Music Terms

Accelerando

Getting faster

Adagio

The music should be played slowly

Allegro

“Lively”. The music should be played cheerfully, upbeat, and brisk

Andante

“Walking”. The music should be played at a walking pace, moderately slow

Aria

A song generally used to describe set-piece songs in Opera

Atonal

Music in which no key can be established. The technique is heard in a lot of 20th Century music

Ballad

A work in dance form imitative of a folk song, with a narrative structure

Measure

A vertical line through the staff to mark the music into sections, each with a set amount of beats within

Barcarolle

A boating song, generally describing the songs sung by gondoliers in Venice

Baritone

Male singing voice in the middle range

Baroque

A period in art and music from around 1600-1750

Basso Continuo

A form of bass line used in music from the Baroque period. It is usually notated with numbers indicating what chords can be used, so the continuo player can embellish the lines

Berceuse

A lullaby

Bolero

A Spanish dance

Cadence

Two chords at the end of a piece which provide a type of punctuation at the end of a musical phrase. Cadences can either suggest the sentence isn’t over, or provide a type of musical “full-stop”

Block chord

A block chord is a chord in which all notes sound simultaneously. A block chord is a chord or voicing built directly below the melody either on the strong beats or to create a four-part harmonized melody line in "locked-hands" rhythmic unison with the melody, as opposed to broken chords

Broken chord

A broken chord is a chord in which all notes appear in succession

Cantata

A choral work that uses solo voices with an instrumental accompaniment

Capriccio

A lively piece of music, usually free in its form and short

Chorale

A musical composition (or part of one) consisting of or resembling a harmonized version of a simple, stately hymn tune

Chanson

A French song, from the middle ages to the 20th century

Chord

The sounding of two or more notes at the same time

Chromatic

Notes which do not belong to the diatonic scale

Clef

Several symbols drawn at the end of a staff, indicating the pitch of the notes written on the staff

Coloratura

A type of decoration, usually in singing that is ornate and richly ornamented

Concerto

A piece of instrumental music for soloist contrasted by an ensemble

Countertenor

The vocal range of a male alto. Close in range to a female soprano

Crescendo

A dynamic instruction meaning to gradually play louder

Da Capo

“From the beginning”. Usually abbreviated to “D.C.” at the end of a section of a piece, meaning to go back to the beginning and play either to the end (Da capo al fine) or to the sign, which looks like a stylized “S” (Da capo el segno)

Diminuendo

A dynamic instruction meaning to gradually play quieter

Dynamics

Levels of sound in music. The spectrum of soft to loud

Elegy

A piece of music in the form of a lament

Ensemble

A group of performers

Espressivo

An instruction meaning that a passage should be played with expression, or expressively

Etude

An instrumental composition intended to improve or tax certain aspects of technique

Fagotto

The Italian word for Bassoon

Flat

Shows that the note should be lowered by a half step. Can also mean that a note is out of tune, sounding lower than it should

Forte

A dynamic instruction meaning the music should be played loudly

Fugue

A contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and which recurs frequently in the course of the composition

Contrapuntal

With two or more independent melodic lines

Gigue

A lively dance form from the Baroque period, from the English jig

Giocoso

The piece should be played in a cheerful or playful way

Glissando

To slide, An instruction to slide between a group of notes

Harmony

The sounding of two or more notes at the same time

Harmonic language

A composer may be said to have a “harmonic language”, similar in meaning to saying someone has a particular accent

Humoresque

A piece of music with a humorous feel

Hymn

A song of religious worship

Impressionism

A term describing movements in art and music. Generally French, the impressionist art and music from the late 19th / early 20th Century is characterised by a sense of veiled, blurred images and a palette of rich colour. Both Debussy and Ravel resented their music being described thus, as they felt it suggested their music had little formal and structural value

Intonation

The accuracy or lack of pitch in instrumental playing and singing

Jig

A lively English dance, usually placed at the end of a Baroque suite

Key

A musical key is the relation of different chords to each other. The 'tonic' is the subjective sense of 'home', from which musical compositions deviate from, and arrive back to. Relations of different keys to each other give the impression of tension, development and resolution. A 'key signature' is an instruction at the beginning of written music, indicating what the 'home key' of the work is.

Largo

An instruction meaning the music is usually slow in speed, or broad in tempo

Legato

An instruction indicating that a sequence of notes should be played smoothly as opposed to disconnected.

Leggiero

An instruction meaning to play lightly and without force

Col legno

“With wood”. An instruction for string players that means the player should use the wooden side of the bow to hit the strings with.

Leitmotif

A short, recurring musical phrase, usually associated with a character, idea, event, or object. This is the musical equivalent of branding.

Lento

A tempo instruction meaning the music is slow

Lieder

A form of song in the German tradition

Madrigal

A vocal composition originating in 14th Century Italy. Madrigals are usually of a secular nature, and became very popular in the Renaissance and early Baroque periods.

Malagueña

A Spanish gypsy dance from the region of Málaga

Mazurka

A traditional Polish dance

Mezzo

“Half”. Mezzo-forte/mezzo-piano mean half-loud and half-soft. A mezzo-soprano is a female voice range that is lower than a soprano.

Minuet

A popular French dance from the mid-17th Century to the end of the 18th Century

Natural

A note which is neither sharp nor flat

Neoclassical

Neoclassicism is a style of music used by composers in the 20th Century which incorporate Classical and Baroque structures within their works

Nocturne

A piece of music of a nocturnal mood. Irish composer John Field invented the form in the early 19th Century, which led to its popularization by Chopin, who wrote 21 nocturnes.

Obbligato

An instrumental part which is essential in a piece of music

Octave

The interval of an eight

Octet

A piece of music written for 8 performers

Ondes Martenot

An electronic instrument which produces sound using a keyboard which controls oscillating frequencies. Produced by Maruice Martenot in 1928

Oscillate

Move or swing back and forth at a regular speed

Opus

A term is generally used in the listing of a composer's works by opus numbers, usually abbreviated to Op.

Oratorio

A large scale work for orchestra and voices, usually sacred in nature. Oratorios are narrative in the same way as opera, but are performed without staging, costume, action or scenery

Ostinato

A repeated musical phrase or rhythm

Overture

An introductory movement to an opera or substantial work. In opera, the overture usually contains examples of the major musical themes that will appear throughout the work – a type of trailer for what is to come

Partita

A musical suite, usually for solo instrument or small ensemble

Passacaglia

A baroque dance form in which a short melodic phrase, usually in the bass, form the basis of the work

Pentatonic

A five-note scale consisting of the black notes on the keyboard. Used in folk music from many countries, it is readily associated with an 'oriental' sound

Pitch

The frequency of the vibration of sound. Pitch is measured in Hertz, and is generally organized in a system known as “equal temperament”, a system of tuning in which different notes have a standardized pitch ratio.

Pizzicato

A direction to string instrument performers to pluck the strings, rather than using the bow to create sound

Più

More

Più vivo

More lively

Più lento

More slow

Poco-a-poco

Little by little

Presto

Fast in tempo

Quartet

A group of four players, or a composition for four players

Rallentando

Gradually play slower

Recitative

A moment where a solo voice sings in relatively free rhythm. Usually preceding an aria (the main song), recitative is usually used to illustrate plot and narrative in opera

Requiem Mass

A Catholic Mass of the dead

Riguadon

A French folk dance, typically used in instrumental suites from the 17th and 18th Centuries

Ritardando

Gradually play slower

Ritenuto

An instruction to slow down

Rococo

A period characterized by highly decorative, elaborately ornate music

Rondo

A form with a recurring theme, usually used as the final movement of a sonata or concerto

Rubato

An instruction to play with freedom. Rubato allows performers to deviate from strict tempo regularity, and can enhance expressive playing. In essence, by 'stealing' time, or borrowing it, it should be contrasted with strict time, in a musically correct method of atonement

Scale

A sequence of notes in either descending or ascending order

Scherzo

A movement from a work. Originating in the 17th Century, the form usually appears in a Symphony as a fast, light-hearted second or third movement.

Serialism

Serialism uses the twelve semitones of the octave in a particular order, known as a 'tone-row', which serves as a basis on which a work is structured. A compositional technique developed in the 20th Century by Arnold Schoenberg, as a method of ordering the seemingly chaotic and arbitrary technique to atonality.

Sforzando

Play with sudden and marked emphasis

Sonata

A composition for soloist, or soloist with piano accompaniment. The sonata usually consists of several movements with one or more in sonata form. Sonata-form is a form in which a movement is divided into three sections, exposition, development and recapitulation. The exposition usually contains two contrasting themes, which are then developed in the development, to be re-heard in the recapitulation, ending in a coda.