Aleatory music
Music composed using using elements of chance
Art song
A song set to to serious poetry, usually for solo voice and piano, in the tradition of the German Lied
Atonal
A style of writing that establishes no harmonic or melodic center of gravity; without a tonic, all notes are of equal weight and significance
Call-and-Response
A technique in which one musician or group sings or plays an opening motive, and another musician or group sings or plays an answer.
Character piece
A relatively short work, usually for piano solo, that captures a particular mood ("character")
Chromatic
A type of harmony or melody that incorporates many more notes than occur naturally in the scale or key area on which a work is based. This scale is produced by playing all half steps. On the piano, this would mean all adjacent keys- black or white
Comic Opera
In Italian, opera buffa. A genre that uses many of the same conventions as serious opera-- arias, recitatives, ensembles, choruses-- but with plots revolving
Concerto
An instrumental genre for a soloist (or sometimes more than one soloist) and a larger ensemble
Dissonance
The sound of notes that clash, either harmonically or melodically, and do not seem to belong together. This is a relative concept; what was dissonant in one era is later perceived as consonant
Electronic music
Music using sounds generated (and not merely amplified) either in whole or in part by this electronic means
Elide
To begin a new lone of text and music before the previous one has come to a complete stop
Expressionism
A broad artistic movement that flourished in music, painting, and literature in the early decades of the twentieth century, in which psychological truth took precedence over beauty, and inner emotions took precedence over any sense of external reality
Finale
A last movement of a multimovement work
Gamelan
An Indonesian musical ensemble consisting primarily of a variety of pitched gongs and xylophones. The conductor of leader of the ensemble often plays a double-headed drum
Harmonics
Further subdivisions of the primary vibration producing a sound, resulting in additional faintly heard pitches
Heterophonic texture
The simultaneous playing or singing of two or more versions of a melody
Impressionism
At artistic movement focused more on sensations, perceptions, and light than on the direct representation of objects. In music, the term was used by critics of the early twentieth century to describe harmonies, melodies, and forms they considered indistin
Intonation
In Bahamian rhyme singing, as well as other African-influenced musical cultures: a melody line consisting of words spoken in tones
Leitmotif
A brief musical phrase or idea connected dramatically to some person, event, or idea in the drama
Lied
German for "song." A genre for voice and piano, popular from the late eighteenth century onward, particularly in Germany but in many other countries as well
Mazurka
A polish folk dance in triple meter, often with a heavy accent on the second or third beat of each measure
Minimalism
In music, a style in which a brief musical idea or group of ideas is repeated and varied incrementally over a long span of time, with a relatively slow rate of change
Modernism
A spirit that took hold in all of the arts, in the early twentieth century, representing a quest for novelty that far exceeded any such drive in the past
Modulate
To move to a different key area (modulation)
Musique concrete
French for "concrete music." Music using sounds generated by everyday, real (concrete) objects not normally thought of as musical instruments and then manipulated electronically
Nationalism
In music, the use of melodies, rhythms, harmonies, or instruments that reflect the musical practices of a particular nation
Neoclassicism
A style of composition in the years after World War I that, although distinctly modern, drew on older (particularly eighteenth century) uses of melody, harmony, rhythm, and form
Oral tradition
One passed down without the aid of written words or notated music
Orchestration
The manner in which various instruments are assigned to the musical lines
Ostinato
A short pattern of notes repeated over and over
Overture
A purely instrumental opening movement that introduces a longer work, often for voices (as an opera)
Pentatonic scale
A scale consisting of five notes
Postmodernism
A style in music and the other arts, beginning in the mid-twentieth century, in which modern and traditional elements are combined
Powwow
An inter-tribal gathering where Native Americans of mixed tribes express their mutual bond and identity
Program music
An instrumental work that is is some way associated with a story, event, or idea
Raga
In the music of India, a mood, color, or musical scale that forms the basis of a musical component
Recitative
A style of singing that lies somewhere between lyrical song and speech; also, the operatic number that is sung in this style
Tempo rubato
In Italian, "robbed time." Subtle changes of tempo (speeding up and slowing down) applied by the performer , with expressive intent
Sample
To record music or sound from an existing album
Scale
A series of notes that provide the essential pitch building blocks of a melody
Scherzo
In Italian, "joke." Is a lighthearted movement in a fast tempo and in triple meter, similar in form to the minuet
Serialism
A style of writing in which notes are drawn not from a scale, but from a predetermined series of notes. This composition flourished between ca 1920 and 1980
Sitar
A plucked string instrument widely used on the Indian subcontinent
Sprechstimme
In German, "speech-voice." A style of singing halfway between speech and lyrical song, in which the singer hits precise pitches and then allows them to tail off, rather than sustaining them, as in lyrical singing
Stanza
A verse of poetry, or the music corresponding to that verse
Syncretism
The combination of different forms of belief and practice
Tabla
A set of two drums, struck with the fingertips, widely used in music of Indian subcontinent
Tala
Fixed, repeated cycles of pulses widely used in music of the Indian subcontinent
Tambura
A plucked string instrument similar to the sitar, used only to provide a drone in music of the Indian subcontinent
Theme and variations form
A form in which a theme is presented and then altered in some way--through harmony, melody, texture, dynamics, or some combination of these-- in succession of individual variations
Through-composed
A form in which each section has its own music, with very little or no repetition between sections
Tremolo
Rapid repeated notes that produce a shivering or trembling sound
Twelve-tone composition
A type of serial composition in which twentieth-century composers manipulated a series ("row") consisting of all twelve notes of the chromatic scale, not repeating any one of these notes until all other eleven had been sounded, thereby effectively avoidin
Vocables
Meaningless sung syllables that take the place of song lyrics
Whole-tone scale
A scale with only whole steps, no half steps; this eliminates any sense of a tonal center