Music History Definitions

Ionian (our major scale)

Complete happiness, harmony, relaxation

Dorian

reasonable and contemplative, sedate, sober, manly, peaceful sincerity, creating the ideal

internal personal balance (its tetrachords are the only mirrored pair). When played in a very

active, louder manner, can cause a dramatic emotional response.

Phrygian

passionate and belligerent, wild and exciting, tense, causing intense emotional

expression (“do not play before driving in heavy traffic”). Oriental sound

Lydian

otherworldly, helping to deal with loss and unforgiveness. Plato recommended this mode be banned.

Mixolydian

contemplative, natural. Children, even those in captivity, tend to exhibit music play in

this mode

Aeolian (our minor scale)

pompous, mysterious, feelings of helplessness and fatalism, pastoral

scenes

Locrian

enhances creativity, openness

African influences

Prominent percussion; driving, relentless beatkeeping

• Polyrhythmic layering

Folk Music from British Isles

music of the lower classes (“lowbrow”)

• Folk Dancing (and the music that accompanied it)

Classically-influenced middle- and upper-class music of Europe

(“highbrow”)

• Rules of harmony

The Beat

Melody

a succession of notes (usually pitched) forming a

recognizable pattern, a.k.a. “the tune,” “the ditty,” “the theme,” “what

you whistle,” “the prominent noticeable hummable part,” and, in jazz,

“the head.”

RANGE

: The total amount of notes an instrument or vocalist can

produce, from highest to lowest.

TESSITURA

:(a subset of range) – the section of one’s range being used at

a given moment in a piece.

Contour

degree of smoothness of a melody. See stepwise, skipwise,

chromaticism

Stepwise

conjunct melodic contour that uses adjacent notes within a scale or key.

See contour

Scale

a group of x number of notes that cultures come up

with to divide the musical octave…then, they use those

notes to make melodies. Depending on the scale

selected, the mood of the listener can be affected.

CHROMATIC

(the frets on a guitar, the keys on a piano) = multiply the frequency by (1 + the

twelfth root of 2. or 1.059463) to get the next notehe simplest of the 15 MAJOR SCALES: Use just the white keys

* The simplest of the PENTATONIC SCALES: use just the black keys (SO, the other five of the

twelve)

Skipwise

disjunct melodic contour that primarily leaps from place

to place. See contour

Rocket Theme

a melodic gesture which exhibits quickly rising motion,

often involving skipwise contour

Melisma (melismatic activity)

n vocal music, a

passage where one syllable is sung over many notes.

melismatic

vocal music in which many successive

single pitches are sung to one syllable

Vibrato

a slight change of frequency by a singer or instrumentalist to add beauty

and emotion to a note. It can be performed anywhere.

Pitch Bending

As opposed to vibrato and melismas, Two pitches on the same (or different!)

syllable(s) are connected by a bend of pitch: each of the pitches

between those two notes PLUS all of the frequencies in between

those pitches too!) (Think of the pitch bend wheel on an electronic

keyboard)

Motive

a recognizable, prominent

melodic or rhythmic fragment,

somewhere between 2 and 7

notes in length,

that is used as a basis of

development and adapted

throughout a piece and/or used to

represent a being or a concept

a recognizable, prominent melodic or rhythmic fragment,

somewhere between 2 and 7 notes in length,

that is used as a basis of development and adapted throughout a piece

Sequence

a motive that is repeated at different pitch levels, maintaining

the same motivic contour each time

Improvisation

the spontaneous creation of music, usually within some agreed-upon melodic, harmonic and/or

rhythmic boundaries. Certain musical styles involve soloist improvisation, while others feature collective improvisation involving

more than one improviser at a time. In all cases, a main component of improvisatory sections is performer communication –

trading ideas, copying and enhancing one another’s melodies, eye contact.