Vocab/ glossary

Context:

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Incidental music

Music to be performed as part of a play

Secular

Music that is non-religous

Performing Forces:

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Continuo

Bass part played by one or more bass and/ or chordal instruments in Baroque music.

Improvisation

A line that is not notated but freely chosen by the performer.

Arpeggiated chords

A spread chord, normally from the bottom to the top

Melody and word setting:

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Ornaments

notes that decorate a melody

Mordent

An ornaments played as a rapid wiggle from the printed note to the note above and back.

Appoggiatura

‘leaning’ note. An expressive dissonance that moves by step to resolve onto a note of the current chord.

Word painting

How the music reflects the meaning of a word or phrase in a text

Melisma

When several notes are sung to the same syllable

Structure:

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Ground bass

A constantly repeating bass pattern above which a melody unfolds. Popular in the Baroque

Da capo aria

A song with a ternary structure (ABA)

Harmony and Tonality

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Figured bass

A basso continuo art with figures and symbols to indicate the harmonies of the music.

Dissonance

Sounds that are not pleasant when played together

Suspension

A note that is held over to a chord in which it doesn’t belong, creating a dissonance that is then resolved.

Tierce de Picardie

When a piece in a minor key ends with the tonic major chord.

Cadential 6/4

A perfect cadnce using chords IC-V-1

Chromatic

Notes that don’t belong to the key or move by semitones

Non-diatonic

Notes that don’t belong to a key.

Perfect cadence

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Texture

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Melody dominated homophony

Melody and accompaniment

Counterpoint

2 or more different lines occurring simultaneously