MUSC 107 AUGUSTANA

absolute music

instrumental music composed purely as music, and not intended to represent or illustrate something else.

accentuation

emphasis

Amplitude

refers to the strength of a sound wave, which is perceived by humans as loudness. A sound wave's amplitude is the maximum displacement from its resting position, meaning the greater the displacement, the higher the amplitude and the louder the sound

Antiphonal

A type of music in which two or more groups of voices or instruments alternate with one another

Binary

organized in 2 parts separated by cadence

call and response

a song style in which a singer or musician leads with a call and a group responds

Colotomic

certain instruments play a kind of musical "punctuation" that marks time in the music

contour

certain shape to a rhythm or music

Cresendo

gradually getting louder

decresendo or diminuendo

gradually getting softer

descriptive

opposite of absolute music meant to describe something

Developmental form

built directly from smaller units, such as motifs, combined and worked out in different ways, perhaps having a symmetrical or arch-like underpinning and a progressive development from beginning to end

dramatic music

Music closely related to drama or a scenario, particularly opera, a musical play, ballet, narration.

drone

speaking in a monotonous tone; a continuous low humming sound

duple

two beats per measure

dynamics

Degrees of loudness or softness in music

ethnomusicology

comparative study of music as an aspect of culture and society

figure

a short, recognizable succession of notes that forms the basic building block of a melody, a decorative pattern, or a specific rhythmic duration

frequency

vibrations that determine pitch

function of music

a tool for communication, emotional expression, and cultural identity, while also providing aesthetic enjoyment, physical responses, and therapeutic benefits

harmony

tones happening simultaneously (wrapped around the melody (vertically))

Hemiola

a shift in the rhythmic pulse from a division of 2 to a division of 3, or vice versa. i.e. 6-8 time meter into 3-4 time meter.

Heterophony

multiple performers playing simultaneous variations of the same line of music

hexatonic

6 note scale

homophony

texture with principal melody and accompanying harmony (everything moves at the same time)

interval

distance between two pitches

key

the note around which a piece of music revolves

meter

time signature

modes

a type of scale with its own characteristic sound and set of melodic behaviors

modulation

the process of changing from one key to another

monophony

A single line of music

motive

the why

melody

series of single tones that add up to a recognizable whole (horizontaly/base)

non pulsatile

no beat

octave

8 line stanza

Ostinato

A repeated pattern

pentatonic

5 note scale

pitch

the highness or lowness of a sound

polyphonic

having many sounds or voices

Polyrhythm

a rhythm that makes use of two or more different rhythms simultaneously

polytonal

using more than one key or tonality simultaneously

Program music is

instrumental music associated with a story, poem, idea, or scene

pulsatile

Characterized by a rhythmic pulsation.

range

distance between the highest and lowest note in song

rhapsodic

extravagantly emotional

Rythmn

strong or repeated pattern of movement/sound

Rondo

A musical composition during which the first part or subject is repeated several times.

scale

a set of notes arranged in order of pitch, typically within an octave.

song cycle

group of art songs unified by a story line that runs through their poems, or by musical ideas linking the songs.

strophic

same music different words but same meaning

suite

an ordered collection of instrumental movements, often in the same key, designed to be performed as a single work

Syncopation

accents are unpredictable

tempo

speed of music

ternary

A composition in three parts

Texture

describe a song

theme

Central idea of a work of music

through-composed

a term used to describe music that exhibits no obvious repetitions or overt musical form from beginning to end

timbre

quality of sound

tonality

All notes in a scale related to one central tone

tonic

first note of a scale

triple

three beats per measure

tuning

The raising and lowering a pitch of an instrument to produce the correct tone of a note.

variations

same tune just different ways of expressing it

vibrations

rapid motions back and forth or up and down