition that serves as the principal structural element.
Harmony
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Harpsichord
-A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed. "Harpsichord" designates the whole family of similar plucked keyboard instruments, including the smaller virginals, muselar
Homophonic
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Interval
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Libretto
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Major
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Mass
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Melody
-the succession of single tones in musical compositions, as distinguished from harmony and rhythm. the principal part in a harmonic composition; the air. a rhythmical succession of single tones producing a distinct musical phrase or idea.
Duple Meter
-Duple metre (or Am. duple meter, also known as duple time) is a musical metre characterized by a primary division of 2 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 2 and multiples (simple) or 6 and multiples (compound) in the upper figure of the time signature
Triple Meter
-Triple metre (or Am. triple meter, also known as triple time) is a musical metre characterized by a primary division of 3 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 3 (simple) or 9 (compound) in the upper figure of the time signature, with 3. 4, 3. 2, and 3.
Minor
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Monody
-a Greek ode sung by a single voice, as in a tragedy; lament. 2. a poem in which the poet or speaker laments another's death; threnody.
Monophonic
-monophony is the simplest of textures, consisting of melody without accompanying harmony. This may be realized as just one note at a time, or with the same note duplicated at the octave (such as when men and women sing together).
Motive
-a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: "The motive is the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity".
Movement
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Opera
-an extended dramatic composition, in which all parts are sung to instrumental accompaniment, that usually includes arias, choruses, and recitatives, and that sometimes includes ballet. Compare comic opera, grand opera. 2. the form or branch of musical an
Oratorio
-noun, plural oratorios. 1. an extended musical composition with a text more or less dramatic in character and usually based upon a religious theme, for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, and performed without action, costume, or scenery. Origin of orato
Orchestration
-the arrangement of a musical composition for performance by an orchestra; also : orchestral treatment of a musical composition.
Overture
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Passion
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Piano Trio
- 1 : a musical composition typically in several movements for piano, violin, and cello. 2 : an ensemble consisting usually of a pianist, a violinist, and a cellist.
Pitch
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Polyphonic
-consisting of many voices or sounds. 2. Music. having two or more voices or parts, each with an independent melody, but all harmonizing; contrapuntal (opposed to homophonic). pertaining to music of this kind.
Prelude
-A prelude (Germ. Pr�ludium or Vorspiel; Lat. praeludium; Fr. pr�lude; It. preludio) is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from piece to piece. The prelude may be thought of as a preface.
Recapitulation
-In music theory, the recapitulation is one of the sections of a movement written in sonata form. The recapitulation occurs after the movement's development section, and typically presents once more the musical themes from the movement's exposition. This
Recitative
-a passage in a musical composition, esp the narrative parts in an oratorio, set for one voice with either continuo accompaniment only or full accompaniment, reflecting the natural rhythms of speech [C17: from Italian recitativo] recitative (r??sa?t?t?v)
Rhythm
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Ritornello Form
-a recurrent musical section that alternates with different episodes of contrasting material. The repetition can be exact or varied to a greater or lesser extent. In the concerto grosso the full orchestra (tutti) has the ritornello; the solo group (concer
SATB
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Sacred
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Scales
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Secular
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Sonata
-an instrumental composition, usually in three or more movements, for piano alone (piano sonata) or for any other instrument with or without piano accompaniment (violin sonata, cello sonata, etc).
Staff
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String Quartet
-string quartet. 1. a musical composition, usually in three or four movements, for four stringed instruments, typically two violins, viola, and cello.
Symphony
-The definition of a symphony is a lengthy piece of music, or harmony of sounds or colors. An example of a symphony is Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. An example of a symphony is a quilt made out of beautifully matching colors.
Ternary
-a musical structure consisting of two contrasting sections followed by a repetition of the first; the form aba.