A cappella
Singing without instrumental accompaniment
Acciaccatura
A very short ornamental note played just before the principal melodic note
Added-note chord
A chord which includes one or more non-standard notes, such as a 2nd or 6th above the root
Aeolian mode
A scale of seven tones with the same arrangement as the natural minor key (A to A on the white keys of the piano). Not one of the original church modes; developed with the advent of polyphony.
Alberti bass
An accompaniment derived from broken chords. The note sequence is: bottom-top-midde-top. Alberti bass is generally for a keyboardist's left hand and is characteristic of keyboard music of the Classical period.
Alto
Low female voice (short for contralto)
Appoggiatura
An ornamental note that falls on the beat as a dissonance and then resolves by step onto the main note.
Anacrusis
An unaccented note or group of notes prior to the first full bar of a phrase or piece. The equivalent term in Pop and Jazz is a pick-up.
Anapestic rhythm
Rhythm based on two short notes followed by a longer one (eg semiquaver-semiquaver-quaver).
Antecedent-consequent
A period consists of two phrases, joined together in a coherent succession. The two phrases are called the antecedent and the consequent.
Antiphony
A texture in which different groups of musicians have alternating passages.
Answer
In a fugue, the repeat of the subject by a second voice, usually transposed (often by a fourth or fifth). An exact transposition is called a real answer and a modified transposition (to fit the harmony) is called a tonal answer.
Applied (secondary) dominant
A chord outside the key that acts as the dominant chord of a chord within the key (eg D major acts as the dominant of a G major chord in the key of C major).
Aria
Operatic solo; a song sung by one person in an opera or oratorio.
Arco
For stringed instruments: indicates to resume bowing after a pizzicato passage.
Atonal
Technique used in 20th century music where a piece lacks a key or tonal centre.
Augmentation
Statement of a melody in longer note values, often twice as slow as the original.
Augmented 6th chord
A category of pre-dominant chords that contain the interval of an augmented sixth that is formed by simultaneously playing the notes a semitone above and below the dominant (b6 and #4). Often precedes a perfect cadence.
Auxiliary note (or neighbour note)
A non-chord note that moves away by step before returning to the one from which it came - eg G-A-G.
Bare fifths
A chord with only the 1st and 5th notes (no 3rd). Common in medieval and renaissance music.
Baritone
Most common male voice; between tenor and bass.
Basso Continuo
(Italian, "continuous bass") System of notation and performance practice, used in the baroque period, in which an instrumental bass line (played by cello, viola da gamba, or bassoon) is written out and one or more players of keyboard, lute, or similar ins
Bass voice
Lowest male voice.
Binary form
Two part form with repeats of each section - AABB. The first section usually modulates (to V in a major key or III in a minor key). The second section is often longer than the first and uses similar material.
Bitonality
Music from two different keys or scales sounding at the same time: a technique of the 20th century found in music of composers such as Ives, Milhaud, Stravinsky and Bartok.
Blues scale
A pentatonic scale used in blues music. Typically 1 b3 4 b5 5 b7 1, although 2 and 6 do often appear. (A transposed version forms the "major blues scale" - 1 2 b3 3 5 6 1.)
Borrowed chord
A chord borrowed from the parallel key (minor or major scale with the same tonic). Typically used as "colour chords", providing variety and expressivity. Common feature of Romantic harmony and also often found in pop songs. Also known as "modal mixture".
Cadence
Two chords that end a phrase, section or piece. Common cadences include perfect, imperfect, plagal and interrupted cadences.
Cadential 6-4
Tonic 6-4 chord (Chord I 2nd inversion) that delays the arrival of the root position V chord that follows it (used just before a cadence).
Cadential trill
Trill used in the melody just preceding a cadence (on either scale degree 7 or 2 moving to 1). Standard in the Baroque and Classical periods.
Cadenza
An elaborate solo passage of virtuosic playing or singing near the end of a section or piece of music, sometimes improvised by the soloist, or played from a pre-composed score. Typical at the end of fast concerto movements.
Call and response
Musical interaction in which an idea is stated by one voice or instrument and responded to or echoed by others.
Canon
A polyphonic compositional technique that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration.
Cantus Firmus
Pre-existing chant or other melody presented in one voice of a polyphonic work, often in slow time values, while other voices weave melodies around it. Technique of the Renaissance period.
Chaconne
A type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line (ground bass) in slow triple time which typically desce
Chamber music
Music for a small instrumental ensemble with one instrument per line of music e.g. string quartet, piano trio, wind quintet etc.
Chorale
A musical composition (or part of one) consisting of or resembling a harmonised version of a simple, stately hymn tune (originating in German Protestant Church). Chorale melodies were used as the basis for large scale sacred compositions by composers such
Chordal accompaniment
Texture in which the melody is accompanied by simple block chords.
Chromatic
Notes that are not in the key of the composition, or chords that include these notes.
Chromatic auxiliary (neighbour) note
Moving up or down from a principal note by semitone to a chromatic note and back again.
Chromatic passing note
A passing tone that divides a diatonic tone into two semitones.
Circle of 5ths
A series of chords whose roots are each a 5th lower (or a 4th higher) than the previous one. For example, Em�Am�Dm�G�C.
Cluster chord
A dissonant chord containing at least three adjacent notes.
Coda
The closing passage or section of a piece, song or movement.
Codetta
Very short coda; also, ending of an exposition portion of a piece in sonata-allegro form.
Concertino
Solo group of instruments in the Baroque concerto grosso.
Coloratura
Term for high, florid vocal singing involving scales, runs and ornaments. Sometimes these passages were written down, but often were extemporised by the performer.
Concerto
A musical composition for a solo instrument or instruments accompanied by an orchestra, usually in three movements.
Concerto-sonata form
form, originating in the concerto of the Classical period, in which first the orchestra and then the soloist present the primary thematic material; much like sonata form but with two expositions.
Concerto grosso
Baroque concerto type based on the opposition between a small group of solo instruments (the concertino) and orchestra (the ripieno).
Conjunct
Melodic movement up or down by steps (also called stepwise movement)
Consonance
Two or more notes that harmonise without dissonance.
Contrapuntal
Having two or more independent but harmonically related melodic parts sounding together.
Contrary motion
When two parts move in opposite directions.
Counter-melody
An extra melody heard in counterpoint against the main melody of the passage. In fugue this is known as a countersubject.
Countertenor
High male voice that employs falsetto singing, often heard in early music performances.
Counterpoint
A term, first used in the 14th century, to describe the combination of simultaneously
sounding musical lines according to a system of rules.
Countersubject
A recurring secondary theme in a fugue that occurs simultaneously with the main subject; introduced for the first time against the answer.
Cross-rhythm
Rhythms in two or more parts in which the accents occur at different times.
Dactylic rhythm
Rhythmic pattern of long-short-short (eg quaver-semiquaver-semiquaver).
Development Section
The middle section of Sonata Form, in which thematic material is developed (transformed) while moving through several keys.
Diatonic
Using only the notes of the scale.
Diminished 7th chord
A four note chord made up of superimposed minor 3rds, creating an interval of a diminished 7th between its outer notes. Often used (vii�7) as a substitute for V.
Diminution
Development device in which rhythmic values of a given passage are shortened (opposite of Augmentation).
Disjunct
Melodic movement by leaps (opposite of conjunct).
Dissonance
Two or more notes that clash; a discord creating tension.
Dominant
The fifth scale degree (V). Often the chord built on the dominant includes a 7th (V7).
Dominant pedal
A sustained or repeated dominant note (usually in the bass), over which changing harmonies occur.
Dominant prolongation
Remaining on the dominant chord or on a dominant pedal and delaying the expected perfect cadence; often occurs at the end of a piece or section.
Dorian mode
Mode consisting of the white notes from D-D on piano: 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7. Found frequently in folksong, Medieval and Renaissance music, and in the 20th century in music by composers such as Stravinsky, Bartok and Debussy.
Dovetailing
Textural device where one passage of music finishes while another begins (overlapping).
Drone
One or two fixed notes heard as a continuous bass. Heard in many world music traditions (e.g. Scottish, Indian, Mongolian, Aboriginal), and also in Medieval and some 20th Century music.
Duple metre
Music with two beats in a bar.
Enharmonic change
The changing of the name of a given note (its "spelling") but not its actual pitch: e.g. C# to Db. Often used by composers to effect subtle modulations.
Entries
The name given to each time the subject is heard in a fugue.
Episode
In fugue or ritornello form, a passage of music used to separate and modulate between entries of the main subject or theme.
Escape tone
A note that follows another by one step then restored by a skip in the other direction.
Exposition
The first section in a sonata form movement, and also the name given to the opening of the fugue where each entry is heard in each voice.
Extended chord
A chord in which diatonic notes other than the seventh have been added to the original triad (eg 9th, 11th, 13th). Heard frequently in Romantic music and in jazz.
Extension
Developing a motif or theme by adding extra notes to the end of it.
False relation
A dissonance where two different versions of the same note are heard in close proximity in DIFFERENT parts (e.g. G natural against G#). Found in late Renaissance music, blues and jazz, and music of some 20th century composers.
Fanfare
A short musical flourish that is typically played by trumpets or other brass instruments, often accompanied by percussion.
Fantasia
Instrumental work that attempts to give the impression of being spontaneously improvised by the performer.
Figure
A short musical pattern capable of being repeated (usually with harmonic change) either in accompaniment or in melody: also called figuration.
Figured bass
Form of musical notation from the Baroque period in which numerals and symbols are used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones in relation to the bass note, allowing chords to be realised by a continuo player on harpsichord, organ or lute.
First inversion chord
Chord inversion with the third in the bass.
Florid
Describes a melody which is intricate and features many fast ornaments (or: "ornate").
Fugato
A short fugue (or section with fugal features) appearing within some other musical form, such as sonata form or theme and variations.
Fugue
A contrapuntal composition in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the course of the composition.
Genre
A category or type of music characterised by a particular form, style, or content. Examples include symphony, concerto, opera, oratorio, song, prelude, overture.
Grace note
Small note printed before a main note to indicate ornament not essential to the melody or harmony; can be either acciaccaturas (before beat) or appoggiaturas (on beat).
Ground bass
A repeating bass line above which multiple lines provide interest through changes of melody, texture and sometimes chords.
Gypsy Dorian mode
The Dorian mode with a #4: eg DEFG#ABCD. Also known as Ukrainian Dorian mode.
Harmonic rhythm
Rate at which chords change, eg fast (four times per bar) or slow (once per four bars).
Hemiola
Two bars in simple triple time are temporarily articulated as if they were three bars in simple duple time; more broadly it can also refer to any cross rhythm of three against two (debated). Frequent at cadences in triple time in the Baroque period.
Heterophonic
Texture in which two or more voices (or parts) elaborate the same melody simultaneously, often the result of improvisation.
Hexatonic
Music based on a scale of six pitches (e.g. a major scale that omits the leading tone or fourth scale degree). Common in Celtic music and curren pop music.
Hocket
Splitting up a melodic line between two voices. Originated in the Medieval period, but also found in African music and Balinese Gamelan.
Homophony (Melody-Dominated)
Texture in which one voice, often the highest, plays a distinct melody, and the accompanying voices work together in a harmonic accompaniment.
Homophony (Homorhythm)
Texture in which all parts have the same rhythm. (also called rhythmic unison).
Imitation
The repetition of a melody in a polyphonic texture shortly after its first appearance in a different voice. The melody may vary through transposition, inversion, or otherwise, but retain its original character.
Imperfect cadence
A cadence ending on chord V which sounds incomplete. Usually preceded by chord I, ii or IV. (also known as "half cadence")
Interrupted cadence
A cadence intended to create surprise or suspense, often consisting of chord V followed by chord vi instead of the expected perfect cadence to I.
Interval
The distance between two notes.
Intervallic contraction
Development technique in which a motif reappears with smaller intervals between notes.
Intervallic expansion
Development technique in which a motif reappears with wider intervals between notes.
Inversion
Changing the direction of the intervals used in the motif (ascending intervals become descending intervals, etc.).
Irregular metre
Time signature where beats are grouped in uneven mixtures of two and three.
Isorhythm
In 14th-15th century music, the technique of repeating the identical rhythm for each section of a composition, while the pitches are altered. Revived by some 20th century composers.
Juxtaposition
Where one set of musical material follows another with no overlap ("juxta" = next).
Leading note
The seventh note of the major or the melodic or harmonic minor scale. It is a semitone below the tonic.
Lieder
The German word for "songs". It refers to art songs in German mainly from the nineteenth century. The most notable composer of these was Franz Schubert.
Lydian mode
A major scale with #4, or F to F on the white keys of a piano.
Mass
A form of sacred musical composition: a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Christian liturgy to music (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei).
Madrigal
Renaissance secular song for several voices, with or without instruments, set to a short, lyric love poem, often featuring word painting and contrasts of emotion.
Mediant
The third degree of a major or minor scale.
Mediant modulation (tertiary modulation)
Modulation to a key a major or minor third away. Common in Romantic period music and film music.
Melisma
In vocal music, the use of many notes on one syllable of text (opposite of syllabic).
Mixed metre
When the time signature changes throughout a piece.
Mezzo-soprano
Female voice between contralto and soprano.
Middle entries
In a fugue, later entries of the subject, after the exposition, in related keys.
Minimalism
Contemporary musical style featuring the repetition of short melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic patterns with gradual change.
Minuet and trio
Form found in a symphonic cycle or string quartet, made up of two binary dances in a ternary form, with a reprise of the first section at the end (AABBCCDDAB).
Metre
Refers to the use of a time signature; the number of beats in each bar.
Mixolydian mode
A mode equal to the major scale with the 7th lowered a semitone, or G to G on the white keys of the piano.
Modernism
A term for the bold new experimental styles and forms that swept the arts during the first third of the twentieth century.
Modal harmony
Harmony based on pitches drawn from modes rather than major or minor tonal harmony (eg the use of chord bVII in a major key or major IV in a minor key). Common in music of late 19th century and early 20th century Nationalist composers (eg Mussorgsky, Vaug
Modal mixture
Also called borrowed chords: featuring notes or harmonies borrowed from a parallel major or minor key.
Modes
System of scales originating in Ancient Greece that preceded major and minor scales in the West and was in use until the early Baroque period: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian. These were revived in the 20th century and ar
Modulation
The changing of key within a piece of music. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature.
Monophonic
Consisting of a single musical line, without accompaniment, performed either solo or in unison (or with a simple drone).
Mordent
An ornament in which the written note is played, followed by the note below the written note and the written note again.
Motet
A through composed polyphonic choral work set to a sacred Latin text other that that of the mass; an important genre of the Renaissance.
Motif
The smallest recognisable structural musical idea: a small melodic, rhythmic or harmonic idea that recurs throughout a work and is developed (transformed). Often a smaller fragment taken from a larger melodic theme.
Motivic development
Using a distinct musical figure that is subsequently altered, repeated, or sequenced throughout a piece or section of a piece of music.
Neopolitan 6th chord
The bII chord in first inversion (eg Db/F chord in C major) used as a substitute for the subdominant, with scale degree 4 in the bass. Often used at expressive moments.
Non-functional harmony
Harmony that disregards traditional chord progressions (and avoids dominant-tonic movement), as in the music of Debussy.
Oblique motion
Melodic motion of two lines in which one line stays on the same note while the other moves up or down.
Octatonic scale
An eight-note scale (used by Stravinsky) consisting of half and whole steps in alternation.
Opera
An art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (libretto) and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting.
Oratorio
A semi-dramatic musical composition for choir, vocal soloists and orchestra based on a religious text. Usually performed in concert halls or churches, although more recently occasionally staged in theatres.
Organum
Earliest kind of polyphonic music, which developed from the custom of adding voices above a plainchant; they first ran parallel to it at the interval of a fifth or fourth and later moved more freely.
Ornamentation
Addition of fast notes and vocal effects (such as trills) to a melody, making it more florid and expressive; typically improvised in music of all cultures, and in Western Art music, is often written out.
Oscillating
Moving back and forth between notes or chords.
Ostinato
Motif or phrase that is persistently repeated in the same musical voice.
Overture
An instrumental prelude to an opera, oratorio, or ballet.
Pandiatonicism
Using the notes of the diatonic (as opposed to the chromatic) scale freely without implying a tonal centre. Music using this technique is pandiatonic. 20th century composers such as Ravel, Copland, P�rt, Adams and Stravinsky have used this technique.
Parallel motion
When two or more parts move in the same direction and intervals (e.g. parallel 5ths).
Passacaglia
Continuous variations on ground bass, similar to chaconne (baroque).
Passage
Short section of music.
Pedal point
A sustained note over which harmonies change. Usually in the bass, but can also be an inner pedal point (in an inner voice), or inverted pedal point (highest voice).
Pentatonic
Music that only uses a scale with five pitches.
Perfect cadence
The chordal progression of dominant to tonic i.e. V-I.
Phrygian mode
The mode represented by the natural diatonic scale E-E (containing a minor 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th).
Phrygian cadence
A type of imperfect cadence used in minor keys. It consists of the progression IVb-V - the bass moves from b6 to 5.
Pick-up
An incomplete bar at the beginning of the song (more formally known as anacrusis).
Pivot chord
A chord common to two keys where a modulation process begins
Pizzicato
For stringed instruments: pluck the string instead of bowing.
Plagal cadence
A cadence where the subdominant chord is followed by the tonic chord (IV-I).
Points of imitation
The technique featured in Renaissance music whereby each phrase of text is given a different melody and freely imitated in turn by each other voice, one beginning several beats after another.
Polarised texture
A term referring to Baroque music in which there is a wide gap between the bass part and the melody line(s). In performance, this is filled by improvised chords played on a continuo instrument such as an organ, harpsichord or lute.
Polychoral
Antiphonal music intended for at least two groups of performers (voices or instruments) who are usually placed in separate parts of a building. Developed at St Mark's, Venice, in the late Renaissance and was popular until the early years of the Baroque pe
Polymodal
Music combining and superimposing multiple modes. 20th century technique particularly associated with Bartok and Stravinsky.
Polyphony
Texture which consists of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody. Polyphony may feature free or strict imitation between lines, or be non-imitative.
Program music
Instrumental music endowed with literary or pictorial associations, especially popular in the nineteenth century.
Polyrhythm
The simultaneous use of several rhythmic patterns or meters, common in twentieth-century music and in certain African musics.
Primary chords
Chords built on the first, fourth, and fifth degrees of a scale (I, IV, V).
Quartal harmony
Chords built on the interval of a fourth rather than a third. Found in early 20th century modernist music and some 1960s jazz.
Range
The distance between the lowest and highest notes of a voice, instrument, melody, chord or texture.
Register
The section of a voice or instrument's range that is used e.g. bass, middle, treble.
Recitative
A passage or section in an opera, oratorio, cantata, or other vocal work in a style that approaches speech and follows the natural rhythms of the text. In recitativo secco, this is accompanied sparingly by punctuating chords played by the continuo in flex
Recapitulation
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 material is most often recapitulated in
Resolution
The move of a note or chord from dissonance (an unstable sound) to a consonance (a more final or stable sounding one). Dissonance, resolution, and suspense can be used to create musical interest.
Retransition
In sonata form, the passage at the end of the development section that leads to and emphasises the dominant in preparation for the return of the tonic at the recapitulation.
Retrograde
A musical line which is the reverse of a previously or simultaneously stated line, in pitch, rhythm or both.
Retrograde Inversion
A musical term that literally means "backwards and upside down": a musical idea is both reversed and inverted.
Rhythmic displacement
Shifting a rhythmic motif to begin on a different beat in the bar.
Riff
A repeated musical idea in a popular song. In classical music, this is referred to as an ostinato.
Ripieno
The larger of the two ensembles in the Baroque concerto grosso.
Ritornello
A thematic section, most often played by the orchestra (or ripieno), that begins a concerto movement, serves to divide the solo sections, and often returns to its original form at the end of the movement.
Rondo
A multi-sectional work, or movement, whose theme recurs multiple times in the course of the piece, always in the tonic key, much like a refrain, e.g. ABACADA.
Root position
Triad that has the root in the bass.
Rounded binary form
Binary form in which the beginning or all of the first section returns in the tonic in the latter part of the second section.
Run
Florid, virtuosic melodic passage often featuring a lengthy series of quick semiquaver patterns.
Scherzo
(Italian for "joke") A rapid, rhythmically playful work in triple meter often used in place of the minuet as the third movement in a string quartet or symphony.
Secondary dominant
A dominant triad or dominant 7th chord which is not the dominant of the prevailing key; tonicizes a chord other than tonic, by functioning as that chord's dominant.
Secondary chords
Chords based on the second, third and sixth notes of the scale; in C major, these are D minor, E minor and A minor.
Scotch snap
A two-note dotted rhythm which has the shorter note on the beat. Usually an on-beat semiquaver followed by an off-beat dotted quaver. Also known as lombardic rhythm.
Second inversion chord
Chord inversion with the fifth in the bass (6/4 chord). Usually only used to embellish the dominant as a cadential 6/4, or as a passing chord.
Sequence
The repetition of a melodic idea (or a whole harmonic progression) at successively higher or lower degrees of the scale.
Serialism
A modernist compositional technique in which a fixed series (or row) of notes, especially the twelve notes of the chromatic scale, are used to generate the harmonic and melodic basis of a piece. Twelve-tone serialism was associated with the Second Viennes
Sforzando (sfz)
Played with sudden force.
Similar motion
In part-writing, similar motion is the situation in which two voices of the composition move in the same direction, either ascending or descending, but they do not necessarily cover the same interval.
Sonata form
The most characteristic form of first moments in instrumental compositions of the classical era; contains 3 major sections: exposition, development, and recapitulation, and sometimes an introduction and coda.
Soprano voice
The highest and most common category of female voice.
Sotto voce
Softly; with subdued sound; performed in an undertone.
Stepwise movement
Moving by adjacent scale steps rather than leaps; conjunct motion.
Stretto
In a fugue, when entries of the subject occur at faster intervals of time, so that they overlap, forming dense, imitative counterpoint. Usually occurs at the climactic moment near the end.
Strophic
Song structure in which the same music is repeated with every stanza (strophe) of the poem.
Subdominant
The fourth scale degree (IV).
Subject
Main theme of a fugue.
Submediant
The sixth scale degree (VI).
Suite
Multi-movement work made up of a series of dance movements, generally all in the same key, but in contrasting metres and tempos.
Superimposition
When one set of musical material is placed directly over another, sounding simultaneously ("super" = over)
Supertonic
2nd scale degree: One step above the tonic.
Suspension
A means of creating tension by prolonging a consonant note while the underlying harmony changes, normally on a strong beat.
Sus4 chord
A triad with the major or minor third replaced by the fourth degree of the scale. Used frequently in popular music.
Swing rhythm
Rhythm where notes with equal written time values are performed as long and short. Typical of jazz and blues, but also similar to rhythms in some Baroque music (notes in�gales).
Symphony
An elaborate musical composition for full orchestra, typically in four movements, the first of which is traditionally in sonata form.
Syllabic
Music sung with one note per word or syllable.
Syncopation
When accented notes occur off, rather than on, the beat.
Tenor voice
A high male voice.
Tessitura
The general range of a composition in relation to the performer's range; described as high or low.
Ternary form
Three part musical form created by repeating the first section without changing. A B A.
Tertiary modulation
Modulation where the root moves by the interval of a third. (also called mediant modulation).
Texture
How the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition, thus determining the overall quality of the sound in a piece.
Third inversion chord
Where the seventh of a seventh chord is in the bass (eg C7/Bb). The bass usually resolves downward to a first inversion IV chord.
Through-composed
A form in which each section has its own music, with very little or no repetition between sections.
Tone poem
A piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. Originated in Romantic era.
Ti�rce de Picardie
Where the final chord of a piece in a minor key has a major third instead of the expected minor. Common in minor key music of the Baroque period.
Transposition
Moving a collection of notes up or down in pitch by a constant interval.
Transition
In sonata form, the section of the exposition preceding the second theme, in which the composer modulates from the key of the first theme to the key of the second.
Tremolo
Quick repeated bowing stroke.
Triad
Three note chord consisting of the root, third, and fifth.
Trill
An ornament in which the written note is alternated with the note above.
Tritone
Augmented fourth, or diminished fifth interval.
Turn
A short ornament consisting of the note above the one indicated, the note itself, the note below the one indicated, and the note itself again. It is marked by a mirrored S-shape lying on its side above the staff.
Truncation
Utilizing a melody with part of the end omitted.
Una corda
One string: depress the left piano pedal so that the hammers only strike one string at a time.
Variation
A technique where material is repeated (varied) in an altered form. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.
Variations form
Form that presents an uninterrupted series of variants (each called a variation) on a theme; the theme may be a melody, a bass line, a harmonic plan, or other musical subject.
Virtuosic
Music that requires a display of advanced technical skill for its execution.
Whole-tone scale
A six-tone octave scale in which all successive notes are a whole tone apart. Associated particularly with Impressionist music.
Parallel motion
When two or more parts move in the same direction and intervals (e.g. parallel 5ths).
Pentatonic
Music that only uses a scale with five pitches.
Phrygian mode
The mode represented by the natural diatonic scale E-E (containing a minor 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th).
Polymodal
Music combining and superimposing multiple modes. 20th century technique particularly associated with Bartok and Stravinsky.
Polyphony
Texture which consists of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody. Polyphony may feature free or strict imitation between lines, or be non-imitative.
Polyrhythm
The simultaneous use of several rhythmic patterns or meters, common in twentieth-century music and in certain African musics.
Quartal harmony
Chords built on the interval of a fourth rather than a third. Found in early 20th century modernist music and some 1960s jazz.
Retrograde
A musical line which is the reverse of a previously or simultaneously stated line, in pitch, rhythm or both.
Retrograde Inversion
A musical term that literally means "backwards and upside down": a musical idea is both reversed and inverted.
Rhythmic displacement
Shifting a rhythmic motif to begin on a different beat in the bar.
Riff
A repeated musical idea in a popular song. In classical music, this is referred to as an ostinato.
Serialism
A modernist compositional technique in which a fixed series (or row) of notes, especially the twelve notes of the chromatic scale, are used to generate the harmonic and melodic basis of a piece. Twelve-tone serialism was associated with the Second Viennes
Superimposition
When one set of musical material is placed directly over another, sounding simultaneously ("super" = over)
Sus4 chord
A triad with the major or minor third replaced by the fourth degree of the scale. Used frequently in popular music.
Swing rhythm
Rhythm where notes with equal written time values are performed as long and short. Typical of jazz and blues, but also similar to rhythms in some Baroque music (notes in�gales).
Syncopation
When accented notes occur off, rather than on, the beat.
Tone poem
A piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. Originated in Romantic era.
Transposition
Moving a collection of notes up or down in pitch by a constant interval.
Tremolo
Quick repeated bowing stroke.
Tritone
Augmented fourth, or diminished fifth interval.
Truncation
Utilizing a melody with part of the end omitted.
Virtuosic
Music that requires a display of advanced technical skill for its execution.
Whole-tone scale
A six-tone octave scale in which all successive notes are a whole tone apart. Associated particularly with Impressionist music.
Debussy
French impressionist composer (1867-1918)
Schoenberg
German composer who pioneered atonal and 12 tone music.
Ives
Early modernist American composer famous for bitonal music such as "The Unanswered Question".
Ravel
French composer who followed Debussy's impressionist style, often with exotic flavour and rich orchestration. Famous for "Bolero".
Bartok
Influential Hungarian modernist and neo-nationalist composer who (along with Kodaly) was also an ethnomusicologist and folk-music collector. His music is dissonant and very rhythmically complex.
Kodaly
Hungarian nationalist composer who worked with Bartok to collect folk songs from his country. Composed "Dances of Galanta".
Stravinsky
Influential Russian modernist composer who is famous for his rhythmically complex and dissonant ballet "The Rite of Spring"; later explored neo-classical and serialist styles.
Berg
Pupil of Schoenberg who extended the 12 tone technique; composed important operas Lulu and Wozzeck.
Prokofiev
Russian neoclassical composer famous for works such as the "Classical Symphony" and the ballet "Romeo and Juliet".
Duke Ellington
United States jazz composer and piano player and bandleader during the swing period.
Aaron Copland
US composer famous for his pan-diatonic and rhythmically vigorous American-inspired music such as "Rodeo" and "Fanfare for the Common Man".
John Cage
US Avant-garde composer famous for innovating such concepts as aleatoric and indeterminate music, the prepared piano, and the use of noise and silence in composition.
Charlie Parker
Alto saxophonist and composer who pioneered the jazz idiom of bebop in 1940s.
Bernstein
US composer and conductor famous for West Side Story.
Ligeti
Important Hungarian avant-garde composer famous for "micropolyphony" and cluster dissonance heard in pieces such as "Lux Aeterna" (used in the soundtrack to "2001: A Space Odyssey").
Steve Reich
American minimalist composer famous for inventing the process of phase-shifting (eg Piano Phase).
Philip Glass
Popular American minimalist composer famous for his opera Einstein on the Beach as well as his piano and film music.
John Adams
Current American post-minimalist composer famous for such orchestral pieces as "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" and the operas "Dr Atomic" and "Nixon in China".
impressionism
musical style associated with French composers such as Debussy and Ravel: hazy atmospheres created with whole tone, pentatonic and modal scales, parallel harmonies, non-functional harmony.
serialism
Schoenberg's 12-tone technique
series of values to manipulate different musical elements.
neo-classicism
musical movement arising after WWI in which the style of the classical period is imitated and dissonantly extended; Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Prokofiev
avant-garde
Experimental or innovative: composers such as John Cage, Var�se, Ives and Stockhausen are often described with this term.
modernism
artistic, musical and literary movement of early 20C sparked by a break with past conventions
post-modernism
Return to tonal and melodic music in 1960s; often featuring stylistic mixes of popular and "high" art - eg Crumb, Berio, Cage
minimalism
musical movement based on extensive repetition of simple material to produce complex rhythmic and structural effects; composers include Glass, Reich, Adams.
musique concrete
Music consisting of natural sounds and noises recorded and altered electronically.
Classical Period
1750-1820
Enlightenment
An era of scientific advancement that spread across the world during the 1700s
Classical Orchestra
Larger ensemble than Baroque (25-50), strings, woodwinds (flutes), brass, percussion
Joseph Haydn
A well-known classical composer. Phenomenal in the development of chamber music, the symphony and the string quartet. Sometimes called a more boring version of Moz-SURPRISE!
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The most widely known classical composer. Composed more than 600 pieces, many of which are considered the pinnacles of their forms. A child prodigy in every sense of the word.
Sonata form
Exposition, development, recapitulation
Rondo
A musical form with a recurring leading theme, often found in the final movement of a sonata or concerto. A B A C A
Minuet
Courtly dance of triple time, often faster
Opera buffa
A comic opera (usually in Italian), especially one with characters drawn from everyday life.
First theme
The first theme introduced in the exposition section of a sonata.
Second theme
The second theme introduced in the exposition section of a sonata. It is played in a different key to the tonic, usually the dominant if the tonic is major, or the relative major if the tonic is minor.
Cadence theme
A section that signals the end of the exposition. It is played in the same key as the second theme.
Development
A section that develops various themes from the exposition using various techniques and ends by playing a re-transition that returns to the first key. Tension is created by modulating frequently.
Symphony
An elaborate musical composition for full orchestra, typically in four movements, at least one of which is traditionally in sonata form. Opening movement - Slow movement - Minuet (with trio) - Closing movement
Exposition
The initial presentation of the main themes of the movement in tonic, is usually repeated, conflict between primary keys is established through this section. Includes the first theme, bridge and the second group (second theme and cadence theme)
Sonata form
A type of composition in three sections (exposition, development, and recapitulation) in which two themes or subjects are explored according to set key relationships. It forms the basis for much classical music, including the sonata, symphony, and concert
Double-exposition form
Like a sonata, but with two expositions - one with the orchestra which introduces the main themes in the tonic key, one with a soloist who restates the main themes, adds some new themes and modulates to the second key.
Chamber music
Music written for a small, informal ensemble. The most prominent example of such an ensemble is a string quartet.
String quartet
Music written for a string quartet - two violins, a viola and a cello - with the same structure as a symphony.
Trio
The B section of the Minuet form. Consists of its own ternary form.
Theme and variation
Theme followed by multiple variations of the theme (A - A' - A'')
Natural and Pleasing variety
Two central concept from Classical period
Classical counterpoint
Dominantly homophony, but polyphony was still utilized, especially in development section of sonata, to provide contrast.
Opening movement
Usually in sonata form with optional slow intro, moderate to fast tempo, emphasizes on contrast and development
Slow movement
Usually in a slow tempo, the melody is song-like and lyrical, no standard form
Minuet and trio
moderate tempo, triple meter, ternary form with dance style
Closing movement
fast to very fast tempo, usually in sonata or rondo form, melody is usually light and tuneful
Recapitulation
The last section of sonata form. It resolves the tension created by the previous section and present the exposition in the same order but with alternation such as modulate the second theme to the original key.
Bridge
A brief melody connecting the first and second theme in sonata, modulation usually happened within or at the end of this section.
Coda
An optional section after recapitulation in sonata form. A short or long ending phrase that is stable with repeated cadences.
Theme
A complete tune in several phrases
Variation
Variant of the theme on each repetition with the same phrase structure using techniques such as fragmentation, transposition and augmentation.
episode
The contrasting themes (B, C, D...) between main theme (A) in rondo
Classical concerto
Three movements - I: moderate to fast, double-exposition form; II: slow, various forms; III: fast, various forms with rondo being favored, but never sonata form.
Appoggiatura
An ornamental note that falls on the beat as a dissonance and then resolves by step onto the main note.
Anacrusis
An unaccented note or group of notes prior to the first full bar of a phrase or piece. The equivalent term in Pop and Jazz is a pick-up.
Anapestic rhythm
Rhythm based on two short notes followed by a longer one (eg semiquaver-semiquaver-quaver).
Answer
In a fugue, the repeat of the subject by a second voice, usually transposed (often by a fourth or fifth). An exact transposition is called a real answer and a modified transposition (to fit the harmony) is called a tonal answer.
Augmentation
Statement of a melody in longer note values, often twice as slow as the original.
Basso Continuo
(Italian, "continuous bass") System of notation and performance practice, used in the baroque period, in which an instrumental bass line (played by cello, viola da gamba, or bassoon) is written out and one or more players of keyboard, lute, or similar ins
Binary form
Two part form with repeats of each section - AABB. The first section usually modulates (to V in a major key or III in a minor key). The second section is often longer than the first and uses similar material.
Cadential trill
Trill used in the melody just preceding a cadence (on either scale degree 7 or 2 moving to 1). Standard in the Baroque and Classical periods.
Cadenza
An elaborate solo passage of virtuosic playing or singing near the end of a section or piece of music, sometimes improvised by the soloist, or played from a pre-composed score. Typical at the end of fast concerto movements.
Canon
A polyphonic compositional technique that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration.
Chaconne
A type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line (ground bass) in slow triple time which typically desce
Chorale
A musical composition (or part of one) consisting of or resembling a harmonised version of a simple, stately hymn tune (originating in German Protestant Church). Chorale melodies were used as the basis for large scale sacred compositions by composers such
Circle of 5ths
A series of chords whose roots are each a 5th lower (or a 4th higher) than the previous one. For example, Em�Am�Dm�G�C.
Concertino
Solo group of instruments in the Baroque concerto grosso.
Concerto
A musical composition for a solo instrument or instruments accompanied by an orchestra, usually in three movements.
Concerto grosso
Baroque concerto type based on the opposition between a small group of solo instruments (the concertino) and orchestra (the ripieno).
Contrapuntal
Having two or more independent but harmonically related melodic parts sounding together.
Counterpoint
The harmonious opposition of two or more independent musical lines.
Countersubject
A recurring secondary theme in a fugue that occurs simultaneously with the main subject; introduced for the first time against the answer.
Dactylic rhythm
Rhythmic pattern of long-short-short (eg quaver-semiquaver-semiquaver).
Diminished 7th chord
A four note chord made up of superimposed minor 3rds, creating an interval of a diminished 7th between its outer notes. Often used (vii�7) as a substitute for V.
Diminution
Development device in which rhythmic values of a given passage are shortened (opposite of Augmentation).
Dominant
The fifth scale degree (V). Often the chord built on the dominant includes a 7th (V7).
Dominant pedal
A sustained or repeated dominant note (usually in the bass), over which changing harmonies occur.
Dominant prolongation
Remaining on the dominant chord or on a dominant pedal and delaying the expected perfect cadence; often occurs at the end of a piece or section.
Dovetailing
Textural device where one passage of music finishes while another begins (overlapping).
Entries
The name given to each time the subject is heard in a fugue.
Episode
In fugue or ritornello form, a passage of music used to separate and modulate between entries of the main subject or theme.
Exposition
The first section in a sonata form movement, and also the name given to the opening of the fugue where each entry is heard in each voice.
Extension
Developing a motif or theme by adding extra notes to the end of it.
Fantasia
Instrumental work that attempts to give the impression of being spontaneously improvised by the performer.
Figure
A short musical pattern capable of being repeated (usually with harmonic change) either in accompaniment or in melody: also called figuration.
Figured bass
Form of musical notation from the Baroque period in which numerals and symbols are used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones in relation to the bass note, allowing chords to be realised by a continuo player on harpsichord, organ or lute.
Florid
Describes a melody which is intricate and features many fast ornaments (or: "ornate").
Fugato
A short fugue (or section with fugal features) appearing within some other musical form, such as sonata form or theme and variations.
Fugue
A contrapuntal composition in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the course of the composition.
Grace note
Small note printed before a main note to indicate ornament not essential to the melody or harmony; can be either acciaccaturas (before beat) or appoggiaturas (on beat).
Ground bass
A repeating bass line above which multiple lines provide interest through changes of melody, texture and sometimes chords.
Hemiola
Two bars in simple triple time are temporarily articulated as if they were three bars in simple duple time; more broadly it can also refer to any cross rhythm of three against two (debated). Frequent at cadences in triple time in the Baroque period.
Imitation
The repetition of a melody in a polyphonic texture shortly after its first appearance in a different voice. The melody may vary through transposition, inversion, or otherwise, but retain its original character.
Inversion
Changing the direction of the intervals used in the motif (ascending intervals become descending intervals, etc.).
Melisma
In vocal music, the use of many notes on one syllable of text (opposite of syllabic).
Middle entries
In a fugue, later entries of the subject, after the exposition, in related keys.
Motif
The smallest recognisable structural musical idea: a small melodic, rhythmic or harmonic idea that recurs throughout a work and is developed (transformed). Often a smaller fragment taken from a larger melodic theme.
Ornamentation
Addition of fast notes and vocal effects (such as trills) to a melody, making it more florid and expressive; typically improvised in music of all cultures, and in Western Art music, is often written out.
Passacaglia
Continuous variations on ground bass, similar to chaconne (baroque).
Pedal point
A sustained note over which harmonies change. Usually in the bass, but can also be an inner pedal point (in an inner voice), or inverted pedal point (highest voice).
Phrygian cadence
A type of imperfect cadence used in minor keys. It consists of the progression IVb-V - the bass moves from b6 to 5.
Polarised texture
A term referring to Baroque music in which there is a wide gap between the bass part and the melody line(s). In performance, this is filled by improvised chords played on a continuo instrument such as an organ, harpsichord or lute.
Polyphony
Texture which consists of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody. Polyphony may feature free or strict imitation between lines, or be non-imitative.
Recitative
A passage or section in an opera, oratorio, cantata, or other vocal work in a style that approaches speech and follows the natural rhythms of the text. In recitativo secco, this is accompanied sparingly by punctuating chords played by the continuo in flex
Ripieno
The larger of the two ensembles in the Baroque concerto grosso.
Ritornello
A thematic section, most often played by the orchestra (or ripieno), that begins a concerto movement, serves to divide the solo sections, and often returns to its original form at the end of the movement.
Run
Florid, virtuosic melodic passage often featuring a lengthy series of quick semiquaver patterns.
Sequence
The repetition of a melodic idea (or a whole harmonic progression) at successively higher or lower degrees of the scale.
Stretto
In a fugue, when entries of the subject occur at faster intervals of time, so that they overlap, forming dense, imitative counterpoint. Usually occurs at the climactic moment near the end.
Subject
Main theme of a fugue.
Suspension
A means of creating tension by prolonging a consonant note while the underlying harmony changes, normally on a strong beat.
Ti�rce de Picardie
Where the final chord of a piece in a minor key has a major third instead of the expected minor. Common in minor key music of the Baroque period.
Trill
An ornament in which the written note is alternated with the note above.
Truncation
Utilizing a melody with part of the end omitted.
Variations form
Form that presents an uninterrupted series of variants (each called a variation) on a theme; the theme may be a melody, a bass line, a harmonic plan, or other musical subject.
Virtuosic
Music that requires a display of advanced technical skill for its execution.
Romantic period
Musical period from c.1810-c1910
Rubato
Expressively altering tempo or rhythm
Chromaticism
The use of notes not part of the diatonic major or minor pattern
Chromatic neighbour (or auxiliary) note
moving away from a note by semitone and back again
Chromatic passing note
moving by semitone to a diatonic note
chromatic chord
A chord containing notes foreign to the key of the piece
tertiary modulation
modulation by minor or major third
parallel key
Major and minor keys that have the same tonic note (eg C major, C minor)
modal mixture
Borrowing notes/chords from parallel minor or major (eg. iv appears in major tonality).
program music
Instrumental music endowed with literary or pictorial associations, especially popular in the nineteenth century
Lieder
German art song for voice and piano, performed for domestic entertainment
Miniatures
Romantic period pieces for piano or piano and voice that were designed to convey a single, intense emotion lasting only a few minutes
grandiose compositions
Very long and expansive musical works: more movements, more instruments, longer time span
tone poem
a one-movement work for orchestra of the Romantic era that gives musical expression to the emotions and events associated with a story, play, political occurrence, personal experience, or encounter with nature
thematic unity
elements from a musical idea appear frequently, in significant places and their presence is recognised or experienced on or beneath the surface.
Leitmotif
a motif or theme associated throughout a music drama with a particular person, situation, or idea
id�e fixe
Fixed Idea", a term coined by Berlioz for a recurring musical idea that links different movements of a work.
thematic transformation
Alteration of the character of a theme by means of changes in dynamics, orchestration, or rhythm, when it returns in a later movement or section
motif
A recurring fragment of a melody or theme, that is often developed: the smallest recognisable musical idea possessing thematic identity
theme
The material, usually a recognisable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based (a longer theme can be broken into motifs)
dominant ninth
A dominant 7th chord with an added major ninth above the root (eg C E G Bb D)
dominant minor ninth chord
A dominant 7th chord with an added minor ninth above the root. (eg C E G Bb Db)
neopolitan sixth
A pre-dominant chord built on bII of given key - usually in first inversion (eg. F, Ab, Db in C major)
augmented sixth
A group of altered pre-dominant chords commonly found in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music, characterized by an augmented-sixth interval formed by the bass (a half step above the dominant) and the raised fourth scale degree (a half step below the d
diminished seventh chord
diminished triad plus a diminished seventh: a symmetrical chord constructed with three minor thirds.
recitative
sung speech to deliver large portions of text during an opera.
aria
operatic solo; a song sung by one person in an opera or oratorio
bel canto
opera in which the emphasis is on the "beautiful singing" of the voice - especially early 19th C Italian operas (Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini)
music drama
Wagner's term for his operas
Gesamtkunstwerk
Wagner's term for total work of art: connecting drama and music.
Verismo
A style of Italian opera with realistic portrayals of everyday life (eg Puccini)
symphonic poem
A piece of orchestral program music in one long movement - invented by Liszt
Nationalist composers
Composers who wrote music drawing on folk melodies as part of rise of nationalistic sentiments in late 19th C; eg Dvorak, Borodin, Grieg, Sibelius.
exoticism
Use of melodies, rhythms, or instruments that suggest foreign places - common in late Romantic period (eg Bizet, Puccini, Saint-Sa�ns, Rimsky-Korsakov)
Kuchka
The "Mighty Five" Russian Nationalist composers of late 19th C: Mussorgsky, Borodin, Balakirev, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov
Absolute Music
Late Romantic response to excesses of Wagner and Liszt with return to symphonic forms of the Classical period: eg Brahms, Bruckner
Post-Romanticism
Music c 1890-1910 that expanded Romantic symphonies and operas to huge proportions, with hyper-chromatic harmony. eg R. Strauss, Mahler
Mahler
Post-Romantic Austrian composer (1860-1911) famous for enormous, emotionally intense symphonies and orchestral songs
Bruckner
Austrian late-Romantic symphonic composer (1824-1896) also famous for sacred choral music
Brahms
German late Romantic symphonic composer (1833-1897) who returned to classical genres of symphonies, concertos, Lieder and chamber music.
Liszt
Hungarian composer (1811-1886) famous as virtuoso pianist and inventor of symphonic poem.
Wagner
German opera composer (1813-1883) famous for the invention of the Leitmotiv system and the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk. Composed lengthy "music-dramas" based on Germanic myth.
Richard Strauss
German post-romantic composer of tone poems and operas (1864-1949). His music is often passionate and intensely chromatic.
Bizet
French operatic composer (1838-1875) famous for "Carmen" and "The Pearlfishers".
Berlioz
French Romantic composer (1803-1869) famous for the programmatic Symphonie Fantastique. Unlike most composers he could not play piano and composed on guitar.
Mendelssohn
German early Romantic composer (1809-1847) famous for his violin concerto and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Was one of the most incredible child prodigies ever.
Chopin
Polish Romantic composer (1810-1849) who specialised in virtuosic piano music.
Schubert
Early Romantic Austrian composer (1797-1828) who was famous for his Lieder, chamber music and "Unfinished Symphony".
Robert Schumann
German Romantic composer (1810-1856) of symphonies, concertos, Lieder and piano music. Died in an asylum.
Clara Schumann
German composer and pianist (1819-1896) - was married to Robert.
Verdi
Italian Romantic opera composer (1813-1901)
Puccini
Italian late-Romantic opera composer (1858-1924) famous for "Verismo" operas such as La Boh�me, Madama Butterfly and Tosca.
Mussorgsky
Innovative Russian Nationalist composer (1839-1881) who was a member of the Kuchka or "Mighty Five". Famous for "Pictures at an Exhibition" and "Boris Godunov".
Rimsky-Korsakov
Nationalist Russian composer (1844-1908) famous as a great orchestrator. His innovations such as the octatonic scale were later influential on Stravinsky.
Tchaikovsky
Famous and very popular Russian composer (1840-1893) of ballets, symphonies and opera.
Dvorak
Czech late Romantic composer (1841-1904) of symphonies, chamber music and opera. Famous for "New World Symphony".
Rossini
Italian opera composer (1792-1868) famous for "The Barber of Seville" and "William Tell".
Donizetti
Italian "bel canto" opera composer (1797-1848) famous for operas such as "Don Pasquale" and "L'elisir d'amore".
Bellini
Italian "bel canto" opera composer (1801-1835) famous for his beautiful melodic arias such as "Casta Diva".
Weber
German early Romantic composer (1786-1826) famous for his opera "Der Freisch�tz" and his dramatic clarinet concerto.
Faur�
French late Romantic composer (1845-1924) influential on Debussy and famous for his songs, chamber music and his beautiful Requiem.
Saint-Sa�ns
French Romantic composer (1835-1921) famous for "Carnival of the Animals", Organ Symphony and "Samson and Delilah".
Swing
Slightly delaying every second quaver
Syncopation
Accented notes off the beat
12 bar blues
12 bar chord progression I I I I, IV IV I I, V IV I I
Call and response
Solo phrase echoed by group
Blues scale
1 - b3 - 4 - b5 - 5 - b7 - 1
Major blues scale
1 - 2 - b3 - 3 - 5 - 6 - 1
Head - solo - head
Usual structure of jazz (main melody ("head"), solos, then main melody returns)
Head
Main melody of a jazz piece, not improvised (usually played at beginning and end)
Walking bass
A bass that moves at a moderate, steady pace, mostly in equal note values and often stepwise up or down the scale.
Comping
Accompanying chords played in an improvised, syncopated rhythm.
Blue note
Flattened or bent (sliding) third, fifth or seventh scale degree notes that add to the emotional intensity of a melody in jazz or blues.
Extended chords
chords to which additional pitches, or extensions (sixths, ninths, sevenths, thirteenths) have been added beyond the basic triad.
trading fours
Two soloists or instrument groups alternately play four bars each.
scat
Improvised singing with nonsense syllables.
rhythm section
the section within a jazz band, usually consisting of drums, double bass, piano and/or guitar, that establishes the harmony and rhythm
standard
A tune universally accepted and played by many Jazz musicians, often Tin Pan Alley and Broadway songs from the 30s, 40s and 50s.
song form
A musical form (AABA) especially characteristic of older jazz standard tunes.
lead sheet
A notational system, usually for pop songs or jazz, where only the melody, lyrics, and chord symbols are printed. The players improvise the accompaniment from the chord symbols.
Dixieland
Early jazz style originating in New Orleans in the 1910s-1920s, featuring clarinets, trombones, banjos, tubas and polyphonic improvisation, eg Louis Armstrong.
Swing Jazz
Melodic, mainstream big band jazz of the 1930s and 1940s, eg Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie.
Bebop
Angular, fast paced, highly improvised small group jazz of the late 1940s and 1950s, eg Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie.
Cool jazz
Softer, simpler, more laid-back jazz of the 1950s-early 1960s, eg Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck.
Free jazz
Experimental, highly improvised, avant-garde jazz of the 1960s, eg Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, late John Coltrane.
Fusion jazz
1970s jazz featuring influences from Rock, funk and African music, eg Herbie Hancock, late Miles Davis.
Latin jazz
Jazz influenced by Latin American rhythms such as bossa nova, mambo and samba, and incorporating Latin percussion.
Blues
African-American guitar-based music often using the blues scale, slides, bends and 12 bar blues form.
Gospel
African-American religious music.
snare drum
The drum has spiraled, metal wires mounted against the bottom drumhead. These wires vibrate when the drumhead is stuck. Often used for the backbeat.
turnaround
Short transitional passage; often linking repetitions (e.g., A-A) Also, at the end of a 12-bar blues pattern, the final chord is the dominant (V) instead of the tonic (I), allowing the piece to continue.
seventh chord
A chord made up of a triad and a note a 7th above the root
Didgeridoo
wind instrument used in aboriginal music
Circular Breathing
A technique used, particularly in Didgeridoo playing
Raga
melodic pattern used in music of India; prescribes pitches, patterns, ornamentation, and extramusical associations such as time of performance and emotional character
Sitar
Fretted plucked lute used in Indian music, usually plays the melody
Tambura
Main Indian drone instrument: a fretless plucked lute
Tabla
The principal percussion instrument in Indian music, a set of two drums with a coat of metal filing on the centre
Sarod
Fretless plucked lute used in Indian music, plays the melody
Alap
The improvising section in the beginning of Raga that is slow and has no pulse and introduces the notes of the Raga (without tabla)
Gat
main section in Indian music that uses a composed musical idea
Tala
Metric cycle in Indian music
Tintal
A 16-beat metric cycle (i.e., tala) used in Indian music, usually in 4 equal divisions
meend
Special Indian technique on string instrument. A slide from 1 note to another (achieved by pulling the string at the right angle to the frets until reaching the require note)
gamak
Special Indian technique on string instrument, a fast meend ornament by quick pulling the string away then let it move back
tan
A decorative phrase used in Indian music, featuring rapid rising & falling scales
dhol
Main percussion instrument used in bhungra (sikh) music from East Punjab. A double headed drum played with sticks and used in ceremonies
Harmonium
a free-reed Western instrument in which air is forced through the reeds by bellows, used in churches
Piphat
East Asia ensemble that includes wind and percussion instruments
Ching
East Asia bowl-shaped hand cymbal, function as time-keeper
Pi
East Asia reed instrument
Khlui
East Asia vertical flute instrument, reedless (aperture instead of reed), bamboo
Thai tuning system
divides the octave into seven equidistant steps, instead of twelve as in Western music
khaen
bamboo mouth organ from East Asia, sound similar to a violin
gong ageng
Largest gong in gamelan ensemble, most important percussion instrument, marks the end of the beat cycle,
gender
a type of metallophone that often plays the main melody in Gamelan music
suling
flute used in gamelan music
shimmer effect
occurs in much music of the Vietnam, Thai and Indonesian music caused by the dissonant tuning system of the instruments
gu qin
traditional Chinese plucked seven-string zither
Pentatonic scale
any scale with five pitches
Dizi
Chinese transverse bamboo flute
pipa
Chinese fretted plucked lute
yang qin
hammered zither from China is believed to be a descendent of the Iranian santur
erhu
Chinese two-stringed bowed fiddle
Jing ju
Peking opera
koto
East Asian plucked zither
shamisen
East Asian fretless plucked lute
shakuhachi
Japanese flute
taiko
Japanese drum
Ud
Middle Eastern fretless plucked lute
buzuq
Middle Eastern long-necked fretted plucked lute, two courses of metal strings
Maqam
Middle Eastern mode
taqasim
Middle Eastern unmetered instrumental performance
tuning system in Arabic music
Divides the octave into 24 pitches
santur
Iranian hammered zither
Dastgah
mode in the Persian classical tradition
Gusheh
short melodic compositions based on a particular Dastgah
Takht ensemble
Egyptian musical ensemble usually plays metric music
Kamancheh
Middle Eastern fretless bowed lute, 3- 4 strings, long upper neck and lower bowl-shaped resonating chamber
Kanun
Middle Eastern plucked zither with a trapezoidal soundboard
Ney
Middle Eastern flute
Riqq
Middle Eastern tambourine
Tablah
Middle Eastern drum
Byzantine chant
Greek style of singing
Flamenco
Spanish dance and style of music
Balalaika
Russian fretted plucked lute, triangle shape
Pibroch
a musical form common to Highland Pipe performance, essentially a "Theme and Variation
Hurdy Gurdy
Hungarian instrument. Sounds similar to bagpipes but with a buzzing sound.
Mbira
African small instrument with metal bars that are plucked (also called thumb piano or kalimba)
akadinda
African (Uganda) xylophone using pentatonic scale. Has 10 - 20 keys, played by 1 - 4 people
kora
African lute-harp
griot
African musician who teaches others orally
colotomic structure
feature of Gamelan: music organized into cycles defined by period punctuation by a specific instrument
balafon
African xylophone, fixed-key or free-key, 17 - 21 notes
Monophonic
A texture which only has a single melodic line with no accompaniment
Polyphonic
A texture which has multiple melodic voices
Homophonic
A texture which has both melody and accompaniment where the melody stands out while the others form a background of harmonic accompaniment
Heterophonic
A texture which has two or more voices simultaneously performing variations of the same melody
hexatonic scale
a scale with six pitches (often these "gapped scales" appear in Celtic music)
diatonic scale
seven note scales with movement by half steps and whole steps (eg major, minor, modes)
gypsy scale
a scale common in Eastern Europe containing two augmented seconds (minor with raised fourth and seventh)
Gamelan ensemble
The traditional musical ensemble of Java and Bali in Indonesia, made up by percussion and metallophone instruments.
pelog
a tuning system in javanese gamelan with seven notes, but one chooses five to play at a time; number notation
slendro
Indonesia. 5 note scale of somewhat equidistant intervals
irregular metre
uneven groupings of beats in a bar - frequently found in Eastern Europe
hemiola
a shift in the rhythmic pulse from a division of 2 to a division of 3, or vice versa. i.e. 6-8 time meter into 3-4 time meter.
polyrhythm
Rhythms based on different subdivision of the beat are played simultaneously
bossa nova
genre of Brazilian music, which developed and was popularized in the 1950s and '60s and is today one of the best-known Brazilian music genres abroad. lyrical fusion of samba and jazz.
clave rhythm
In salsa, the central rhythmic pattern underlying the entire structure of the music, around which the other parts must fit. The rhythm is usually played on a pair of wooden sticks called claves.
modes
The use of scales (modes) in which the pattern of whole steps and half steps is different from conventional major and minor scales (for example: Dorian, Lydian, Mixolydian, etc.). It was common in music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (before the time
Cimbalon
Hungarian dulcimer, a large, trapezoidal box with metal strings stretching on top.
Bulgaria women's chant
Homophonic women's chant with dissonant intervals and irregular meter.
Reel
Irish music tune type which is in 4/4 or 2/4.
Jig
Irish music tune type which is usually in duple compound meters, e.g. 6/8, 9/8, 12/8.
Descant
a higher pitched countermelody added to a hymn or existing melody (often on the last verse of a hymn)