Welcome to The Mad Logophile. Here we explaore words; their origins, evolution, usage. Words are alive. They are born, they evolve and, sometimes, they die. They are our principal tool for communicating with one another. There are millions of words yet only an estimated 171,476 words are in common current use. As a logophile, I enjoy discovering new words, using them and learning about their origins.
Music has been with us since our early ancestors banged two rocks together and discovered that they liked the sound. There are many different genres of music but all of them are an "...arrangement of tones in an orderly sequence so as to produce a unified and continuous composition" (Websters New Riverside University Dictionary).
A few people complained last week that this list has a decided lean towards classical music. That's because most of the terms we -- still-- use trace back to classical music. I did not delve much into genres nor instruments. I tried to stick to basics. Any extra information regarding genres and instruments I leave up to you, the readers, to offer your info about.
Picking up where we left off...
♪ Pantonality is a term used to describe music that is not in one tonality or key, but shifts freely among many or all keys. Synonymous with atonality.
♪ Parallel keys are two keys, one major and one minor, having the same tonic. For example, A major and A minor are parallel keys.
♪ A term used in singing meaning speech-like is parlando. It describes accented singing in a declaratory style or in a speaking style, as a recitative.
♪ Partbooks are books containing only a single vocal or instrumental part of a composition rather than all the parts. Partbooks came into use at the end of the 15th century.
♪ In part writing, part crossing occurs when two voices cross over each other, for example, if the tenor were to cross above the alto for a few notes.
♪ A continuous variation form, the passacaglia is a four bar ostinato over which variations are written in the other voices.
♪ Passing tones are non-harmonic notes that appear between two notes in stepwise motion. Usually a passing note is a link between a melodic interval of a third in one of the voices.
♪ Passionato is a directive to a musician that a certain passage is to be played passionately, with fervor and pathos.
♪ A composition assembled from passages taken from numerous other sources by various composers is called a pasticcio.
♪ The percussion family consists of instruments made of sonorous material that produce sounds when shaken or struck. This includes drums, rattles, bells, gongs, and xylophones.
♪ A Renaissance dance that took its name from the peacock, the pavan is a slow, stately court dance in duple meter. It was popular throughout Europe and was frequently used as the first dance in a set of dances.
♪ A pentatonic scale a scale of five tones. It is used in African, Far Eastern, and Native American music but has been used in 20th century compositions as well.
♪ Perdendosi is a directive to a musician that the music should die away, gradually diminishing in volume, rhythm, and tone.
♪ Perfect is a term applied to the intervals of a unison, octave, fourth, and fifth when they are exactly in tune and not augmented nor diminished.
♪ Performance marks are directives to the performer in the printed music that indicate the composer's desired tempo, dynamics, etc. Other marks or written instructions include articulation and phrase marks, expression instructions, fingering instructions, muting (stopping) instructions, etc. Also called expression marks.
♪ A period is a complete musical thought, concluded by a cadence, having two phrases, each usually two to eight measures in length. These are called the antecedent and the consequent.
♪ In notation, pesante directs the musician to perform a certain passage in a heavy, ponderous fashion, with importance and weight.
♪ A musical unit, the phrase may be regarded as a dependent division of music, such as a single line of poetry. It does not have a sense of completion in itself. Usually two or more phrases balance each other, as in a period. Phrasing is the art of performing music in a way that allows each phrase to be conceived as a single unit.
♪ Some notations referring to volume are; pianissimo, meaning very soft; pianississimo is very, very soft and is the softest common dynamic marking. Piano means play softly (but not as softly as either pianissimo or pianississimo). There is also pianissississimo (extremely soft), pianississississimo (even softer than that) and pianissississississimo (as soft as possible). These are abbreviated as p, pp, ppp, etc.
♪ A picardy third is a practice from the 16th century and the Baroque era of ending a composition with a major chord, when the rest of the composition is in a minor key, thus giving the composition a sense of finality.
♪ The specific quality of a sound that makes it a recognizable tone, pitch defines the location of a tone in relation to others, thus giving it a sense of being high or low.
♪ Pizzicato directs the performer of a bowed string instrument that the indicated notes are to be plucked with the fingers rather than bowed (arco). The abbreviation for this term is pizz.
♪ Poco is an Italian word for little. It is typically used to modify tempo markings as in accelerando poco a poco meaning getting faster little by little.
♪ Polychoral is a performance style developed in the late 16th century involving the use of two or more choirs that answer each other as well as sing as a single ensemble. The simultaneous use of two or more simple chords, is a polychord. Two or more complete sets of harmony played against each other is polyharmony. Polyphonic is a style of composition that has many voices, each with its own melody. The use of several patterns or meters simultaneously is polyrhythm. Finally, polytonality is the use of two or more keys simultaneously.
♪ A postlude is a composition that concludes a larger composition. It is also a composition performed at the end of a church service as the congregation leaves.
♪ The leader of the choir or the singing in a church is the precentor.
♪ The prelude is the introductory movement of a composition. It also describes a short composition for piano and a composition which establishes the key for a composition that immediately follows.
♪ In notation, prestissimo tells the musician to perform a certain passage of a composition as fast as possible. Presto is a bit slower but still very quick.
♪ Program music is a composition with extra-musical content that directs the attention of the listener to a literary or pictoral association. Program music was especially popular in the 19th century. Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition is one good example.
♪ My favorite style of music, progressive rock (prog or prog rock) is a musical movement that reached its peak in the early 1970s. It attempts to blend rock music with other divergent styles such as classical, jazz, folk and world musics. Much of it is more musically complex than other forms of rock, and most prog fans see this compositional complexity as a defining trait. Popular bands associated with progressive rock include Yes, Jethro Tull, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Marillion, King Crimson, Genesis (right), and Pink Floyd.
♪ The introduction or preface to a dramatic work, the prologue usually tells the audience the background to the story about to be presented. Prologues were most common in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, but some are still to be found today, especially in musical theater.
♪ The properties of sound are those parts of a sound that give it a recognizable and definable tone. The properties of sound are: pitch, timbre, volume, and duration. Similarly, prosody refers to all features of a language, including duration, pitch, and stress (amount of air pressure used when speaking).
♪ Puntato is the indication that certain notes are to be played staccato, signified by dots above or below the note heads. It may also refer to dotted notes.
♪ A quadruplet is a group of four notes of equal duration that are to be performed in the time space of three, five, or another number of notes.
♪ Quartal harmony is that harmony based upon the interval of a fourth. Most Western music is based on the interval of a third (tertian harmony).
♪ A quarter note or rest is one half the length of a half note or rest and one quarter the length of a whole note or rest. A quarter tone is an interval that is one half of a semitone or half of a half step. This is not commonly used in Western music.
♪ A quintuplet is a group of five notes each having equal duration, but fitting into the duration of four (or more) notes and indicated by the number 5 above or below the notes. Often a brackets is used to group these notes together.
♪ A mode of Indian music, raga is the designation of a particular scale that includes other modal rules such as pitch ranking, ascent and descent patterns, motives, use of ornaments, performance duration, and emotional character.
♪ In notation, rallentando is a directive to perform a certain passage of a composition with a gradual slowing of the tempo.
♪ The scope of notes that an instrument or a voice can produce is its range. This also describes the scope of a composition, from the lowest note to the highest.
♪ A rastrum is a pen that has five points for use in notating staff lines.
♪ Rattenutto tells the musician to perform a certain passage of a composition in a restrained manner, or held back in rhythm or time.
♪ In a fugue, if the answer has exactly the same intervals as the subject, the only difference being that it is transposed, the answer is said to be real. If the answer varies from the subject it is said to be tonal.
♪ A performance given by a soloist or a small ensemble is a recital. The term was first used by Franz Liszt in 1840.
♪ In an opera, oratorio, cantata, or other multi-movement vocal compositions, a recitative is a narrative song that describes some action, thought, or emotion. The recitative is more like a speaking composition than a singing composition. The two styles of recitative are the dry style and the accompanied style.
♪ A refrain is a short section of repeated material which occurs at given intervals.
♪ A division of the range of an instrument or singing voice, registers are defined by a change in the quality of the sound between a lower range and a higher range.
♪ Relative keys are keys that share the exact same key signature. For example, C major and A minor are relative keys. Those keys that have few notes in common are known as remote keys; the key of C and the key of F sharp would be considered remote.
♪ An artist's repertoire is a list of compositions that they are prepared to perform or that are available for performance. A repertory is an ensemble that presents several different compositions in the course of a season.
♪ Wish fulfillment, musical-style, a rescue opera is a style of opera in which the main hero or heroine is rescued from certain death at the last moments. A famous example of this style is Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio.
♪ In partwriting, the resolution is the resolving of a dissonant sound to a consonant sound in the following chord. This also describes the conclusive ending to a musical statement.
♪ A responsory is type of chant in Christian liturgies that involves one section singing a respond, answered by another section singing a verse, then the respond is sung again by the first section, followed by a different verse from the second, etc. This style is prevalent in gospel-style singing.
♪ A rest is a symbol standing for a measured break in the sound with a defined duration. Each specific note value has a defined duration and an equivalent rest with the same duration.
♪ Retrograde (Moving backwards) is a device used by composers where a series of notes (comprising a figure or theme) is brought back later in the composition, but written backwards. This device is essential in twelve-tone music. Also, twelve-tone music allows any note in the series to be placed in any octave, so the retrograde form of a serial melody does not necessarily match the contour of the original melody. Retrograde inversion combines retrograde motion and inversion. It is analogous to writing a figure or theme upside down and backwards. Retrogression makes the chords of a composition move in the opposite direction from a normal progression.
♪ A rhapsody is a free composition. It may be defined as a free fantasia of national, epic, or heroic character.
♪ The subdivision of a space of time into a defined, repeated pattern, rhythm is the controlled movement of music in time. It may be defined as the division of music into regular metric portions; the regular pulsation of music.
♪ Ricercare was a term used in the Renaissance originally meaning a keyboard or lute composition of an introductory nature, similar to a prelude. It later came to mean a free composition more resembling a fantasia or a fugue. Both forms of the ricercare were characterized by complexity and an esoteric nature. Kind of like primitive Prog ;)
♪ In notation, ritardando tells the performer to play a composition with a gradual delay in the tempo. Ritenuto directs a slowing of the tempo more suddenly and extremely than a ritardando.
♪ The root is the note upon which a triad or chord is built. Root position is the position of a chord when the base pitch of the chord is in the lowest voice.
♪ Rubato is a technique of taking part of the duration from one note and giving it to another. It involves the performer tastefully stretching, slowing, or hurrying the tempo as s/he sees fit, thus imparting flexibility and emotion to the performance.
♪ In bowed string playing, a saltando is a technique of bouncing the bow across the strings, producing a rapid, staccato arpeggio.
♪ A Baroque dance, the sarabande is said to have come from the Saracens. It is in triple meter, and characteristically the second note of the measure is lengthened, giving the dance a stately, majestic flavor.
♪ SATB is an abbreviation used to denote the number of voice parts in a vocal composition. It states that the composition has one soprano part, one alto part, one tenor part, and one bass part.
♪ A savart is the logarithmic measurement system of intervals invented by Felix Savart. In an octave, there are 301.03 savarts.
♪ The scale is a series of notes in ascending or descending order that presents the pitches of a key or mode, beginning and ending on the tonic of that key or mode. The degrees of a scale have specific names and each of the unique 12 notes of the chromatic scale can be the tonic note of a scale. The degrees of a scale are: tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant/superdominant, leading/subtonic.
♪ Scaling describes the relationship between the length and thickness of a vibrating string and the tone it produces. With a constant tension and thickness, half the length of a given string will sound an octave higher than the entire length of the string.
♪ The scherzo (joke) is a composition in A-B-A form, usually in triple meter. Originally, in the early 17th century, the scherzo was a piece of lively, playful character, with animated rhythm.
♪ The practice of tuning the strings of a stringed instrument differently than the standard tuning is called scordatura. It is generally used to extend an instrument's range, or to make certain passages easier to perform. A good example of this would be Hawai'ian slack key guitar.
♪ The score is the entirety of the instrumental and vocal parts of a composition in written form, placed together on a page in staves placed one below the other.
♪ In notation, sec is a directive to perform the indicated passage in a dry, unornamented, cold manner. It also implies that the note should be of short duration, similar to a staccato.
♪ Segno is a sign in a composition that indicates a repeat. Al segno means return to the sign and perform that section of the composition again, dal segno means repeat from the sign.
♪ Meaning as follows, a segue tells the musician to perform the indicated passage of a composition in a similar manner to the one which preceded it. It can also refer to a transitive passage from one section to another.
♪ The infamous Semihemidemisemiquaver is nothing more than a very long word for a 64th note.
♪ A semitone is a half step or minor second. It is the smallest interval in the system of Western music.
♪ A serenade is a Classical instrumental genre that combines elements of chamber music and symphonic music. The serenade is often performed in the evening or at social functions. Also, a love song sung at night, performed out-of-doors for a specific individual. As opposed to an aubade which is played in the morning.
♪ A seventh is an interval that is one step smaller than an octave. A major seventh is a semitone smaller than an octave, and a minor seventh is a whole tone smaller than an octave. Intervals of the seventh may be major, minor, diminished, or augmented. A seventh chord is a chord consisting of a root note, the third above the root, the fifth above the root, and the seventh above the root.
♪ Sforzando tells the musician to perform a specific note or chord with particular emphasis. The note or chord would be performed as if it had an accent as shown below and performed at the dynamic level indicated. It is typically abbreviated sf, sff or sfff.
♪ A song sung by sailors while working on a ship, a shanty has a chorus, which is sung by all, and verses that are usually sung by one voice. The earliest reference to the shanty is from the 16th century, although most surviving shanties are from the 19th.
♪ A sharp is a symbol placed in front of a note-head which implies that the performer should raise the pitch of that particular note by a semitone. The sharp symbol alters the pitch of the note to which it is attached as well as any subsequent occurrence of the same note on the identical line or space in the same measure.
♪ On an early keyboard instrument (organ, harpsichord, virginal, spinet, clavichord), a short octave is an arrangement of keys in the lowest octave to enable the performer to play lower notes than the size of the instrument would normally allow. In a short octave, certain tones of the scale that are rarely used are eliminated.
♪ A siciliana was a type of aria or instrumental movement in the late 17th and 18th centuries. The siciliana (or siciliano) was written as a dance in a slow 6/8 or 12/8 time with short phrases. Use of the siciliana after the 18th century was commonly linked to peasant dances of Sicily often performed in a minor key. This is often referred to as alla siciliano or in the style of a siciliana.
♪ Sideman is a slang term for a musician in an ensemble who is not the leader of the ensemble. My favorite musician is considered a sideman but he's actually the heart of the group.
♪ A signature is a symbol placed at the beginning of the staff. A key signature indicates in which key the composition is to be played and may consist of sharp signs, flat signs, and sometimes natural signs. A time signature indicates the meter of the composition. It consists of two numbers; the top number indicates the number of beats in each measure, and the bottom number indicates the kind of note that is counted as one beat. For example, a time signature of 3/4 would indicate that there are three beats to each measure, and that a quarter note is one beat.
♪ In part-writing, similar motion is the situation in which two voices of the composition move in the same direction, either ascending or descending, but they do not necessarily cover the same interval.
♪ A simple interval is one that covers a single octave or less. This is as opposed to a compound interval which covers more than an octave. A simple time is a time signature in which the accented beats of each measure are divisible by two. Compound time implies that the beats of each measure are divisible by three.
♪ On a score, singhiozzando tells the performer to perform the indicated passage of a composition with a sobbing effect, especially in vocal and string music where it can be marked by a strong portamento.
♪ A six-four chord is a chord consisting of three notes, the bass note, the interval of a fourth above the bass note, and a sixth above the bass note.
♪ A sixth is an interval spanning five steps, as the interval from C to A. Intervals of the sixth may be major, minor, diminished, or augmented. A sixth chord is based upon the sixth tone of the scale. The chord having the superdominant tone of the scale as its root.
♪ Written on sheet music, slargando is a directive to perform the indicated passage slowing down gradually.
♪ A slur is a sign in musical notation consisting of a curved line drawn over or under a series of notes, indicating that those notes should be played legato. The slur also indicates the grouping and phrasing of a passage in a composition.
♪ Solmization is the term for the use of syllables for the degrees of the major scale: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la ti, do. The minor scale (natural) is la, ti, do, re, mi, fa, sol, la. Solfaing is the practice of singing the tones of the scale to the syllables
♪ You know that to solo is to perform alone. Soli, however, directs the entire section of an ensemble to play a passage.
♪ A sonata is an instrumental genre in several movements. The original usage for the term sonata implied a composition that was to be played rather than sung. As the sonata developed, it became longer and adopted the sonata-allegro form for the first movement. The next movement was generally somewhat slower, and the number of movements varied, but was generally three. Sonata cycle is a general term describing the multi-movement structure found in sonatas, string quartets, symphonies, concertos, and large-scale works of the 18th and 19th centuries. A sonatina is a short sonata.
♪ In notation, sopra is a directive to a pianist to cross his/her hands. It also indicates which hand should be crossed above the other. Yet another of my favorite musician's little tricks.
♪ More notations... sordamente tells the musician to perform the indicated passage softly and gently or, in instruments to which it applies, muffled or damped. Sordino directs that a mute be used and senza sordino, without a mute. Sostenuto indicates a sustaining of tone or slackening of tempo. Sotto voce directs that a passage be performed in a quiet manner, almost a whisper. Although this is typically used in vocal compositions, it can be used with other instruments.
♪ Species counterpoint is a technique of strict counterpoint involving the addition of voices to a melody advancing from simple to more complex harmonies.
♪ In music played on a bowed stringed instrument, the directive spiccato implies that the notes are to be played with the point of the bow, which is bounced on the string at moderate speed.
♪ Spinto describes a lyric voice (usually that of a soprano or tenor) that can also achieve powerful, dramatic effects. It can also refer to a part written for a voice of such singer.
♪ A vocal style in which the melody is spoken at approximate pitches rather than sung on exact pitches, the sprechstimme was developed by Arnold Schoenberg.
♪ A springer is an ornament consisting of the main tone followed by the tone above it followed by the tone above that, then returning to the original main tone. The springer has also been called the acute and the sigh.
♪ Staccato is a style of playing notes in a detached, separated, distinct manner, as opposed to legato. It is indicated by dots directly above or below the notehead. Staccatissimo indicates a shorter duration of the note in a more exaggerated way than normal staccato and is indicated by solid wedge directly above or below the notehead.
♪ The staff is a set of five, equidistant, horizontal lines joined together by a brace. The staff, or stave, is used to clearly communicate musical notation. Note symbols, dynamics, and other performance directions are placed within, above, and below the staff.
♪ Staggered breathing is a technique used by musicians to breathe while playing. The effect is created by each performer in a section (woodwinds or brass) taking a breath at different times so the others in the section continue to sound long notes, passages, and/or sections.
♪ A stanza, or verse, is a set of lyrics with a recurring pattern of both rhyme and meter. A strophic song, as opposed to a through-composed song, has several stanzas or verses set to music that remains the same or similar with each stanza.
♪ Within the context of a scale, a step is the interval between one degree and the next, regardless of whether it is a major, minor, augmented, or diminished second.
♪ A chord at the end of a march that is used to punctuate the ending of the composition, the stinger is typically played by the entire ensemble on the last beat of the last measure of the composition and contains an accent.
♪ A strain is the division of a composition between two double bars. It can also be referred to as a section. A strain will typically contain a primary or secondary melody of the larger composition that is often repeated.
♪ The string family consists of any musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. The strings are under appropriate tension, and are set into vibration by being plucked (harp, guitar, lute, etc.), strummed (harp, guitar, lute, etc.), struck (piano, dulcimer, clavichord, etc.), or bowed (violin, viol, cello, etc.).
♪ Strophic describes a song in which all the stanzas of the text are sung to the same music. The opposite of through-composed.
♪ German for storm and stress, sturm und drang is a style of composition that communicates emotions of stress, fear, horror, anxiety, etc. Used mostly in reference to German music of the Romantic era.
♪ In music, style has three meanings; 1) the characteristic manner of presentation of musical elements (melody, rhythm, harmony, dynamics, form, etc.), 2) A distinctive compositional manner of an era, country, or particular artist that makes that particular music unique and 3) A distinctive performance practice that differentiates music performed by a specific ensemble or artist from that same music performed by any other ensemble or individual. Style is what differentiates the Rolling Stones from The Beatles or Genesis from Yes and has a great deal of influence on people's musical preference. Be sure to tell us about yours.
♪ The subdominant is the tone that is one step below the dominant of a key, the fourth degree of the major or minor scale. The subdominant chord uses this note as its base. The superdominant, or submediant, is the sixth step of the scale, and the superdominant chord is based on this. The subtonic is one step below the tonic of a key, with the subtonic chord based on it.
♪ In the notation, suive directs the accompanist to follow the musical interpretation of the soloist. It can also be a directive to perform the indicated passage of a composition directly after the section which precedes it without a break or pause.
♪ In part writing, a suspension is a situation in which a single note of one chord is held over into another chord, thus creating a dissonance, which is resolved in the following chord.
♪ In the early 18th century, the term symphony was applied to any instrumental prelude, interlude, or postlude. In modern usage, the term is applied to a large composition for orchestra, generally in three or four movements. A symphony could also be defined as a sonata for orchestra. The earliest symphonies were generally simpler and of a smaller scale. By the late Romantic era, the symphony had grown in number of movements, length of movements, number of instruments, variety of instruments, and dynamic range.
♪ Syncopation is the deliberate upsetting of the meter or pulse of a composition by means of a temporary shifting of the accent to a weak beat or an off-beat.
♪ Any form of musical notation using symbols or letters rather than notes on the staff to describe pitches is called tablature.
♪ In notation, tacet is an indication that a performer is to be silent for some time. Typically, for an entire section or movement of a composition.
♪ The division of an octave into twelve equal parts is the temperament. Tuning to equal temperament is the modern way of tuning instruments. In this system, each semitone is slightly off its true pitch, so that no one note is drastically off pitch. The pitch difference is spread evenly throughout the notes.
♪ The speed of the rhythm of a composition is its tempo. Tempo is measured according to beats per minute. A very fast tempo, prestissimo, has between 200 and 208 beats per minute, presto has 168 to 200 beats per minute, allegro has between 120 and 168 beats per minute, moderato has 108 to 120 beats per minute, andante has 76 to 108, adagio has 66 to 76, larghetto has 60 to 66, and largo, the slowest tempo, has 40 to 60. Tempo imperfectum is Duple or Quadruple meter. In medieval music only triple meter, or tempo perfectum was considered perfect because it related to the Holy Trinity.
♪ An interval spanning the distance of 10 pitches away from the original pitch is, naturally enough, a tenth.
♪ Ternary form is a compositional form which consists of three major sections; an A section which states the thematic material, a B section which presents a contrasting theme, and a final A section which restates the opening thematic material. It can also refer to any three part form.
♪ Terraced dynamics is an expressive style typical of some Baroque music in which volume levels shift abruptly from soft to loud and back without gradual crescendos and decrescendos.
♪ Harmony which is based upon the interval of the third is known as tertian harmony. It is particularly predominant in Western music from the Baroque era through the 19th century.
♪ Tessitura is the general range of a composition (usually vocal) or of a particular voice of a composition.
♪ The perfect fourth and the set of four diatonic, chromatic, or enharmonic notes encased therein is known as the tetrachord.
♪ Texture is the term used to describe the way in which melodic lines are combined, either with or without accompaniment. That is to say, how many parts or voices there are, the configuration (close, open, etc.) of the voices, how the voices interact, etc. Types include monophonic, homophonic, and polyphonic, or contrapuntal.
♪ The musical basis upon which a composition is built is its theme. Usually a theme consists of a recognizable melody or a characteristic rhythmic pattern. The theme may sometimes be called the subject. Thematic development is expansion of a theme achieved by varying its melodic outline, its harmony, or its rhythm. Theme and variations is a style of composition that first presents a basic theme and then develops and alters that theme in successive statements. A theme group is several themes in the same key that function as a unit within a section of a form, particularly in sonata-allegro form. Contrasting themes are two or more themes which are quite different from each other such as smooth and lyrical contrasting with angular and disjointed.
♪ A third is the third degree of the diatonic scale, an interval spanning two diatonic scale steps, as the interval C to E. Intervals of the third may be major, minor, diminished, or augmented.
♪ Through-composed is a song form that is composed from beginning to end without repetitions of any major sections. Each verse has its own, unique melody.
♪ The quality of a sound is its timbre. It is that component of a tone that causes different instruments (for example a guitar and a violin) to sound different from each other while they are both playing the same note.
♪ A toccata is a composition for a keyboard instrument that displays virtuosity in the art of "touching" the keyboard. In the Baroque era the toccata often served as an introduction to a fugue, Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor being arguably the best-known example.
♪ Tone is the interval consisting of two semitones; a whole step. Tonal is a term referring to music that is based upon major and minor tonalities rather than on modal, twelve-tone, or other musical systems. Tonality is the principal of organization of a composition around a tonic based upon a major or minor scale. A tone row is a specific arrangement of the twelve tones of the twelve-tone scale as a basis for a twelve-tone composition. Tone clusters are the simultaneous sounding of two or more adjacent tones. A tonic is the note upon which a scale or key is based; the first note of a scale or key; the keynote. The tonic chord is based on the tonic. Tonicization is the technique of treating some note other than the true tonic of the composition as the tonic within a section of a composition.
♪ Total serialism describes extremely complex, totally controlled music in which the twelve-tone principle is extended to elements of music other than pitch. It was invented by Arnold Schoenberg.
♪ A transcription is a copy of the composition into a different key or arranged for different instrumentation. In the process, the composition might go through transposition, which will change the key it is played in.
♪ The highest part of a polyphonic composition is the treble The treble clef is a symbol located at the beginning of a staff to indicate the pitches of the notes placed on the lines and spaces of the staff. The treble clef is also called the G clef.
♪ A triad is a chord of three tones arranged in thirds. For example the C-major triad of c-e-g.
♪ A trill is an ornament that consists of rapid alternation between one tone and another tone either a step or a semitone away from the first tone.
♪ Meter based on three beats, or a multiple of three, in a measure is known as triple meter.
♪ A triplet consists of three notes of equal length that are performed in the duration of two notes of equal length.
♪ A chord named after the first chord in Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, the original Tristan chord consists of F, B, D-sharp, and G-sharp. The name can apply to any chord with the same intervals. It is also called the half-diminished seventh chord.
♪ The tritone is the interval of an augmented fourth. This interval was known as the "devil in music" in the Medieval era because it is the most dissonant sound in the scale.
♪ Troppo means too much and is used to qualify a directive in the performance of a certain passage of a composition. For example, the term allegro non troppo would mean a fast tempo but not too fast. Also known as tanto.
♪ A turn is an ornament consisting of the rapid performance of four notes: the note above the main note, the main note, the note below the main note and back to the main note.
♪ A twelfth is an interval covering eleven diatonic scale tones; an octave and a fifth.
♪ Twelve-tone technique is a system of composition which uses the twelve tones of the chromatic scale in an arbitrary arrangement called a tone row or series. The row may be used in its original form, its inversion, in retrograde, and in the inversion of the retrograde. The system was devised by Arnold Schoenberg in the early 20th century.
♪ The last beat of any measure is the upbeat. It's usually a weak beat. It is called the upbeat because the conductor always directs it with an upward swing of the baton or hand.
♪ To vamp is to extemporize the accompaniment to a solo voice or instrument. In 20th century music, the term vamp till ready is sometimes seen, indicating that the accompanist is to repeat a simple one or two measure passage until the soloist is prepared to enter. A singer may vamp anywhere in a song but most often it is done at the end.
♪ A variation is a deviation from a theme that uses the same bass pattern or harmonic progression that the theme used, and usually has the same number of measures. Generally, a variation is played after a theme with the variation being slightly more ornate; in several cases there are many variations upon a single theme. Variations are often used as accompaniments to songs that are several verses long, or as dance music.
♪ Vibrato is the pulsating or vibrating element of some sounds. Vibrato is a very slight fluctuation of the pitch of a note. It was known as early as the 16th century, but until the 19th century it was used mainly as ornamentation. Since the 19th century, vibrato has been used almost constantly because of its enhancement of tone.
♪ The quality of being extremely skilled at performing upon any certain instrument is virtuosity. A virtuoso is a brilliant, skillful performer.
♪ Vocalese is the practice of adding words to instrumental jazz melodies, improvised melodies, or improvised jazz solos. Similar to the term vocalise, vocalese is a pun that combines vocal and the suffix ese meaning a vocal in a unique language. Singers began the vocalese style as early as the 1940's as they tried to use their voice to mimic the improvised solos of instruments.
♪ Voicing refers to the adjustment of the sound-producing mechanisms in an instrument so that the tone, volume, attack, and timbre of the sound are given their desired quality.
♪ Walking bass is a term used in Baroque music for a bass line that moves steadily in a rhythm contrasting to that of the upper parts. In jazz, a walking bass usually moves by steps played on bass or piano, with each note usually having the duration of a quarter note.
♪ Well-tempered doesn't just refer to a clavier. This term can be applied to any instrument that is voiced and tuned satisfactorily, with the pitches, tone, and timbre having the desired quality of sound.
♪ Whole is used to refer to the basic time of a note or rest. It is equivalent to one. A whole step is an interval of two semitones, a major second. A whole tone is an interval of a whole step and a whole tone scale is one built of entirely whole tones.
♪ The wind instrument family consists of instruments in which sound is produced by the vibration of air, including brass and woodwind instruments. The brass and woodwinds are both included in this designation. The woodwind family are instruments originally made of wood, in which sound is produced by the vibration of air. These include recorders, flutes, clarinets, saxophones, oboes, and bassoons.
♪ Musical depiction of words in text is known as word painting. Using this device, the music tries to imitate the emotion, action, or natural sounds as described in the text. For example, if the text describes a sad event, the music might be in a minor key. Conversely, if the text is joyful, the music may be set in a major key. This device was used often in madrigals and other works of the Renaissance and Baroque.
♪ Zu, when shown as zu2 or zu3, etc., it is a directive to indicate the number of musicians to perform the indicated passage of music. The musicians would perform the indicated passage in unison with two (2), three (3), or the number of musicians indicated. This is most often used with stringed instruments (i.e. violins, violas, cellos, basses), but can be used for any instrument in the ensemble where there are multiple musicians performing one part.
Thank you for your patience. I apologize for having to split this diary and I'm still not sure exactly why I kept having the problem that required that action. Hopefully, it won't happen again!
So, please tell us about your music; what you listen to, what you play. Who is your favorite musician? Your favorite instrument? Tell us all about it....