MUSI2737 - Key Terms Prelude 4 + 5

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Patronage

Sponsorship of an artist or a musician, historically by a member of the wealthy or ruling classes

Symphony

Large work for orchestra, generally in three or four movements

Overture

An introductory movement, as in an opera or oratorio, often presenting melodies from arias to come. Also concert overture

Theme and Variations

Compositional procedure in which a theme is presented and then altered in successive statements; occurs as an independent piece or as a movement of a multimovement cycle

Divertimento

Classical instrumental genre for chamber ensemble or soloist, often performed as light entertainment. Related to serenade

Serenade

Classical instrumental genre that combines elements of chamber music and symphony, often performed in the evening or at social functions. Related to divertimento.

Sonata-Allegro Form

The opening movement of the multimovement cycle, consisting of themes that are stated in the first section (exposition), developed in the second section (development), and restated in the third section (recapitulation). Also sonata form

Modulation

The process of changing from one key to another

Exposition

Opening section. In a fugue, the first section in which the voices enter in turn with the subject. In sonata‐allegro form, the first section in which the major thematic material is stated. Also statement

Theme Group

Several themes in the same key that function as a unit within a section, particularly in sonata‐allegro form

Bridge

Transitional passage connecting two sections of a composition; also transition

Development

Structural reshaping of thematic material. The second section of sonata‐allegro form; it moves through a series of foreign keys while themes from the exposition are developed

Recapitulation

Third section of sonata‐allegro form, in which the thematic material of the exposition is restated, generally in the tonic

Coda

The last part of a piece, usually added to a standard form to bring it to a close

Minuet and Trio

An A‐B‐A form (A = minuet; B = trio) in a moderate triple meter; often the third movement of the Classical multimovement cycle

Raga

Melodic pattern used in music of India; prescribes pitches, patterns, ornamentation, and extramusical associations such as time of performance and emotional character

Sitar

Long‐necked chordophone of northern India, with movable frets and a rounded gourd body; used as a solo instrument and with tabla

Tala

Fixed time cycle or meter in Indian music, built from uneven groupings of beats

Tabla

Pair of single‐headed, tuned drums used in North Indian classical music

Drone

Sustained sounding of one or several pitches for harmonic support, a common feature of some folk musics

Cadenza

Virtuosic solo passage in the manner of an improvisation, performed near the end of an aria or a movement of a concerto

Scherzo

Composition in A‐B‐A form, usually in triple meter; replaced the minuet and trio in the nineteenth century

Cyclical Form

Structure in which musical material, such as a theme, presented in one movement returns in a later movement.

Opera Seria

Tragic Italian opera

Ballad

A form of English street song, popular from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Ballads are characterized by narrative content and strophic form

Singspiel

Comic German drama with spoken dialogue; the immediate predecessor of Romantic German opera

Opéra Comique

French comic opera, with some spoken dialogue

Opera Buffa

Italian comic opera, sung throughout

Trouser Role

In Classical opera, the part of a young man written for a soprano or mezzo‐soprano singer

Requiem

Roman Catholic Mass for the dead

Art Song

A song set to a high‐quality literary text, usually accompanied, and intended for concert performance. See also Lied and mélodie

Lied

German for “song”; most commonly associated with the art song of the nineteenth century, usually accompanied by piano. See also art song

Song Cycle

Group of songs that are unified musically or through their texts

Strophic Form

Song structure in which the same music is repeated with every stanza (strophe) of the poem

Through-Composed

Song structure that is composed from beginning to end, without repetitions of large sections

Modified Strophic Form

Song structure that combines elements of strophic and through‐composed forms; a variation of strophic form in which a section might have a new key, rhythm, or varied melodic pattern

Parlor Song

A song, generally accompanied by piano, intended for home entertainment; the term is particular to nineteenth‐century America

Minstrelsy

A late nineteenth-century American entertainment featuring white performers in blackface acting out stereotypes of African American slaves

Character Piece

A short, lyric piano work often with a descriptive title; popular in the nineteenth century

Rubato

“Borrowed time,” common in Romantic music, in which the performer hesitates here or hurries forward there, imparting flexibility to the written note values

Program Music

Instrumental music endowed with literary or pictorial associations, especially popular in the nineteenth century

Absolute Music

Music that has no literary, dramatic, or pictorial program or associations. Also called pure music

Idée Fixe

“Fixed idea”; term coined by Berlioz for a recurring musical idea that links different movements of a work

Overture

An introductory movement, as in an opera or oratorio, often presenting melodies from arias to come. Also concert overture

Incidental Music

Music written to accompany dramatic works

Symphonic Poem

One‐movement orchestral form that develops a poetic idea, suggests a scene, or creates a mood, usually associated with the Romantic era. Also tone poem

Orchestration

The technique of setting music for instruments in various combinations

Opera Seria

Tragic Italian opera

Bel Canto

“Beautiful singing”; elegant Italian vocal style characterized by florid melodic lines delivered by voices of great agility, smoothness, and purity of tone

Singspiel

Comic German drama with spoken dialogue; the immediate predecessor of Romantic German opera

Melodrama

Theatrical entertainment that alternates spoken dialogue and occasional singing with orchestral music

Music Drama

Wagner’s term for his operas

Leitmotif

Leading motive,” or basic recurring theme, representing a person, object, or idea; widely used in Wagner’s music dramas

Part Song

Secular vocal composition, unaccompanied, in three, four, or more parts

Ballet

A dance form featuring a staged presentation of group or solo dancing with music, costumes, and scenery

Masque

English genre of aristocratic entertainment that combined vocal and instrumental music with poetry and dance, developed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Ballet de Cour

An elaborately staged French courtly entertainment of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, featuring dancing, singing, and acting

Pas de Deux

A dance for two, an established feature of classical ballet

Celesta

Percussion instrument resembling a miniature upright piano, with tuned metal plates struck by hammers that are operated by a keyboard

Post-Romanticism

A trend at the turn of the twentieth century in which nineteenth‐century musical characteristics like chromatic harmony and expansive melodies are carried to the extreme

Exoticism

Musical style in which rhythms, melodies, or instruments evoke the color and atmosphere of far‐off lands

Verismo

Operatic “realism,” a style popular in Italy in the 1890s, which tried to bring naturalism into the theater

Impressionism

A French movement developed by visual artists who favored vague, hazy images intended to capture an “impression” of the subject in different lights. Impressionism in music is characterized by exotic scales, unresolved dissonances, parallel chords, rich orchestral tone color, and free rhythm

Ninth Chord

Five‐note chord spanning a ninth between its lowest and highest pitches

Pentatonic Scale

Five‐note pattern used in some African, Far Eastern, and Native American musics, as well as Anglo‐American folk music. See also gapped scale

Camp Meeting

A musical gathering where hymns, spirituals, and folk songs were sung; popular in nineteenth‐century America

Ring Shout

Religious dance of African American slaves, performed with hand clapping and a shuffle step to spirituals

Harlem Renaissance

An early twentieth‐century cultural and artistic movement centered in New York’s Harlem neighborhood and focused on the rebirth of African American arts

Ragtime

Late nineteenth‐century piano style created by African Americans, characterized by highly syncopated melodies; also played in ensemble arrangements. Contributed to early jazz styles. See also piano rag

Strain

One of a series of contrasting sections found in piano rags and marches; generally in duple meter with sixteen‐measure themes

Piano Roll

A perforated paper roll that was recorded by a pianist and then was capable of playing back mechanically on a player piano

Player Piano

An automatic piano with a mechanical device that plays it, usually from a perforated paper roll with holes relating to each piano key