Chapter 1 music

accent

A stress on a particular beat, note, or chord.

adagio

A leisurely tempo, literally, “at ease.”

allegretto

A moderately fast tempo.

allegro

A fast tempo, faster than allegretto.

andante

A moderately slow tempo: literally, at a “walking” pace.

arpeggio

A “broken” chord in which the tones are played one after another in rapid succession rather than simultaneously.

beat

Regularly occurring pulsations that create the basic units of musical time.

cadence

A point of rest at the end of a passage, section, or complete work that gives the music a sense of convincing conclusion. Also, a melodic or harmonic progression that gives the feeling of conclusion.

chord

Three or more pitches sounded together.

chord progression

A particularly distinctive series of harmonies, or chords.

compound meters

Compound meters subdivide the basic beats into sets of three.

consonance

A quality of an interval, chord, or harmony that imparts a sense of stability, repose, or finality.

crescendo

Music gradually gets louder.

decrescendo

Gradually softer (same as diminuendo).

diminuendo

Gradually softer (same as decrescendo).

dissonance

A quality of an interval, chord, or harmony that gives a sense of tension and movement.

downbeat

The first, and often stressed, beat of a metric pattern of beats.

duple meter

A meter with two beats in each measure.

dynamics

Relative degrees of loudness or softness.

fermata (𝄐)

A notational symbol indicating that a note is to be sounded longer than its normal time value, the exact length being left to the discretion of the performer.

forte

A loud dynamic level.

fortissimo (ff)

A very loud dynamic level.

grave

A slow and solemn tempo.

harmony

A composite sound made up of two or more notes of different pitch that sound simultaneously.

interval

The distance in pitch between any two tones.

irregular meters

Meters in which beats are counted in groups of five, seven, or those that avoid patterns of regular accents completely.

largo

A very slow and broad tempo.

legato

“Linked, tied,” indicating a smooth, even style of performance, with each note connected to the next.

lento

A slow tempo.

major scale

A scale having a pattern of whole and half steps, with the half steps falling between the third and fourth and between the seventh and eighth notes of the scale.

measures

Units of time organization consisting of a fixed number of beats. Measures are separated from one another by vertical bar lines on the staff.

melody

A basic musical element consisting of a series of pitches of particular duration that sound one after another.

meter

The organization of rhythmic pulses or beats into equal, recurring groups.

mezzo forte

A moderately loud dynamic level.

mezzo piano

A moderately soft dynamic level.

moderato

A moderate tempo.

note

A symbol used to notate a pitch and its duration. __is also used to identify a pitch or a tone.

octave

An interval between two pitches in which the higher pitch vibrates at twice the frequency of the lower. When sounded simultaneously, the two pitches sound very much alike.

phrase

A portion of a melody that can sound complete or incomplete. An incomplete-sounding phrase makes the listener want to hear another phrase that completes the melody.

pianissimo

A very soft dynamic level.

piano

A soft dynamic level.

pitch

The highness or lowness of a musical tone, determined by the frequency of vibration of the sounding body.

pitch range

The span from low to high pitches that an instrument or a voice can produce.

prestissimo

A tempo that is as fast as possible.

presto

A very fast tempo.

quadruple meter

A meter in which each measure has four beats.

rhythm

The element of music that encompasses all aspects of musical time.

rubato

“Robbed.” A term indicating that a performer may treat the tempo with a certain amount of freedom, shortening the duration of some beats and correspondingly lengthening others.

sequence

The repetition of a motive or melody at different pitch levels.

staccato

“Detached.” Indicating a style of performance in which each note is played in a short, crisp manner.

staff

A graphlike structure consisting of five lines and four spaces. Each line and each space represent a different pitch.

syncopation

A deliberate disturbance of the normal metrical pulse, produced by shifting the accent from a normally strong beat to a weak beat.

tempo

The speed at which a piece of music moves.

theme

A musical idea that serves as a starting point for development of a composition or section of a composition.

timbre

The characteristic tone quality of a musical sound as produced by a specific instrument or voice, or by a combination of instruments or voices.

tonic

The tonal center. The tone that acts as a musical home base, or point of rest and finality, in a piece of music.

triad

A three-note chord in which each note is the interval of a third from the next closest note.

upbeat

One or more unaccented beats that precede the accented downbeat. Also called pickup.

vivace

A fast and vivacious tempo.