| Term | Definition |
|---|
| a tempo | return to the original tempo |
| adagio | slowly |
| agitato | agitated |
| allargando | broadening |
| allegro | quickly |
| andante | walking tempo |
| brio | spirit, vigor |
| cantabile | in a singing style |
| con | with |
| crescendo | gradually getting louder |
| D.C. | return to the begining |
| D.S. | return to the sign |
| decrescendo | gradually getting softer |
| dolce | sweetly |
| espressivo | expressively |
| fine | end |
| forte | loud |
| fortissimo | very loud |
| giocoso | playful |
| grandioso | grand |
| grave | solemn |
| grazioso | graceful |
| l'istesso | same l' |
| largo | very slowly |
| legato | smooth, connected |
| leggiero | light |
| maesto | majestically |
| marcato | marked, accented |
| meno | less |
| mezzo | medium |
| moderato | moderately |
| molto | much |
| morendo | dying away |
| mosso | motion |
| moto | motion |
| pianissimo | very soft |
| piano | soft |
| piu | more |
| poco | little |
| poco a poco | little by little |
| presto | very quick |
| rallentando | gradually getting slower |
| ritardando | gradually getting slower |
| rubato | with freedom |
| sempre | always |
| sforzando | heavily accented, with force |
| simile | same si |
| sordino | mute |
| staccato | detached |
| stringendo | gradually getting faster |
| subito | suddenly |
| tenuto | connected, full value |
| tranquillo | tranquil |
| tutti | all |
| vivace | lively |
| A cappella | Unaccompanied choral singing |
| Accelerando | The music gradually becomes faster |
| Alto (voice) | The lowest female voice |
| Arpeggio | Notes of a chord played one after the other |
| Ascending | Notes which rise in pitch |
| Bass (voice) | The lowest male voice |
| Bowing | Using a bow for a stringed instrument |
| Brass | A family of instruments made from metal with a mouthpiece, e.g. trumpet and trombone |
| Broken chord | The notes of a chord are played separately |
| Cadenza | Performers improvise and play to show-off |
| Canon | After one part starts to play or sing a melody, another part enters shortly afterwards with exactly the same melody |
| Chord | Two or more notes sounding together |
| Compound time | The beat is divided into groups of three pulses |
| Concerto | Work for solo instrument and orchestra |
| Crescendo | The music gradually becomes louder |
| Descant | Another melody above the main tune |
| Descending | Notes which fall in pitch |
| Diminuendo | The music gradually becomes quieter |
| Drone | One note, held on or repeated in the bass. |
| Fanfare | A short piece played on trumpets for an occasion |
| Flutter tonguing | A method of tonguing in which the player rolls the letter r |
| Glissando | Sliding from one note to another |
| Harmony | The sound of two or more notes made at the same time |
| Imitation | Where the melody is immediately copied higher or lower in another part |
| Jazz | At first this was music created by black Americans in the early 20th century. |
| Legato | The notes are played or sung smoothly |
| Melismatic | Several notes sung to one syllable |
| Octave | The distance between a note and the nearest note with the same name |
| Ornament | Decorates a melody by adding extra notes |
| Pedal | A note which is held on or is repeated continuously in the bass beneath changing harmonies |
| basso continuo | continuous bass part, often with figures to indicate chords to be improvised on a harmony instrument |
| continuo | a bass line only, unsually played on bassoon, cello, double bass |
| contrapuntal | two or more parts weaved together as a musical texture (polyphonic) |
| diatonic | notes belonging to the scale of the key you are in |
| fugue | composition based on a melody, repeated in combination with rhythmically independent counter subject |
| ground bass | bass is repeated over and over whilst composition plays above |
| homophonic | musical texture which focuses on a single melody with accompaning harmonies (mainly chordal) |
| melisma | flourish of notes sung to a single syllable |
| monophonic | single melodic line without supporting harmonies |
| pedal | note that repeats against changing harmony |
| polyphonic | two or more parts weaved together as a musical texture (contrapuntal) |
| polyrhythmic | two or more different rhythms going along at the same time, strongly conflicting with each other |
| polytonality | use of two or more keys played simultaneously, may have a melody in one key and supporting harmonies in another |
| Aerophone | Any instrument that generates sound by vibrating a column of air |
| Alto | The lower, heavier female voice |
| Art Music | Music intended for careful attention to its sounds and expressive qualities |
| Bass | The lower, heavier male voice |
| Beat | The pulse or throb that recurs regularly in music |
| Cadence | A melodic or harmonic formula that gives a sense of phrase ending. In poetic usage, it sometimes refers to beat or tempo |
| Cadenza | A section in which a soloist plays a free paraphrase on the themes of the work |
| Call-and-Response | The form found in African music in which phrases of music are exchanged between soloist and group |
| Canon | Music in which one of more lines imitate one another for almost the entire work |
| Chord | The simultaneous sounding of three or more pitches |
| Chordophone | Any instrument that produces sound by vibrating strings |
| Classical Music | The popular term for Concert Music |
| Concert Music | Music created for the intellectual and psychological satisfaction it provides |
| Concerto | A multi-movement work consisting of music that contrasts a soloist with an orchestra or band |
| Consonance | A group of simultaneous sounds that seems agreeable or restful |
| Counterpoint Melody | Two of more independent lines with melodic character occurring at the same time |
| Crescendo | The music should gradually become louder |
| Decrescendo | The music should gradually become softer |
| Dissonance | A group of simultaneous sounds that seems disagreeable or harsh |
| Downbeat | The first beat of a measure |
| Dynamics | The amount of loudness in music |
| Form | The pattern or plan of a musical work |
| Harmony | The simultaneous sounds of several pitches, usually in accompanying a melody |
| Homophony | The texture consisting of a line of melody with accompaniment |
| Ideophone | A percussion instrument other than a drum |
| Imitation | The repetition of a theme in another part of line or a few beats later |
| Interval | The distance between two pitches |
| Key | Any of 24 major or minor diatonic scales that provide the tonal framework for a piece of music |
| Major Scale | A series of seven different pitches within an octave, with half steps between the third and fourth steps and the seventh and eighth steps |
| Measure | A group of beats marked as a separate unit in music |
| Melody | A series of consecutive pitches that form a cohesive musical entity |
| Membranophone | Any instrument that produces sounds from a skin or other membrane |
| Meter | The regular pattern of stressed and unstressed beats |
| Minor Scale | A series of seven pitches within an octave, with a half step between the second and third steps |
| Modulation | Changing the tonal center as the music progresses, usually without a break |
| Monophony | One melodic line without any accompaniment |
| Motive | A short musical idea that is a unifying element in a musical work |
| Movement | A large instrumental section of an instrumental composition |
| Mute | A device for muffling of dampening the sound of an instrument |
| Octave | A pitch that has twice or half the frequency of vibrations of another; usually the two pitches have the same letter designation |
| Phrase | A rather short, logical segment of music; it is comparable to a clause or phrase in language |
| Pitch | The perceived highness of lowness of a musical sound |
| Pizzicato | Notes on a string instrument that are played by the player's fingers plucking the string instead of using the bow |
| Polyphony | Music in which two or more melodic lines of approximately equal importance are sounded at the same time |
| Polyrhythm | Two or more rhythm patterns occurring simultaneously |
| Rhythm | The flow of music in terms of time |
| Scale | A series of pitches that proceeds upward of downward according to a prescribed pattern |
| Soprano | The higher, lighter female voice |
| Syncopation | The displacement of an accent so that it occurs where it is not normally expected or does not occur where it is expected |
| Tempo | The speed of the beats in a piece of music |
| Tenor | (1) The higher, lighter male voice. (2) The line in a medieval motet that contains the phrases from Gregorian Chant |
| Texture | The basic setting of the music: monophonic, homophonic, or polyphonic |
| Theme | A central melody in a musical work |
| Timbre | Tone quality or color in music |
| Time Signature | The two numbers, one above the other, at the beginning of a piece or section of a longer work that indicate its metrical pattern and how it is notated |
| Tonal Center | The specific pitch around which a piece of music is centered |
| Tonic Chord | A chord built on the first degree of a major or minor scale |
| Vibrato | Slight, rapid fluctuations of pitch |
| Wind Ensemble | An ensemble comprising wind and percussion instruments |
| accelerando | gradually faster |
| accent | play note louder w/ emphasis |
| adagio | slow |
| allegro | quickly / cheerfully |
| andante | moving along |
| crescendo | gradually louder |
| decresc | gradually softer |
| enharmonic notes | notes thatsound the same but have different names |
| fermata | hold the note longer than its normal value (approximately twice the normal duration) |
| forte | loud |
| fortissimo | very loud |
| largo | very slow |
| mezzo forte | moderately loud |
| mezzo piano | moderately soft |
| pianissimo | very soft |
| piano | soft |
| ritardando | gradually slower |
| sforzando | a sudden strong accent |
| staccato | play note short and detached |
| tenuto | hold the note for its full value |
| vivace | lively / fast |
| Anton Webern | 1883-1945, texture, expressive textures, sparse textures, use of silence, brevity-strict serialism |
| Antonin Dvorák | 1841-1904, Czech, strongly ifluenced by Smetana-moved to U.S., famous works include Slavonic Danses, Symphony no. 9 |
| Arnold Schoenberg | 1874-1951, Vienna then U.S., expressionism-Pierrot Lunaire-sprechstimme (spoken song) |
| Bedrich Smetana | 1824-1884, Czech-Bohemia, built national theater in Prague, criticized for sounding too much like Liszt, The Moldau river, emphatic-Furiant from The Bartered Bride |
| Claude Debussy | Ballets Russes, Sergi Diaghilev, commissioned many composers, including French |
| Franz Schubert | 1797-1828, viennese closee circle of artistic friends, over 600 songs, chamber music, piano pieces, symphonies-Gretchen am Spinnrade |
| Fryderyk Chopin | 1810-1849, Rubato, solo piano pieces-mazurka, polonaise, impromtus, improvisatory in manner |
| Giuseppe Verdi | 1813-1901, went from bottom to top from small opera houses to La Scala, Italian operatic tradition, worked with famous librettists-Otello |
| Gustav Mahler | 1860-1911, Brahms' Viennese successor, conductor, radical ideas, symphony, big orchestra, unusual sounds for a concert hall |
| Hector Berlioz | 1803-1869 studied composition at Paris conservatory, music critic, conductor, master of orchestration |
| Igor Stravinsky | 1882-1971, Russian, settled in France then U.S., early collaboration with Diaghilev and Ballets Russes, large, romantic era orchestra, Russian themes, neo-classism, serialism-Firebird, Petrushka, Rite of Spring |
| Johannes Brahms | 1833-1897, vienna, conservative center of music tradition, friend of Robert and Clara Schumann-Variations on Haydn |
| Lili Boulanger | 1893-1918, child prodigy, Paris conservatory, Rome Prize-Psalm 24 |
| Piotr Tchaichovsky | 1840-1893, tragic life, studied with Balakiev but embraced European symphonic music, especially Mozart, famous pieces: Nutcracker Suite, Overture, six symphonies, violin concerto in D Major, Romeo and Juliet |
| Richard Wagner | 1813-1883, opposed to traditional Italian opera, "music drama" (not drama), German Romantic Opera traditions, greater role for orchestra, supernatural plots, controversial writings about music and race, lietmotiv-Ring Cycle |
| Robert Schumann | 1810-1856, master of lieder, solo piano, chamber music, orchestral music-Carnaval |
| Steve Reich | phasing-Come Out, Clapping Music |
| Vincenzo Bellini | 1801-1835, master of bel canto opera, preferred serious/tragic plots, lyric intensity, vocal display (ornamentation), coloratura-Norma, Casta Diva |
| Antonio Vivaldi | Baroque 1678-1741 |
| Clara Schumann | Romantic 1819-1896 |
| Franz Peter Schubert | Classical 1797-1828 |
| George Frederic Handel | Baroque 1685-1759 |
| Jean-Baptiste Lully | Baroque 1632-1687 |
| Johann Sebastian Bach | Baroque 1685-1750 |
| Johannes Brahms | Romantic 1833-1897 |
| Joseph Haydn | Classical 1732-1809 |
| Ludwig Van Beethoven | Classical/Romantic 1770-1827 |
| Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | Romantic 1840-1893 |
| Richard Wagner | Romantic 1813-1883 |
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Classical 1756-1791 |
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