Descriptionary

sordino, con Italian directive to a player of a stringed or wind instrument to use a mute.

sotto in keyboard music, a directive to cross one hand under the other to play a particular passage.

spiccato Italian directive to a violin or cello player to play in staccato style with the portion of the bow between the frog and the midpoint.

talon, au French directive to a violinist or cellist to play with the frog end of the bow.

music terms

accent emphasis on a particular note or chord.

accent, apogic a tone held for a longer time than others.

accent, dynamic a tone played louder than others.

accent, tonic

a tone higher in pitch than others.

acciaccato playing the notes of a chord not quite simultaneously, but in quick succession from bottom to top.

accidentals collective term for the signs that raise or lower a pitch or that cancel these; includes sharp, double sharp, flat, double flat, and natural.

acoustics the science of sound properties.

air a simple melody.

aleatory music musical compositions with ele­ments left to chance or the whims of the individual musician.

alto the second or third highest voice class of instru­ments—alto clarinet, alto sax, and so on.

answer repeating an original theme in a lower or higher register.

answer, call and the repeating or nearly repeat­ing of a theme played by one instrument by another instrument, creating a kind of echo effect.

answer, real an answer played exactly the same as the original theme, with the exception of being in a higher or lower key.

answer, tonal

an answer in which the distances between the notes are played differently than in the original theme.

anthem a hymn or composition set to words from the Bible.

anticipation the playing of a single note before a chord that harmonizes with that chord.

aquarelle a delicate composition.

arabesque the musical counterpart to arabesque architecture, an ornate or florid melody section.

arpeggio a chord in which the notes are played indi­vidually in quick succession instead of simultaneously.

arrangement the arrangement of a composition for another medium than that for which it was intended. Also known as a transcription.

ASCAP American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

aubade French term for early morning music as opposed to a serenade or evening music.

augmentation the lengthening of the time values of notes in a composition, for example, from quarter notes to half notes or from half notes to whole notes. Opposite of diminution.

bagatelle

French term for any short composition, usually for piano.

bar a measure; a bar line. Also, a guitar chord made by one finger laid straight across all six strings and pressed down.

bar line the vertical line in a musical staff that sepa­rates two measures.

baroque a term borrowed from baroque architec­ture to describe the musical developments between 1600 and 1750, characterized by growing complexity and the popular use of contrasts.

bass the lowest voice in a family of instruments.

baton the stick used by the conductor to direct a symphony orchestra's timing, phrasing, volume, and so forth.

battle music any musical composition in which bat­tle sounds are re-created.

bebop jazz style, frequently with a fast tempo, origi­nating in the 1940s and characterized by scat singing, complex rhythms, and off-time beats. Also known as bop.

berceuse French term for lullaby, usually involving an instrumental composition.

bitonality playing two keys simultaneously.

blues

originally a form of jazz song, characterized by depressing themes, a slow tempo, and having flat­ted thirds and sevenths.

BMI Broadcast Music Inc., an American perform­ing rights society.

boogie woogie jazz piano style popular in the 1930s and 1940s, characterized by the left hand playing a repeating bass pattern while the right plays a melody.

bowing the employment of a bow over the strings of a violin, cello, or other stringed instrument.

break in jazz, an improvised solo.

brevis a double whole note, the longest note in use.

bridge passage a short musical passage that helps one body of a composition flow smoothly into another body.

broken chord a chord in which notes are played not simultaneously but in quick succession; an arpeggio.

buffa comic, as in comic opera.

cadence rhythmic flow, beat. Also, a progression of chords or notes leading to the close of a composition.

cadence, deceptive a cadence that ends on a note or chord other than what the listener expects or antici­pates. Also known as an interrupted cadence.

cadence, imperfect a cadence that gives the impres­sion that more music is to follow and is therefore used in the middle of a composition.