Music Appreciation Lecture Notes

These flashcards cover key concepts and terms in music appreciation from the lecture notes.

Rhythm

Group of beats in music.

Melody

The main tune of a song.

Harmony

The rest of the music that accompanies the melody.

Timbre

The tone or color of music, distinguishing different instruments or voices.

Dynamic

The volume of sound, ranging from soft to loud.

Accent

Stressing of a note, typically by playing it louder.

Meter

The underlying pattern of beats in music.

Syncopation

Accents fall when they are not expected.

Tempo

The speed of the music.

Diatonic scale

A scale of 8 pitches with a specific order of whole and half steps.

Tonic

The beginning note of a scale, the most important note.

Consonant

Pitches that sound smooth and pleasing to the ear.

Dissonant

Pitches that sound harsh and are resolved when moving to consonant sounds.

Triad

A three-note chord played as a unit.

Modulation

The process of changing from one key to another.

Genre

The category of a musical work, such as opera or jazz.

Texture

The arrangement of melodies and harmonies in music.

Monophonic

Music consisting of one melody without harmony.

Homophonic

Music with one main melody and accompanying harmony.

Polyphonic

Music with multiple independent melodies that harmonize.

Arco

To play a string instrument with a bow.

Pizzicato

To pluck the strings of a string instrument.

Jazz Ensemble

A jazz group typically containing 20 players.

Strophic form

A song structure where different verses are sung to the same melody.

Binary form

A two-part song structure, labeled as A and B.

Ternary form

A three-part song structure, labeled as A, B, A.

Theme and Variation

A musical form that begins with a theme followed by variations on that theme.

Piano

A versatile keyboard instrument used in various musical genres.

Bartolomeo Cristofori

The inventor of the piano, who created the first one around 1700.

Humidity and Temperature

Factors that should be controlled to maintain a piano's sound quality.