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Music Test 3

Terms in this set (68)

Absolute music
Music that has no literary, dramatic, or pictorial program. Also called pure music.
Art song
A song set to a high-quality literary text, usually accompanied, and intended for concert performance. See also Lied and Melodie.
Atonality
Total abandonment of tonality (which is centered in a key). Atonal music moves from one level of dissonance to another, without areas of relaxation. (page 299)
Avant-Garde
French term that refers to new styles and techniques in the arts, especially in the early twentieth century. (page 295)
Ballet
A dance form featuring a staged presentation of group or solo dancing with music, costumes, and scenery. (page 262)
Bebop
Complex jazz style developed in the 1940s. (page 326)
bel canto
"Beautiful singing"; elegant Italian vocal style characterized by florid melodic lines delivered by voices of great agility, smoothness, and purity of tone. (page 248)
Big-band era
The mid-1930s to the mid-1940s, when swing was the most popular music in the United States. Important musicians of the era were Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman. (page 323)
Blue notes
A slight drop of pitch on the third, fifth, or seventh note of the scale, common in blues and jazz. Also bent pitch. (page 322)
Camp meetings
A musical gathering where hymns, spirituals, and folk songs were sung; popular in nineteenth-century America. (page 282)
Celesta
Percussion instrument resembling a miniature upright piano, with tuned metal plates struck by hammers that are operated by a keyboard. (page 264)
Changing meter
Shifting between meters, sometimes frequently, within a single composition or movement; also shifting meter. (page 298)
Character piece
A short, lyric piano work often with a descriptive title; popular in the nineteenth century. (page 218)
Chorus
Fairly large group of singers who perform together, usually with several on each part. Also a choral movement of a large-scale work. In jazz, a single statement of the melodic-harmonic pattern. (page 323)
Exoticism
Musical style in which rhythms, melodies, or instruments evoke the color and atmosphere of far-off lands. (page 266)
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