court ballet
Seventeenth-century French GENRE, an extensive musical-dramatic work with costumes, scenery, poetry, and dance that featured members of the court as well as professional dancers.
orchestra
ENSEMBLE whose core consists of strings with more than one player on a part, usually joined by woodwinds, brass, and percussion instruments.
tragedie en musique
(French, 'tragedy in music'; later tragedie lyrique, 'lyric tragedy') French seventeenth- and eighteenth-century form of OPERA, pioneered by Jean-Baptiste Lully, that combined the French classic drama and BALLET traditions with music, DANCES, and spectacles.
tragedie lyrique
French seventeenth- and eighteenth-century form of OPERA, pioneered by Jean-Baptiste Lully, that combined the French classic drama and BALLET traditions with music, DANCES, and spectacles.
divertissement
In TRAGeDIE EN MUSIQUE, a long interlude of BALLET, solo AIRS, choral singing, and spectacle, intended as entertainment.
ouverture
(French, 'opening') (1) OVERTURE, especially FRENCH OVERTURE. (2) SUITE for ORCHESTRA, beginning with an OVERTURE.
overture
(1) An ORCHESTRAL piece introducing an OPERA or other long work. (2) Independent ORCHESTRAL work in one MOVEMENT, usually descriptive.
French overture
Type of OVERTURE, used in TRAGeDIE EN MUSIQUE and other GENRES, that opens with a slow, HOMOPHONIC, and majestic section, followed by a faster second section that begins with IMITATION.
recitatif simple
(French, 'simple recitative') In French BAROQUE OPERA, RECITATIVE that shifts frequently between duple and triple METER to allow the natural speechlike declamation of the words.
recitatif mesure
(French, 'measured recitative') In French BAROQUE OPERA, RECITATIVE in a songlike, measured style, in a uniform METER, and with relatively steady motion in the accompaniment.
air
English or French song for solo voice with instrumental accompaniment, setting rhymed poetry, often STROPHIC, and usually in the METER of a dance.
notes inegales
(French, 'unequal notes'; pronounced NOTS an-ay GALL) Seventeenth-century convention of performing French music in which passages notated in short, even durations, such as a succession of eighth notes, are performed by alternating longer notes on the beat with shorter offbeats to produce a lilting rhythm.
overdotting
Performing practice in French BAROQUE music in which a dotted NOTE is held longer than written, while the following short note is shortened.
agrement
(French, 'charm'; pronounced ah-gray-MANH) ORNAMENT in French music, usually indicated by a sign.
petit motet
(French, 'little motet') French version of the SMALL SACRED CONCERTO, for one, two, or three voices and CONTINUO.
grand motet
French version of the large-scale SACRED CONCERTO, for soloists, double CHORUS, and ORCHESTRA.
clavecin
French term for HARPSICHORD. A person who performs on or composes works for the clavecin is known as a clavecinist.
clavecinist
French term for HARPSICHORD. A person who performs on or composes works for the clavecin is known as a clavecinist.
style luthe
(French, 'lute style') or style brise (French, 'broken style') Broken or ARPEGGIATED TEXTURE in keyboard and LUTE music from seventeenth-century France. The technique originated with the lute, and the FIGURATION was transferred to the HARPSICHORD.
style brise
(French, 'broken style') Broken or ARPEGGIATED TEXTURE in keyboard and LUTE music from seventeenth-century France. The technique originated with the lute, and the FIGURATION was transferred to the HARPSICHORD.
binary form
A FORM comprised of two complementary sections, each of which is repeated. The first section usually ends on the DOMINANT or the relative major, although it many end of the TONIC or other KEY; the second section returns to the tonic.
suite
A set of pieces that are linked together into a single work. During the BAROQUE, a suite usually referred to a set of stylized DANCE pieces.
unmeasured prelude
A French BAROQUE keyboard GENRE, usually the first MOVEMENT in a SUITE, whose nonmetric NOTATION gives a feeling of IMPROVISATION.
allemande
(French for 'German') Highly stylized DANCE in BINARY FORM, in moderately fast quadruple METER with almost continuous movement, beginning with an upbeat. Popular during the RENAISSANCE and BAROQUE; appearing often as the first dance in a SUITE.
courante
A DANCE in BINARY FORM, in triple METER at a moderate tempo and with an upbeat, featured as a standard MOVEMENT of the BAROQUE dance SUITE.
sarabande
(1) Originally a quick dance-song from Latin America. (2) In French BAROQUE music, a slow DANCE in BINARY FORM and in triple METER, often emphasizing the second beat; a standard MOVEMENT of a SUITE.
gigue
(French for 'jig') Stylized DANCE movement of a standard BAROQUE SUITE, in BINARY FORM, marked by fast compound METER such as 6/4 or 12/8 with wide MELODIC leaps and continuous triplets. The two sections usually both begin with IMITATION.
rondeau
(pl. rondeaux) (1) French FORME FIXE with a single stanza and the musical FORM ABaAabAB, with capital letters indicating lines of REFRAIN and lowercase letters indicating new text set to music from the refrain. (2) FORM in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century instrumental music in which a repeated STRAIN alternates with other strains, as in the pattern AABACA.
couplet
In a RONDO or seventeenth- or eighteenth-century RONDEAU, one of several PERIODS or passages that alternate with the REFRAIN.
gavotte
BAROQUE duple-time dance in BINARY FORM, with a half-measure upbeat and a characteristic rhythm of short-short-long.
masque
Seventeenth-century English entertainment involving poetry, music, DANCE, costumes, CHORUSES, and elaborate sets, akin to the French COURT BALLET.
dramatic opera
Seventeenth-century English mixed GENRE of musical theater, a spoken play with an OVERTURE and four or more MASQUES or long musical interludes. Today often called SEMI-OPERA.
zarzuela
Spanish GENRE of musical theater, a light, mythological play in a pastoral setting that alternates between sung and spoken dialogue and various types of ENSEMBLE and solo song.