fine arts music & dance terms

Art Song

Song that is written to capture the essence of a scene, paint a picture by sound, and help the listener create a visual image.

Mass

The liturgy of the Roman Catholic Eucharist. In music, a mass is a choral setting of the Mass that contains five sections: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.

Cantata

A composition in several movements for orchestra and chorus often with a sacred text, and utilizing recitatives, arias, and choruses.

Motet

A polyphonic composition for choir based on a sacred Latin text and typically sung without accompaniment

Opera

A theatrical presentation with drama set to music.

Grand Opera

Also called Opera Seria (serious opera) grand in scale and tragic in tone. Highly stylized treatment of heroic subjects such as gods and heroes.

Opera Buffa

Comic opera that usually does not have a spoken dialogue and typically uses satire to treat a serious topic with humor

Oratorio

a semi-dramatic work, without acting, scenery or costumes, often on a religious theme, for orchestra, choir and soloists

Concert Overture

An independent composition for orchestra in one movement, typically in sonata form and from the Romantic period.

Concerto

An extended composition for orchestra and one or more soloists, typically in three movements, fast-slow-fast

Solo

Music written for one musician, with or without accompaniment

Duet

Music written for two musicians, with or without accompaniment

Trio

Music written for three musicians, with or without accompaniment

Quartet

Music written for four musicians, with or without accompaniment

Quintet

Music written for five musicians, with or without accompaniment

Sextet

Music written for six musicians, with or without accompaniment

Septet

Music written for seven musicians, with or without accompaniment

Octet

Music written for eight musicians, with or without accompaniment.

Ensemble

Any arrangement of musicians usually more than four.

Orchestra

A large instrumental ensemble divided into sections such as strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. In theatre, the section of seats on the ground floor of the auditorium directly in front of the stage.

Sonata

An instrumental piece, usually in three or four movements and usually for one or two players.

Suite

An instrumental composition, typically in two parts arising from the Baroque period and comprising a set of dance-inspired movements written in the same key but differing in tempo, meter, and character

Symphony

An extended musical composition for orchestra usually consisting of three or four movements.

Fugue

A polyphonic composition in which a theme or themes are stated successively in all voices.

Theme

the dominant idea of a work of art, music, film, dance, and literature. In music, a principal melodic phrase in a composition.

Sound

Vibrations that travel through the atmosphere and cause the eardrum to vibrate

Pitch

The highness or lowness of the sound. Short wavelengths create a higher pitch; whereas, long wavelengths create lower ones.

Dynamics

The loudness of the sound.

Tone color

The timbre of a voice or instrument.

Timbre

The quality of a tone that distinguishes it from other tones of the same pitch.

Duration

How many beats the pitch or note is being held.

Beat

equal parts into which the measure is divided

Measure

the distance between two bar lines.

Bar line

On written music, a vertical line that lies perpendicular to the staff or grand staff.

Staff

five horizontal, parallel lines

Grand Staff

two sets of five horizontal, parallel lines, connect by a Grand Bar Line, with the upper staff usually being treble clef and the bottom staff being bass clef.

Meter

The regular succession of rhythmical impulses or beats.

Rhythm

The relationship, either of time or space, between recurring elements of a composition. The regular or ordered repetition of dominant and subordinate elements or units with a design or composition.

Tempo

The slowness or fastness of the rhythm

Melody

the succession of recognizable tones that create a whole.

Harmony

The arrangement and progression of chords.

Texture

The melodic and harmonic characteristics of a composition

Theory

The scientific study of music, including aspects of physics of sound, chord progressions, and note development.

Form and Analysis

The study of the overall development of a piece of music: identifying which phrases repeat, and which phrases are new and all combinations within the piece of music.

Baroque

A diverse artistic style taking place from the late 16th Century to the early 18th Century marked typically by complexity, elaborate from, and appeal to the emotions

Classical

Adhering to traditional standards. In music, classical refers to a style of the 18th century that adhered to classical standards but had no known classical antecedents.

Romantic

A philosophy as well as a style in all the arts and literature, dating to the late 18th through 19t centuries. Sought to reflect great diversity.

Contemporary

Music that reflects the style of the day.

March

Music that has a definite 2-beat feel and was first written for military purposes

Reggae

A Caribbean Island feel that reflects the laid-back lifestyle those resident. Bobby Farin

Rock

Elvis Presley, King of Rock and Roll—strong, heavy drum beat that establishes the rhythmic feel with heavy guitar and piano providing the melody and harmony

Rhythm and Blues

Written to fully express the restrained emotions of the slaves and former slaves developing in the Mississippi Delta.

Rap

A highly vocalized, automatonic, rhythmic beat that expresses the artist's emotions usually of hatred and violence.

Gospel

A sacred style of music that developed by African-Americans and was a spin-off of Rhythm and Blue

Musical

Similar to an Opera but includes folk-music or music specifically written to carry the story

Prima Donna

The primary female singer in an opera or musical.

Ballet

A "Classical" or formal tradition resting heavily on a set of prescribed movements, actions, and positions.

Prima Ballerina

The primary female dancer in a ballet.

Modern Dance

A form of concert dance relying on emotional use of the body, as opposed to formalized or conventional movement such as ballet, and stressing human emotion and the human condition.

Ritual Dance

A group of dances that perform some religious, moral, or ethical purpose in a society.

Folk Dance

A body or group of dances performed to traditional music that is stylistically identifiable with a specific culture, for which it serves as a necessary or informative part.

Jazz Dance

a form arising partly from African dance customs, and with a strong improvisational nature, that developed into American social and entertainment dances.

Ballroom Dance

A series of dances that have a prescribed style and set of steps that must be followed closely to express the customs of a particular country.

Line

When dancers stand in a straight line and perform high kicks and alternate moves to follow a domino pattern.

Form

When a series of motions are repeated to reiterate or capture a particular expression or mood.

Repetition

Reiteration of elements in a work so as to create a sense of unity.

Mime

In theatre, a type of Greek and Roman farce; or a performance using only body movement and gestures, without the use of words. In dance or theatre, actions that imitate human or animal movements.

Pantomime

In dance, it is the transmission of emotions and meaning through gesture.

Mise-en-scene

The complete visual environment of the production, including scenery, lighting, properties, costumes, and physical structure of the theatre.

Sign language

Using the hands and body to communicate, express, and translate thoughts and emotions.

Reaction

How the audience responds to what they have heard and/or seen.