Lecture Notes: Genre, Style, Instrumentation, and Notation (Vocabulary)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the lecture notes on genre, style, notation, and instrumentation.

Genre

A broad category used to group music by shared stylistic elements. In this course, genre is a modern, marketing-oriented way to separate types of music, though historically genres were more fluid.

Style

The particular sound or approach within a genre that can change over time; same genre may sound different today than it did decades ago.

Art Music

A long-standing category of music characterized by formal training, written notation, and a tradition of notating and preserving complex works.

Folk Music

Traditional music that is passed down orally through generations; often not written down initially and varies by region, later sometimes notated.

Popular Music

Music that is not classical/jazz/traditional folk, typically disseminated broadly through recordings, radio, and mass media; highly responsive to trends.

Sacred Music

Music created for religious purposes.

Secular Music

Music that is not religious in purpose.

Timbre

The tone color or quality that distinguishes different sounds (even when pitches are the same).

Register

The range of pitches a voice or instrument can comfortably produce (high or low).

Soprano

Highest standard female voice type with a high comfortable range; often the upper end of vocal ranges.

Mezzo-Soprano

Female voice type with a range between soprano and alto; typically lower than soprano but higher than alto.

Alto

Lower female voice type, often with a comfortable range below soprano.

Tenor

Higher male voice type with a relatively high comfortable range.

Baritone

Middle-low male voice type, with a lower range than tenor.

Bass

Lowest standard male voice type, with a comfortable very low range.

Notational Music (Notation)

A system for writing music that communicates pitch, rhythm, and other performance information for reproducibility.

Staff

The five horizontal lines on which notes are placed to indicate pitch.

Note

A symbol on the staff that represents a pitched sound with a specific duration.

Rest

A symbol indicating a period of silence in music.

Time Signature

A notational symbol indicating the meter—how many beats per measure and what note value counts as one beat.

Accent Mark

A symbol indicating that a note should be emphasized or played with more force.

Pneumatic Notation

Early, non-specific musical notation from the medieval period, often lacking precise rhythm and pitch.

Aerophone

Instrument family that produces sound primarily through vibrating air (e.g., wind instruments, brass, and woodwinds).

Chordophone

Instrument family in which sound is produced by vibrating strings (e.g., guitar, violin).

Idiophone

Percussion instruments where the instrument itself vibrates to produce sound (e.g., cymbals, xylophone).

Membranophone

Percussion instruments that produce sound via a vibrating stretched membrane (e.g., drums, timpani).

Bowed Strings

String instruments played with a bow, such as violins and cellos, allowing ongoing control of dynamics and sustain.

Plucked Strings

String instruments played by plucking, such as guitars or lutes, with different timbres from bowing.

Keyboard Instrument

Instruments that are played via a keyboard and often involve multiple sound-producing mechanisms (e.g., piano, harpsichord, organ).

Harpsichord

Baroque-era keyboard instrument whose strings are plucked rather than struck, producing a distinctive timbre.

Piano

Keyboard instrument where hammers strike strings; capable of dynamic nuance and sustain, a major evolution from the harpsichord.

Organ

Keyboard instrument that generates sound by forcing air through pipes; highly elaborate, often with multiple manuals and pedals.

Lute

Renaissance predecessor to the guitar with many strings; declined due to complexity and the rise of the five-string guitar.

Guitar

A modern plucked-string instrument that typically has five strings historically; easier to learn and widely used.

Drum Machine (e.g., Roland TR-808)

A digitally produced drum sound source that has profoundly influenced modern hip-hop and electronic music.

Auto-Tune

An audio effect used to correct pitch or create a distinctive vocal sound; widely debated for artistic purposes.

Parlor Song

Early form of popular song performed in domestic settings, bridging opera and later popular music.