Romantic Era: terms (ARCT History)

Chamber music

Music for a small ensemble (2-10 players) with one player per part, which was usually performed without a conductor

String quartet

The most important chamber music genre of the Classical era, which remained popular in the 19th and 20th centuries. The performing forces include first and second violins, viola, and cello, and is usually written in four movements (fast-slow-moderately fast-fast), with the first typically in sonata form.

Piano quintet

A chamber music ensemble, consisting of piano and four other instruments (such as a string quartet); this term also refers to a composition written for five instruments, including piano

Theme and variations

A work featuring a statement of a melody that is followed by a series of transformations (achieved through changes in melody, harmony, rhythm, or orchestration). This is often used in the slow movement of the sonata cycle.

Concerto

A multi-movement work for soloist(s) and orchestra that showcases the virtuosity of the soloist(s). In the 19th century, the first movement generally was written in sonata form.

cadenza

A solo passage heard in a concerto, aria, or any large orchestral work; it is often virtuosic, and suggests an improvised style. In the 19th century, these passages were usually written out by the composer.

Sonata form (sonata-allegro form)

A formal structure that is often used in the first movement of a sonata cycle, which consists of an exposition (statement of two or more contrasting themes), development (departure), and recapitulation (return)

Character piece

An instrumental piece (often for solo piano) based on a programmatic idea, which usually can be identified by an evocative title. Multiple pieces were often grouped into collections or “cycles”

sotto voce (“under voice”)

Played in a soft, intimate manner

Art song

The musical setting of a poem in any language, that is composed for solo voice, generally with a piano accompaniment

Lied

The musical setting of a German poem for solo voice and (generally) a piano accompaniment, which flourished in the 19th century

Strophic form

A song structure, where the same music is performed for each verse of a poem, resulting in little connection between the words and music

Modified strophic form

A song structure that allows for some repetition of music, but which allows for some changes to the melody, harmony, and accompaniment to reflect the text (ex. a shift to the tonic major/minor key)

Durchkomponiert (through-composed)

A song structure that does not repeat entire sections of music, allowing melody, harmony, and piano accompaniment to reflect the meaning of the text as the story unfolds

Song cycle

A collection of art songs united by a central theme or narrative thread, whose poetic text is drawn from the same author, and is intended to be performed together

Rondo form

A Classical formal structure often used in the sonata cycle where section A recurs (heard 3 or more times in the tonic key), contrasting with alternating sections that create contrast

Inversion

Thematic material presented “upside down”

Homorhythmic texture

All voices sing or play the same rhythm, which results in a blocked, chordal texture, which allows text to be delivered with clarity and emphasis

Hemiola

A temporary shift of the metric accents so that notes grouped in threes are momentarily grouped in twos, or vice versa

Étude (“study”)

A solo instrumental work that focuses on one or more specific technical challenges to develop technical facility

Opera

A sung drama that combines vocal and instrumental music with drama (staging and acting), visual arts (costumes and scenery), and often dance. The components include recitative, arias, ensembles, and choruses. This genre was created in Italy ca 1600, and remains popular today.

Recitative

A speech-like style of singing used in operas, oratorios, or cantatas that follows the inflections of the text, resulting in rhythmic flexibility, and which is usually used to advance the plot by moving through the text quickly

aria (“air”)

An old English word for a song; also a solo song with an orchestral accompaniment heard in an opera, oratorio, or cantata that is highly emotional and often virtuosic; it may have lyrical or dramatic qualities, and often serves to reveal the characters’ most intimate emotions

bel canto (“beautiful singing”)

A style used in early 19th-century Italian opera, demonstrated in the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and (early) Verdi, which emphasizes purity of tone and lyrical melodies of a highly ornamented nature

Libretto

The text of an opera, oratorio, or cantata, usually written by someone other than the composer

Ensemble

A musical number in an opera featuring any number of soloists (but generally a smaller group than a “chorus”) that often serves as a musical and dramatic climax with each person expressing their own emotions directly to the audience

Coloratura soprano

A high female voice capable of singing florid lines in an extended range, demanding great agility and often creating virtuosic effects. The name is derived from the Italian word for “colouring”, referring to the embellishing of melodic lines

Music drama

A term used by Wagner to describe the synthesis of music and drama, to distinguish his operatic style from the “traditional” opera of his day

Gesamtkunstwerk (“total art work”)

An ideal achieved through the perfect union of text, music, and stagecraft (costumes, scenery, lighting) which was expounded by Wagner in his writings