The Elements of Music
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Created by:
queenofclutter on July 21, 2012
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59 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Melody | Sucession of single tones or pitches perceieved by the mind as a unity. |
| Contour | The overall shape of a melodic line. It can move upward, downward or remain static. |
| Range | Distance between the lowest and highest tones of a melody, an instrument or a voice. |
| Interval | Distance and relationship between two pitches. |
| Conjunct | Smooth, connected melody that moves principally by small intervals. |
| Disjunct | Disjointed or disconnected melody with many leaps. |
| Phrases | Musical unit, often a component of a melody. |
| Cadences | Resting place in a musical phrase, music punctuation. |
| Countermelody | An accompanying melody sounded against the principal melody. |
| Rhythm | The controlled movement of music in time. |
| Meter | Organization of rhythm in time, the grouping of beats into larger, regular patterns, notated as measures. |
| Measures | Rhythmic group or metrical unit that contains a fixed number of beats, divided on the musical staff by bar lines. |
| Beat | Regular pulsation, a basic unit of length in musical time. |
| Downbeat | First beat of the measure, the stronges in any meter. |
| Simple meter | Grouping of rhythms in which the beat is subdivided into two, as in duple, triple and qudraple meters. |
| Compund meter | Meter in which each beat is subdivided into three rather than two. |
| Upbeats | Last beat of a measure, a weak beat, which anticipates the downbeat. |
| Offbeats | A weak beat or any pulse between the beast in a measured rhythmic pattern. |
| Syncopation | Deliberate upsetting of the meter or pulse through a temporary shifting of the accent to a weak beat or an offbeat. |
| Polyrhythm | The simultaneous use of several meters, common in twentieth-century music and in certain African musics. |
| Additive meter | Patterns of beats that subdivide into smaller, irregular groups (eg, 2+3+2+3 = 10), common in certain Eastern European musics. |
| Nonmetric | Music lacking a strong sense of beat or meter, common in certain non-Western cultures. |
| Harmony | The simultaneous combination of notes and the ensuing relationships of intervals and chords. |
| Chord | Simultaneous combination of three or more tones that constitute a single block of harmony. |
| Scale | Series of tones in ascending or descending order, may present the notes of a key. |
| Triad | Common chord type, consisting of three pitches built on alternate tones of the scale. |
| Tonic | The first note of a scale or key. |
| Tonality | Principle of organization around a tonic, or home, pitch, based on a major or minor scale. |
| Dissonance | Combination of tones that sounds discordant and unstable, in need of resolution. |
| Consonance | Concordant or harmonious combination of tones that provide a sense of relaxation and stability in music. |
| Drone | Sustained sounding of one or several tones for harmonic support, a common feature of some folk musics. |
| Texture | The interweaving of melodic (horizontal) and harmonic (vertical) elements in the musical fabric. |
| Monophony | Single line texture, or melody without accompaniment. |
| Heterophony | Texture in which two or more voices (or parts) elaborate the same melody simultaneously, often the result of improvisation. |
| polyphony | Two or more melodic lines combined into a multivoiced texture, as distinct from monophonic. |
| counterpoint | The art of combining in a single texture two or more melodic lines. |
| homophony | Texture with principle melody and accompanying harmony, as distinct from polyphony. |
| homorhythmic texture | Texture in which all voices or lines, move together in the same rhythm. |
| imitation | Melodic idea presented in one voice and then restated in another, each part continuing as others enter. |
| canons | Type of polyphonic composition in which one musical line strictly imitates another at a fixed distance. |
| round | Perpetual canon at the unision in which each voice enter in succession with the same melody. (eg. row-row-row your boat) |
| form | Structure and design in music, based on reptition, contrast and variation, the organizing principle of music. |
| strophic | Song structure in which the same music is repeated with every stanza of the poem. |
| improvisation | Creation of a musical composition while it is being perfromed, seen in Baroque ornamentation, cadenzas of concertos, jazz and some non- Western musics. |
| binary form | Two part (A-B) form with each section normally repeated. |
| ternary form | Three part (A-B-A) form based on a statement (A), contrast or departure (B) and repetition (A). |
| theme | Melodic idea used as a basic building block in the construction of a composition. |
| motives | Short melodic or rhythmic idea, the smallest fragment of a theme that forms a melodic-haromic-rhythmic unit. |
| sequence | Restatement of an idea or motive at different pitch levels. |
| responsorial | Singing, especially in Gregorian chat, in which a soloist or a group of soloists alternates with the choir. |
| ostinato | A short melodic, rhythmic or harmonic pattern that is repeated throughout a work or a section of one. |
| movements | Complete, self-contained part within a larger musical work. |
| tempo | Rate or speed of the music. |
| dynamics | Element of musical expression relating to the degree of loudness or softness, or volume, of a sound. |
| Timbre | The sound quality of instruments. |
| Aerophones | Instruments that produce sound by using air. |
| Chordophones | Instruments that produce sound by vibrating string stretched between two points. |
| Idiophones | Instruments that produce sound from the instrument itself. |
| Membranohones | Drum - type instruments that are sounded from tightly stretched membranes. |
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