Music - Glossary

AcDec 2025-2026: The Roaring Twenties

Arpeggio

a chord whose individual pitches are played in succession rather than simultaneously, in the manner that one would strum a guitar or harp

Block chord

a chord whose individual pitches are played simultaneously rather than in succession

Block Voicing

a jazz arranging technique in which instruments that belong to the same family are assigned similar music to play (so that trumpets are grouped together, or saxophones, or trombones, etc.); also called sectional writing

Blue note

a pitch that is deliberately sung “out of tune”; it is a device commonly used by jazz and blues musicians, especially on steps 3 and 7 of the scale

Book

a term for the spoken dialogue as well as the overall plot in musical theater

Cadenza

an unaccompanied passage during a concerto where the orchestra has ceased to play, and the solo instrumentalist shows off virtuosity, often through improvisation

Call-and-response

a performance technique in which a soloist or small group presents a short motif that is answered (with similar or contrasting material) by another musician or a larger group

Changes

the harmonic progression that underlies a particular piece of popular music

Chorus

(1) in jazz, this term describes one complete statement of the main melody or strain (or of the chords that support that melody); (2) the sections of a song that have recurring words (as in “verse-chorus” form); (3) a group of singers

Chromatic mediant

an altered version of the mediant or submediant triad, achieved either by reversing the customary mode of that triad (e.g., turning a minor iii triad into a major III) or by building a triad on the chromatic neighbor to the mediant or submediant rather than the normal diatonic scale degrees (e.g., building a triad on E♭ rather than E♮ when in the key of C major)

Collective improvisation

a type of heterophonic texture in which multiple musicians simultaneously create variants of a shared melody

Combo

a small ensemble of jazz or blues musicians

Concerto

a genre that features a solo instrument supported by a concert orchestra; a cadenza is the usual highlight of this genre

Custom score (original score)

music written to enhance a specific film

Dummy lyric

a temporary poem that fits a melody with the proper rhythm and rhyme scheme

Encore (“again'“ in French)

the repetition of a piece because of sustained applause and shouts for it to be performed “again” (the word is used both as a noun and as a verb)

Fill

a term for a short musical response to a melodic phrase

Foxtrot

a popular social dance of the early twentieth century that is performed to music in common time or duple meter

Glissando

a rapid, sweeping glide up or down through adjacent pitches; sometimes called a slide

Hemiola

the sensation of temporarily shifting from an established duple meter to the feeling of triple meter or vice versa

Integrated

a designation for a show whose songs are specifically suited for the situation in which they are sung or for the character who sings them

Melismatic text-setting

a type of singing in which multiple notes correspond to a single syllable of poetry

Mute

a device that quiets or alters an instrument’s sound in some way (see wah-wah mute)

Orchestration

the process of allocating the pitches of a score’s melodies and harmonies to particular instruments

Original score

see custom score

Out-chorus

see sock-chorus

Phrygian mode

an ancient scale pattern with intervals proceeding through a H–W–W–W–H–W–W pattern

Polychord

a chord containing two distinct diatonic harmonies simultaneously

Property

a source on which a stage show’s plot is based, such as a novel, play, or movie

Rhythm section

the backup musicians providing the rhythmic and harmonic foundation for a jazz tune, usually consisting of a piano, string bass, drum set, and guitar

Riff

a short motif (melodic, harmonic, or even just a chord progression) that is repeated numerous times

Ritornello

material that recurs multiple times in a piece or movement

Scar singing

a jazz vocal technique in which the performer sings short, often bouncy nonsense syllables

Scenario

the storyline for a ballet

Sectional writing

see block voicing

Shout chorus

a loud passage in a jazz piece, usually featuring the full ensemble playing in the same rhythm simultaneously with the brass predominating; it usually occurs near the end of the piece to build excitement.

Show-tune form

a thirty-two-bar structure comprised of four eight-bar phrases, with a melodic scheme of A B A’ C.

Slide

see glissando

sock-chorus (out-chorus)

a loud, energetic final chorus, often in heterophonic texture, used as the finale of a jazz piece

Solo break

a passage in a jazz piece in which the majority of performers stop playing in order to feature one soloist

Song-plugger

a person who promotes sheet music for a publishing company

Stop-time

a jazz playing technique in which an ensemble plays a single note together on the first beat of a bar and then stops playing until the next measure; it is a special effect sometimes used to accompany a soloist.

Storyville

a red-light district in New Orleans at the beginning of the twentieth century that is viewed as the launchpad for the earliest development of jazz

Swing

(1) a rhythmic device particularly prevalent in jazz; it creates a compound-meter effect by lengthening the first eighth note in a pair and subtracting that time from the second note; (2) the style of big-band jazz of the 1930s and 40s

Tag

a short extension at the end of a chorus

Tin Pan Alley

(1) the music publishing district in New York, centered on 28th Street at the start of the twentieth century; (2) the type of popular music issued by these publishers from the 1880s to the 1950s

Tryout Tour

the presentation of a show in other cities to test it in front of audiences before premiering it in New York (in front of Broadway newspaper critics

Vamp

a short motif that is repeated in between sections of a piece; sometimes, it is used as a “filler” until a featured performer is ready to proceed.

Vaudeville

a stage presentation consisting of many short, unconnected performances by a large array of entertainers demonstrating a wide variety of skills, many unrelated to music

Wah-wah mute

a jazz timbre achieved by waving the rubber plunger of a plumber’s helper over the bell of a trumpet, cornet, or trombone; it produces a sound that can resemble a distorted human voice.

Wordless voice

a tone color created by a voice singing sustained vowel sounds or humming without text (sometimes called “instrumentalized voice”)